Martha sandweiss it is such a personal pleasure to vehicle to come back and talk about my book. It started here 20 years ago. I supported by an institution that truly supported staff. I begin to learning care about western photographs. I came here as a very young curator. Ignorant about how museums worked, and utterly ignorant of the history of photography. But i left 10 years later a little bit wiser and certain iphone and field of inquiry that was endlessly fascinating and would engage before the rest of my career. So for those of you in the audience who supported me along the way, thank you. Important itow how is you have this collection right here in your. Westout photography in the right here recently created replica look at texas is the seeking international in mexican owned california, a swiss immigrant bought a piece of land in order to construct a trading post along sacramento river. It is not take long for photographers to reach these farflung clarks parts. Captured the american imagination. By the 1840s, the garrett types were in the mississippi west. They recorded the shifting fortunes of californias gold seekers. They set off across the overland trails to record whats prospective immigrants would see. The picture the west native people, largely to show that they would soon. Before the superior culture of the expanding united needs. And they documented the highest leaks and deepest canyons to capture evidence of the divine blessing upon the american nation. Americans found Persuasive Evidence of what they had into the they were, and what the could become. And in the west, 19thcentury american photography found a distinct subject. Yet, and here i want to be a bit contrary in, for all of the fresh detail and astonishing realism of these photographic images. Photography did not instantly change the way that americans understood the west. I want to argue here that notionss preexisting of the west made them resistant to the relatively cramps and static content of a photographic image and there lingered a tension. Between the west of the vision ofn, and the the place that could be captured on daguerreotype plate. Ofs story, the story darkness initial failure to capture the west was not the story very much in tarot i imagine telling. I imagine precious glimpses of a lost world, and valuable material artifacts were commanding increasingly high prices in this photographic work it. But then i got stopped. At first by the shorter set of photographs, and then by the stories of an extraordinary photographer. Against a particular problem. The early photographs i so valued as pictured i most wanted to see at home in my hands and not to have inspired any interest whatsoever in the 19th century. How could it be . The feature seems so engaging and so important to me could have been so little value to their own time . I begin by telling you to stories. Two stories. Aboutn by talking to you the daguerreotype of the mexican war. When i came here as a curator in 1979, there were known to exist in the world for cicely 12 mexican war related daguerreotypes. They had been in the collection of the rare books and Manuscripts Library at yale university. These were tremendously exciti ng images. This one depicted the general and his troops marching down the street in the winter of 1847. This body of pictures represented the earliest examples of photojournalism in the world. The very first time that i target for had caught up with a camera to photograph an event value. Sworthy they are also the first photographs of war. You can imagine the excitement with which i received a phone call from a colleague who had a book deal in connecticut. He asked if i heard the exciting news. That west point had required a collection of 50 mexican war daguerreotypes. I asked for more details and to congratulate him. And hes a good time with your phone call. Just this morning we turned down the acquisition, they are not here. I said where are they . He said i cannot really tell you. Bookcall back that loo dealer and said where are they, i did not know. I have call me back in half an hour. And he did. I call this gentleman to arrange see the fabled collection of 50 mexican war daguerreotypes. Asked if he would send them back to me. No. Could i come and look at them . Could we meet . No and no. The dulles airport. He had me a grocery bag filled with wanted paper towels, on the sheets filled with a daguerreotype. I opened them that the facility in. At the smithsonian. The same photograph. It means that they had stopped the business of war not just once, but twice to post this pist. Rreotyp the collection included another number of wonderful images, including this one which is now thought to be the best photograph of the common soldier of the mexican war. Best one can close its image we have to work for itself warfare itself. Of twoage was one civilian portraits that were included in the collection. On the back of this image, theres a very mysterious label. Mexican lady, 10. We never figured out what that meant. I spent a very long time working on the stickier types. I never found out to meet them. I read every newspaper from a major city that covered the mexican war. That no oney to you saw these to garrett types of the 19 century. There were not exhibited in galleries, they were not the basis for prints that were redraw and engraved and illustrated books about the mexican war. No one saw them. I could not figure out who made them. Historian, sometimes i have to grapple with how to turn lemons into lebanon. My thinking about the photographs really changed when i thought about this one. Ass is an image identified the grave of henry clay junior. Clue. As a wonderful son of theas the famous talking can states that and he had stirred the passion of americans through his death. Lots of poetry celebrated his heroism. And theyried here, disinterred him and took his body home. There was this image of his grave but the way that most americans understood the death of young mr. Clay was through this popular print by the american print marry her maker courier knives. Which image would you prefer to see . Dark, lonely grave, or the image that describes his death with the kind of heroism . The mexican war was not a popular war, and americans wanted to understand what their again when were doing and they wanted to imagine his death like this, with white trousers, his comrade holding him in his arms. Noble last words. Now, mexican war daguerreotype have been rediscovered a new. They have been reinvested with meaning, not just for their meaning to convey detailed information about military dress for the appearance of military officers, but worthy immediacy of their status and eyewitness views and visceral connection to those events of 1847. I connection that surpasses that of any other historical artifact. That were actually on street with the general. It has to be made in the proximity of the subject, made without negative spirs. It, like ar room with a memory, they continue to trace that long ago events. To hold one of these is to hold physical evidence that he was there. These events happened. Literaryce of documentation, and particular gathering of mexican onlooking american soldiers to place as a dog looked on from the side. The nature of the evidence soveyed by these photographs useful to military and hostile manned themstorians unusable to every 19th century viewers who saw affirmation, not information. The details immediacy of the mexican war help little emotional weight against other more narrative then again iconographic visual renderings, particularly those such as the ones that are just showed you that could could convey a more vivid narrative of fulfilled, and death. Photography might have supplied and eyewitness glimpse of the events that led to the final grade graphic definition of the. Estern United States at the meeting did not have the power of the capacity to serve as an important way of conveying information about that, or to prompt americans to consider different ways of imagining ng the expanding world. Troops the following the , the team not just for prints, but panoramas. They would on scroll from one roller to another. Narratives by spoken that amplified the meeting of the moving pictures, these panoramas were no mostly popular precursors of todays movies. The mexican war was a popular topic for midcentury panorama the run but the west was the most popular of all. Panorama of the river of the eastern United States, which to the went to london. Hyperbolic three on campus. Down the p. M. Trip Mississippi River would be followed by 7 00 p. M. Trip up the Mississippi River because the squirrel was so large it can only be done in front of an audience. Perhaps the most ambitious of st. Daguerreotypi his own version of his life is an in kernel tale of his war hero, a country lawyer, at a crusade and personal rights. He was a forest of the 19th century claims to the first white mansion in valley, and to count among his friends both mark twain and they rarely get. , there is a kernel of truth to his claims. Vanid once study law with a who had been lincolns law partner. Doubteres no reason to his most amazing plague, which is that in 1851, he led a party across the overland trail to california, anhui back to st. Louis. Pluto was painted panorama that he cold that had the scope of california. 1000 500 1500 daguerreotypes seems implausible, he did capture the first photographic images of topographic features an important sites along the overland trail. The first pictures of this. Valued other forms of representation. Once they served their purpose, they disappeared. Thes went west in 18 to hoping to find a fortune in the gold fields. He quickly found that the way to make money was by servicing liners. He tried working in a store, and then conceded that conceived and audacious scheme. He hired sketch artists and set off east along the trail. By october of 1851 st. Louis, where they showed their daguerreotypes to the local newspaper, and the they were works of interest for the beauty of their scenes in the construction of their faithfulness and by early 1852 jones was back in melrose, massachusetts just know that option just north of austin with a team of artists working to transfer these very small images to very large paintings. The first and disco opened in boston. Jones narrated two shows a day, new englandn and states, but if all of 1853 he was in new york city. Everywhere the paper said they were attracting enthusiastic audiences of the elite. Jones had a little trouble on the side. He was dogged by financial and legal problems. Lotteriesed a grand scheme. Any he never gave away rises, he was investigated by the federal government, and the whole scheme fell apart. On to a series of other careers in the paintings to six. From the historical record, just ss the daguerreotype disappeared some years before. I spent many years looking for them. I came tantalizingly close. I found his grade, grade, greatgranddaughter who lives near where he made the paintings. I contacted her and she said i have a family trunk of full of things, would you like me to open it with you . Of course. She actually brought the family truck to my office, and we opened it together. He did not have any unit, but it did have some undocumented sketchbooks from the overland trail exhibition. Those are now in the collection in the historical society. We do not have his paintings, we do not have his daguerreotypes but we do have his lecture notes. The scale, the color of the paintings can still be imagined. The notes document the resounding nationalism of his paintings. Jones needed words. Mirror images alone could not in full voice to his social president shows that prejudices. Indiansunced were swarthy savages. The natives of california and he said, were not removed about savages. Encourages conclude that california was truly the golden land, the new american empire with all that was necessary to make life comfortable and homes happy. Ambitions,t all his with nothing but words remained t photographs . What the attitude was about the early american photography. He risked physical and financial hazard. You photograph from the very first when first time, the westward expansion. You not as they help artifacts, but as forms of information. Copies, read more easy to see through the medium of the painted panorama the copies were worth more than the originals. Thatublic wanted images could reconfirm what they already believed about the necessary american conquest of the west. They wanted pictures that would validate old ideas, not inspire new ones. Daguerreotypes were too small to tell the story of westward expansion. They cannot win instant acclaim. They were for jones and so many others, simply the means to a more dramatic and enthralling and. Do 19thcentury western photographs come to claimant ways in the american imagination . How do they become such an important source for americans eager to learn about the west . I think technological change, as much as anything else was responsible for winning photography a place in the cultural marketplace and the late 1850s, the negative price is that process again to change daguerreotyping. Technologyst plate they were able to produce a theoretic unlimited amount of presence. The economics of the business change. Did the ways could convey stories with their pictures. Now they had language. Once it became possible to make photographs on paper, the vast majority of western photographs entered the marketplace with descriptive words. The face of the prince, words painted the back. Photography could finally become a narrative again. Medium that can compete with the more compelling stories told by print, by panoramas, by other kinds of inventive paintings. The words of these pictures and directed to to understanding of images, and putting meeting were none seemed apparent. These words inevitably enhanced the narrative potential and function of photographic images, helping to transform stemming into recordsimages of disappointments and visions of triumph. Words. Words as much as the images themselves proclaims that the western landscape was it was of wonder and endless possibility. More to proclaim that this picture of the newly developed branch was of interest because it did not represent an engineering feat, but because its brand and river of marvelous trout. Was important as evidence of the wing split planes that does windswept plains had ample water supply to meet settlers. Words that said that this is arizona in its entirety is not the desert that many have supposed it to be. Similarly, it was words that photographhat this of shoshone falls to begin a site suitable for hunting and grazing and tourism. Canyonsight for the miraculous gold still looking and spectacular eagles nest perched high above the falls. Only with words could you know that the bold eagles inhabited that rock. Only with words could this place be inscribed with such nationalistic significance, such economic promise, and such prosperous america future. Western landscape photographs became band of progressive narratives. West, lay then future of the american nation. Triumphant visual narrative played in counterpart toy another more somber story. Of the westphs native people were caught up in a near to of decline, not a near tip of triumph. Trope of the vanishing race, because of the regions needed peoples are disappearing, the americas were able to take the land. Captions described the photographs of indian people who came before the public eye. Captions described it in people deceit andeness, people deeds. Issued byin a catalog the federal government explained that little crow, had promised to have his hair cut and become civilized. But he led any group of inudoindians of indians a d the massacre. Words scrawled on the back of this image explained that these men were in jail for scalping a white man. The words appended to this photograph titled the vanishing race the indians stripped of their primitive dress are passing into the darkness of an unknown future. With words, photography was a narrative medium, the insistent realism mitigated by the words that while images into complicated stories about manifest destiny, american expansion, and the faulty logic of a vanishing race. When we insist today on transforming such images into art, collectible objects, and pictures that speak to any ideas or arguments, we do not look at them as 19th century audiences encountered them. For viewers at the time, the words of fixed to these pictures were essential to understanding the cultural and political meanings. Images visualize the past, and historical photographs visualize it best of all, allowing us a glimpse of lost worlds that radiate an unquestionable veracity. Photographs seem to tell us about things that we would not otherwise know, the emotion visible in an ancestors face, about what a town like deadwood looked like to its first inhabitants. Such pictures resonate with authority because of their age, and part of because despite all we know about digital manipulation, we still presume their accuracy. Carefully displayed on a museum wall, documentary film, old photographs represent other historical moments, and neither Museum Curators or film producers do much to discourage the illusion that photographs can confer a deep understanding of the past. They seem to persuade us that what matters most is visual or visualized. How useful are photographs as historical evidence . Despite their increasing ubiquity and american life, photographs can never provide more than select evidence. Its selective, not just in the sense of favorite something on a particular day, but favoring what is in the range of human site at all. Powerful economic forces, political ideologies, whether cycles, these things are not easily photographs. Our vast archive of historical photographs favors the anecdotal, the every day, and seeming ordinaryness of photographs seems to imply its value as a record of daily life, but photographs cannot explicate complex in events. They detect outcomes, more readily than causes. They depict outcomes of more readily than causes. Photographs more easily to take the material trappings of wealth than the Global Forces that brought it about. They can more easily document the appearance of a particular piece of land. In this case, men are clearing the parallel boundary that would separate United States from canada. They document the appearance of a piece of land to explain the political or diplomatic machinations that brought it under control of a particular nation. This inherent particularity of photography creates an illusion that photographs are so concrete that they are selfexplanatory. But they almost never are. Photographs can describe the past, but they have a limited capacity to explain it, no matter how much we might wish they could. The photographic record of the past is uneven, given to emphasizing certain plaisance, things, events at the expense of others, selected moments that flash up from the continuum of time. Unlike writers or painters, photographers, in the era before computers, had to be in close proximity to their subject, such an observation seems obvious, but consequences are farreaching. We usually unthinkingly visualize the civil war to the appearan