General
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Provenance
Biographical Note on A. A. Hart
Historical Note on the Central Pacific Railroad
Scope and Content
Existence and Location of Copies
Related materials in the Huntington Library
Arrangement
Bibliography
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: A. A. Hart Stereographs of the Central Pacific Railroad
Identifier/Call Number: photCL 184
Physical Description:
2.14 Linear Feet
(372 photographs in 2 boxes : prints on card mounts ; mounts 9 x
18 cm (stereograph format) + 20 copy prints in 1 additional box)
Date (inclusive): approximately 1864-1869
Abstract: This collection contains 372
stereographic photographs (including some variants and duplicates) by photographer A. A.
Hart (1816-1908) that document the construction of the western half of first
transcontinental railroad by the Central Pacific Railroad between 1864 and 1869. Hart served
as the Central Pacific's first official photographer, and his images chronicle the
advancement of the railroad over 742 miles from Newcastle, California, through the Sierra
Nevada Mountains and into Nevada and Utah.
Language of Material: English.
General
Finding aid last updated on September 19, 2014.
Access
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department.
For more information, contact Reader Services.
Publication Rights
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from
or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
Preferred Citation
A. A. Hart Stereographs of the Central Pacific Railroad. The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
Provenance
The collection was assembled from various sources. In 1966, the Library received
approximately 238 images as a donation from Elizabeth T. and Charles Yale.
Thirty-four stereographs were received from B. Tighe in 1970 (Nos. 8, 9, 38, 39, 64, 126,
128, 158, 187, 194, 197, 235, 251a, 260, 262a, 272a, 282, 282a, 288a, 306, 315, 317, 322,
327, 330, 337, 338, 340, 340a, 341, 342, 355, 356, and 357).
Fourteen stereographs were purchased from Mead Kibbey in 1995 (Nos. 127 and 131) and 1999
(Nos. 27, 41, 65, 82, 125, 131, 231, 239, 301, 302, 320, and 336), and one stereograph was
received from Mead Kibbey as a gift in 2012 (No. 253).
Thirty-four stereographs were purchased by the Library Collectors' Council from Gene
Quintana Fine Art in January 2013 (Nos. 17, 26, 40, 46, 95, 132, 140, 155a, 166, 200, 213,
219, 224, 230, 246, 261, 307, 309, 310, 311, 319, 324, 328, 335, 343, 344, 345, 346, 348,
349, 350, 352, 354, and 363).
Biographical Note on A. A. Hart
Photographer Alfred A. Hart (1816-1908) was born in Norwich, Connecticut, on March 28,
1816. In the late 1830s, he studied art in New York City, and later worked in Connecticut
and along the East Coast as a portrait painter and panoramic artist. In 1857, Hart made an
initial foray into photography in a partnership with daguerreotypist Henry H. Bartlett in
Hartford, Connecticut. Hart and his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in the early 1860s, and
by 1863, Hart had begun operating as a traveling photographer in various California mining
towns.
In 1864, Hart first began photographing the construction of the western half of the
transcontinental railroad, and, in January 1866, the directors of the Central Pacific
Railroad (CPRR) purchased 32 stereoscopic negatives from Hart. Hart subsequently acted as
the official photographer for the railroad making a number of trips to document its progress
in California, Nevada, and Utah. During the late 1860s, he published stereographs of the
construction with his Sacramento imprint. When Hart left the company in 1870, the only
complete set of his 364 published images, belonging to the CPRR itself, was dispersed.
Sacramento photographer Frank Durgan and San Francisco photographer Carleton E. Watkins (who
had replaced Hart as the official CPRR photographer in 1870) published Hart's images under
their own imprints.
In the 1870s, Hart returned to painting, working as an artist in both New York City and
San Francisco.
Hart died on March 5, 1908 in Alameda, California.
Historical Note on the Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad Company (CPRR), led by president Leland Stanford and vice
president Collis P. Huntington, was incorporated in Sacramento, California, on June 28,
1861. The Pacific Railroad Act, signed by President Abraham Lincoln on July 1, 1862,
authorized the CPRR to build a railroad and telegraph line east from Sacramento and the
Union Pacific Railroad Company to build west from Omaha, Nebraska. On January 8, 1863, the
CPRR held the ceremonial groundbreaking in Sacramento, and the first track was laid in
October 1863. Construction progressed eastward for the next six years, with track completed
to Auburn, California, in May 1865; Cisco, California, in late 1866; and Reno, Nevada, in
June 1868. On May 10, 1869, the eastern and western lines met at Promontory Summit, Utah,
with the ceremonial final "golden spike" driven by Stanford.
Scope and Content
This collection contains 372 stereographic photographs (including some variants and
duplicates) by photographer A. A. Hart that document the construction of the western half of
first transcontinental railroad by the Central Pacific Railroad between 1864 and 1869. The
collection includes all but seven of the original series, numbered from 1 to 364 by Hart
(lacking 193, 323, 333, 358, 359, 362, and 364).
Hart served as the Central Pacific's first official photographer, and his images chronicle
the advancement of the railroad over 742 miles from Newcastle, California (in 1864), through
the Sierra Nevada Mountains into Nevada and on to Utah, where he captured the ceremonial
meeting of the two railroads at Promontory Point on May 10, 1869. The majority of the
photographs are views of mountains, lakes, rivers, and forested areas (some with stumps from
clear-cutting in the foreground), often with railroad tracks running through the center of
the images. In addition, there are also images of locomotives, Chinese and other workers,
equipment, bridges, tunnels, frontier and mining towns, construction camps, as well as some
images of Native Americans, including Paiute and Shoshone Indians.
The stereographs in the collection include a variety of imprints on the card versos. The
stereographs primarily contain Hart's own Sacramento imprint with series titles
including:
-
Scenes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains
-
Scenes in the Valley of the Sacramento
-
Scenes in the Washoe Range
-
Scenes on the Humboldt River
-
Scenes near Great Salt Lake
Interspersed in the collection are stereographs published without credit to Hart by Frank
Durgan and Carleton E. Watkins. Three cards contain the imprint "Sierra Nevada Mountains,
Photographed and Published by Frank Durgan" (numbers 17, 26, and 40), and approximately
forty crediting Watkins variously as "C.E. Watkins," "Watkins' Pacific Railroad," and
"Watkins' New Series."
Item titles transcribed from stereographs.
Existence and Location of Copies
Related materials in the Huntington Library
-
Photograph Album of Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Other
City Views (photCL 135)
-
The traveler's own book / by Alfred A. Hart. A souvenir of
overland travel, via the great and attractive route, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
R.R. to Burlington. Union Pacific Railroad to Ogden. Central Pacific Railroad to
Sacramento. Burlington & Missouri River R.R. to Omaha. Utah Central Railroad to
Salt Lake City. Western Pacific Railroad, to San Francisco (Chicago: Horton &
Leonard, printers, 1870)
Arrangement
The collection is arranged numerically according to the numbers preceding the titles on the
cards.
Bibliography
Kibbey, Mead B.
The Railroad Photographs
of Alfred A. Hart, Artist
(Sacramento: The California State Library Foundation,
1996)
Palmquist, Peter E.
Pioneer Photographers
of the Mississippi to the Continental Divide: A Biographical Dictionary, 1839-1865
(Stanford University Press, 2005)
Willumson, Glenn G. "Alfred Hart: Photographer of the Central
Pacific Railroad" in
History of Photography, vol. 12, no.
1 (January-March 1988), 61-75.
Kibbey, Mead B.
The Railroad Photographs of Alfred A. Hart,
Artist
(Sacramento: The California State Library Foundation, 1996)
Palmquist, Peter E.
Pioneer Photographers of the Mississippi
to the Continental Divide: A Biographical Dictionary, 1839-1865 (Stanford University
Press, 2005)
Willumson, Glenn G. "Alfred Hart: Photographer of the Central Pacific Railroad" in
History of Photography, vol. 12, no. 1 (January-March
1988), 61-75.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Cutover lands -- California -- Photographs
Indians of North America -- Photographs
Lakes -- California -- Photographs
Locomotives -- Photographs
Mining camps -- California -- Photographs
Mountains -- California -- Photographs
Paiute Indians -- Photographs
Railroad companies -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs
Railroad bridges -- California -- Photographs
Railroad tracks -- California -- Photographs
Railroad tracks -- Nevada -- Photographs
Railroad tracks -- Utah -- Photographs
Railroads -- United States -- History -- 19th century --
Photographs
Shoshoni Indians -- Photographs
Auburn (Calif.) -- Photographs
California -- Photographs
Cisco (Calif.) -- Photographs
Colfax (Calif.) -- Photographs
Donner Pass (Calif.) -- Photographs
Dutch Flat (Calif.) -- Photographs
Humboldt River (Nev.) -- Photographs
Nevada -- Photographs
Placer County (Calif.) -- Photographs
Reno (Nev.) -- Photographs
Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.) -- Photographs
Truckee River (Calif. and Nev.) -- Photographs
Utah -- Photographs
West (U.S.) -- Photographs
Yuba River (Calif.) -- Photographs
Photographs
Stereographs
Central Pacific Railroad Company --
Photographs
Central Pacific Railroad Company