File name: 10_08_000127

Title: "Seal Rocks," in Pacific Ocean, near San Francisco, 1,955 miles west of Missouri River. "Last scene of all in this strange, eventful history."

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; Seascape photographs

Subjects: Rocks; Islands; Seal Rocks, California

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. 127

Source: Across the continent on the Kansas Pacific Railroad: route of the 35th parallel / Alex. Gardner, photographer.

Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department

Rights: No known restrictions.

Flickr data on 2011-08-10:

• Camera: Sinar AG Sinarback 54 FW, Sinar m
• Tags: Kansas Pacific Railway
• License: CC BY 2.0
• User: Boston Public Library BPL