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A fresh, comprehensive, and critical look at the California gold rush through the lens of the daguerreotype camera The California gold rush was the first major event in American history to be documented in depth by photography. This fascinating volume offers a fresh, comprehensive, and critical look at the people, places, and culture of that historical episode as seen through daguerreotypes and ambrotypes of the era. After gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in 1848, thousands made the journey to California, including daguerreotypists who established studios in cities and towns and ventured into the gold fields in specially outfitted photographic wagons. Their images, including portraits, views of cities and gold towns, and miners at work in the field, provide an extraordinary glimpse into the evolution of mining culture and technology, the variety of nationalities and races involved in the mining industry, and the growth of cities such as San Francisco and Sacramento. Including numerous images published here for the first time, this book provides an extraordinary glimpse into the transformation of the American West. Distributed for The Hall Family Foundation in association with The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Exhibition Schedule: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (September 6, 2019-January 26, 2020) Peabody Essex Museum, Salem (April 4, 2020-July 12, 2020) Yale University Art Gallery (August 28-November 29, 2020)

"Published to accompany an exhibition of the same name at the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 22, 2011-Jan. 15, 2012 and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Apr. 12-Aug. 26, 2012"--T.p. verso.

Heartland traces the evolution of Evans's vision, beginning in the early 1970s with her social documentary images of people in Kansas.

A glimpse into the development of the American West through startling photographs of the frontier landscape and the rich culture of American Indian tribes Best known for his Civil War photographs, Alexander Gardner (1821-1882) also created two extraordinary bodies of work depicting the transformation of the American West: Across the Continent on the Kansas Pacific Railway and Scenes in the Indian County. In 1867, after joining the survey team for what became the Kansas Pacific Railroad, Gardner photographed the path of the proposed extension, emphasizing the ease of future railroad construction and economic development, while including studies of American Indians and settlements along the way. The following year, Gardner recorded peace talks with Indian tribes at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. Distinctly sympathetic to the plight of the American Indian, Gardner made candid documentation of individual chiefs, their encampments and daily life, burial trees, and the peace proceedings themselves. With a full catalogue raisonné of these two rare series, Alexander Gardner offers a complete visual index of these remarkable photographs, made at a critical moment in the history of the American West. Distributed for the Hall Family Foundation and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Exhibition Schedule: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (07/25/14-01/11/15)

After President Polk’s announcement in December 1848 of the gold discovery in California, thousands flocked to the region. Lured by the ready market of potential customers, daguerreotypists also made their way. The daguerreotype quickly became an important component of the gold rush experience. Using a personal research database comprised of over 500 daguerreotypes and ambrotypes made in California from 1849 to 1865, this dissertation reveals previously unrecognized patterns in overall production. Informed by this wealth of data, the following chapters incorporate primary and secondary source materials that seek to identify or support patterns uncovered through the database analysis. The first chapter provides an overview of the earliest daguerreian projects completed in California by Robert H. Vance and J. Wesley Jones. The second chapter surveys the notable California daguerreotypist working outside the studio in the gold fields. The evolution of mining technology from individuals with a pickaxe, shovel, and pan; to groups of men with rockers, long toms, and sluices; to large companies engaged in river diversion and hydraulic mining is the subject of the third chapter. The fourth chapter explores the mining contributions of American Indian, Chinese, and black (enslaved and free) miners and considers reasons for the lack of pictorial representation. California gold towns, the subject of the fifth chapter, examines images of street views, housing, cemeteries, and distant views, and investigates the population of those towns, including women. Miner studio portraits with men in mining attire often holding a pickaxe, shovel, knife, or gold nugget are the topic of the final chapter. California gold rush daguerreotypes offer more than a simple documentation of a major cultural and historical event. These images provide an extraordinary glimpse into the transformation of the American West: a mass migration led to a complex mix of peoples and culture, gold towns arose almost overnight, and mining technology altered the landscape. While daguerreotypists found many ways to explore the reality of the gold rush, existing images do not fully convey the experience. This dissertation focuses on what is visually represented in California gold rush daguerreotypes, while addressing what tended to be ignored.