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

Summary

Creators:

Muybridge, Eadweard

Abstract:

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

Extent:

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

Language:

Collection materials are in English

Background

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.

Biographical / historical:

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.

Acquisition information:

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

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.

Rules or conventions:

Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

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