Finding Aid to Valley of the Yosemite, Sierra Nevada Mountains, and Mariposa Grove of Mammoth Trees by Eadweard Muybridge , 1872

Processed by Terry Boom.

The Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000

Phone: (510) 642-6481

Fax: (510) 642-7589

Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu

URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/

Finding Aid to Valley of the Yosemite, Sierra Nevada Mountains, and Mariposa Grove of Mammoth Trees by Eadweard Muybridge , 1872

Collection number: BANC PIC 1962.019--ffALB

The Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000

Phone: (510) 642-6481

Fax: (510) 642-7589

Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu

URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/

Finding Aid Author(s):: Processed by Terry Boom.
Finding Aid Encoded By:: GenX

Collection Summary

Collection Title: Valley of the Yosemite, Sierra Nevada Mountains, and Mariposa Grove of Mammoth Trees by

Eadweard Muybridge

Date: 1872

Collection Number: BANC PIC 1962.019--ffALB

Photographer:

Muybridge, Eadweard

Extent: 47 albumen photoprints, 17 x 21 1/2" mounted to 24 1/2 x 29" 45 digital objects

Repository: The Bancroft Library.

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000

Phone: (510) 642-6481

Fax: (510) 642-7589

Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu

URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/

Abstract: Mammoth plate views of Sierra Nevada scenery, primarily of the Yosemite Valley. Includes one view of the Mariposa giant sequoia grove.

Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English

Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Information for Researchers

Access

Originals restricted. Use viewing prints with call number BANC PIC 1962.019-PIC

Publication Rights

Materials in this collection may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000. See: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html .

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Valley of the Yosemite, Sierra Nevada Mountains, and Mariposa Grove of Mammoth Trees by

Eadweard Muybridge

, 1872, BANC PIC 1962.019--ffALB, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

Digital Representations Available

Digital representations of selected original pictorial materials are available in the list of materials below. Digital image files were prepared from selected Library originals by the Library Photographic Service. Library originals were copied onto 35mm color transparency film; the film was scanned and transferred to Kodak Photo CD (by Custom Process); and the Photo CD files were color-corrected and saved in JFIF (JPEG) format for use as viewing files.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog

Bradley & Rulofson

Giant sequoia--Photographs

Wilderness areas--California--Photographs

Mariposa Grove (Calif.)--Pictorial works

Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)--Pictorial works

Yosemite National Park (Calif.)--Pictorial works

Albumen prints

Mammoth plates

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

The Valley of the Yosemite pictorial collection was acquired by The Bancroft Library in 1962. Its provenance is unknown.

Biography

Born Edward James Muggeride in Kingston-upon-Thames, England, April 9, 1830, Muybridge came to the U.S. in the early 1850s and opened a bookstore in San Francisco in 1855. After being seriously injured in a fall from a stagecoach, he returned to England, where he turned to photography. He came back to San Francisco in the late 1860s and did photographic work for the U.S Coast and Geodetic Survey.

Muybridge achieved great fame through his photographic studies of animal and human locomotion published in such works as Animal Locomotion (11 vols., 1887) and The Human Figure in Motion (1901) . His studies began in 1872 when he was hired by railroad magnate Leland Stanford to prove that all four hooves of a horse left the ground during a trot. In the course of these studies he invented devices to trip the shutters of a series of cameras in order to record animals in motion. He later developed a viewer called the zoopraxiscope, which allowed runs of motion photographs to be seen as if moving. These projects are now considered the forerunners of modern motion pictures.

Aside from his motion studies, Muybridge was known for the wide variety of photographs he took of scenes in California and western North America. These included stereo views of Alaska, Canada, California cities, Mexico and Central America. He gained notoriety in 1874 when he murdered his wife's lover and was acquitted of the crime in a much publicized trial. After a period of exile he returned to San Francisco in 1876, and in the following two years he produced three massive panoramas of the City taked from Nob Hill.

Based on Harris, David. Eadweard Muybridge and the Photographic Panorama of San Francisco, 1850-1880. (Montreal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, c1993) ; and Hart, James D. A Companion to California. (New York : Oxford University Press, 1978), p. 292-293.

Scope and Content

This collection is an imcomplete set (45 of 51) of mammoth plate albumen prints taken by Muybridge in 1872 and published by Bradley & Rulofson at 429 Montgomery Street, San Francisco during subsequent years. The collection includes duplicate prints of numbers 9 and 51, bringing the total number of prints to 47. Thirty-nine of the scenes are of the Yosemite Valley, five are of the Sierra Nevada mountains and one is of the Mariposa Grove of mammoth trees. The set is made up of prints from various editions; therefore some prints lack the photographer's number or have a variant caption typeface. Captions for the lacking prints are supplied by Bradley & Rulofson's Catalogue of Photographic Views Illustrating the Yosemite, Mammoth Trees, Geyser Springs, and other Remarkable and Interesting Scenery of the Far West (1873) . The Bancroft Library's prints are numbered according to the photographer's number in this catalog. Therefore there are gaps in the library's numbering of the prints.

Valley of the Yosemite, from Moonlight Rock. No. 1. BANC PIC 1962.019:01--ffALB