Yucca tree, 'Spanish Bayonet,' on the Great Basin, Southern California; Sierra Nevada in the distance, 1670 miles from Missouri River. (Boston Public Library)

Description:

File name: 10_08_000103 Title Yucca tree, "Spanish Bayonet," on the Great Basin, Southern California; Sierra Nevada in the distance, 1670 miles from Missouri River. Creator/Contributor Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882 (photographer) Date issued 1869 (approximate) Date created 1868 (approximate) Physical description 1 photographic print : albumen ; image 14.9 x 20.3 cm. Genre Albumen prints; Landscape photograph
Subjects Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) in the Mojave Desert of Southern California, with the Eastern Sierra Nevada in the backround. Notes On March 9, 1869 a joint resolution of Congress authorized the changing of the Union Pacific Railway Company, Eastern Division's name to the Kansas Pacific Railway Company.; Although all of the photographs published in Across the Continent on the Kansas Pacific Railroad (Route of the 35th Parallel) are attributed to Gardner, some of the images may have been taken by one of the other photographers Gardner supervised on the expedition. "As official photographer for the expedition, Gardner was allowed to published all the expedition photographs under his name. In 1867 he stated in a deposition that although a photograph was identified on the mount as a 'Photograph by A. Gardner,' it simply meant that it was printed or copied in his gallery; he was not necessarily the photographer. The other photographers on the expedition were Dr. William A. Bell, William R. Pywell, and Gardner's son, Lawrence, who apprenticed on the expedition." [Katz, D. Mark (1991). Witness to an era: the life and photographs of Alexander Gardner: the Civil War, Lincoln, and the West. Nashville, Tennessee: Rutledge Hill. Page 220]; Images most likely published in 1869. "Along with images made by photographers under his [Alexander Gardner's] supervision, his photographs were published in an album titled Across the Continent on the Kansas Pacific Railyway (Route of the 35th Parallel), offered for sale on April, 1869." [Marien, Mary Warner (2006). Photography: a cultural history. London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd. Page 132]
Item/Page/Plate No. 103 Source: Across the continent on the Kansas Pacific Railroad: route of the 35th parallel / Alex. Gardner, photographer. Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department.