Snapshots of the Past

[Entrance to Yosemite Valley, Calif.] – Vintage Wall Art

[Entrance to Yosemite Valley, Calif.], [ca. 1865] — historic photograph
[Entrance to Yosemite Valley, Calif.], [ca. 1865]. Historic photograph from the Yosemite collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

[Entrance to Yosemite Valley, Calif.] comes to life in this historic photograph, reproduced from the original with every detail intact. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

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[Entrance to Yosemite Valley, Calif.]

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The title points to the valley's entrance, the approach where the walls begin to close in on the floor of Yosemite. The picture dates to about 1865, roughly a year after Lincoln signed the 1864 grant that set aside the valley and the Mariposa Grove of big trees for public use under California's management. Travel to the valley then was slow, mostly by horseback or stagecoach, so views like this one gave many readers in the East their first look at the place. It was made as an albumen print, a paper coated with egg white, from a large mammoth-plate negative, which is why it holds so much fine detail in the rock and trees.

Created / published[ca. 1865]
Medium1 photographic print : albumen.
GenreLandscape photographs 1860-1870.Mammoth plates 1860-1870.Photographic prints 1860-1870.
SubjectsMountains--California--1860-1870. Valleys--California--1860-1870. Trees--California--1860-1870. Yosemite National Park (Calif.)--1860-1870.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan9,523 × 7,558 px · prints to 32 × 25 in at 300 dpi
Referencetif09993_EntrancetoYosemiteValleyCalif

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