Mapping the West presents the work of four photographers -- Carleton Watkins, Alexander Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan, and John Hillers -- who recorded the wonders of the American West in the years just after the Civil War. This was a time of exploration in the West and the camera played an important role as an adjunct of science, industrial enterprise and imperial expansion. Exploring the cultural context within which these images were created, this exhibition considers these photographs not as simple depictions, but as powerful pictorial constructions that convey nineteenth century attitudes. As they photographed the land and the native peoples who inhabited it, these photographers contributed to the creation of myths of the American frontier that are with us still.
Making a photograph in the western wilderness in the nineteenth century was no simple task. Cumbersome tools and difficult conditions ensured that photographers worked not as solitary artists but as collaborative partners. A variety of patrons bankrolled their efforts and their visual products served many purposes, ranging widely from fine art object to scientific document to entrepreneurial advertisement. Together, all these different images created a perception of a new, tamed West. Mapping the West presents four kinds of collaborative projects: Carleton Watkins's mammoth-plate photographs of Yosemite Valley sold to tourists and collectors; Alexander Gardner's railroad portfolio intended to promote the Kansas Pacific Railroad's building project; Timothy O'Sullivan's photographs for Lt. George M. Wheeler's Geographical Surveys of the Territories of the United States West of the 100th Meridian; and John K. Hillers' photographs of Native American culture for ethnographer and survey leader John Wesley Powell. Several outstanding speakers will visit Hamilton to lecture in conjunction with Mapping the West. Kim Sichel, professor of art history at Boston University and curator of the exhibition will provide an overview of the exhibition. Rebecca Bedell, professor of art history at Wellesley College, will discuss nineteenth-century responses to the great Yosemite Valley photographs of Carleton Watkins. Watkins campaigned to gain recognition for his Yosemite views as "art" on a par with the great western landscape paintings of artists such as Albert Bierstadt but his clients often regarded his work differently. Thomas Southall, curator of photography at Atlanta's High Museum of Art, will discuss the images of Native American culture made by John Hillers.
Admission to both the exhibition and special programs is free and the public is cordially invited to attend.
Mapping the West is organized by Boston University and circulated by Curatorial Assistance, Los Angeles.The Emerson Gallery is located on the campus of Hamilton College, in Christian Johnson Hall, directly behind the college chapel. Gallery hours are weekdays, 12 – 5 p.m., weekends, 1 – 5 p.m., during scheduled exhibitions when school is in session. For further information, including information on parking and wheelchair accessibility, please contact the Emerson Gallery at 315-859-4396.
