Camera and Locomotive: Two Tracks across the Continent: Seeing the Railroad in 3D
By Lara Szypszak
The following is the fifth in a series of guest posts by Micah Messenheimer, Associate Curator of Photography, Prints and Photographs Division, that discuss the parallel development of two technologies in the 19th century: railroads and photography. Capturing the entirety of the Central Pacific Railroad from 1864–69, photographer Alfred Hart (1816–1908) traveled east from Sacramento, California, documenting engineering efforts through mountains and deserts on the way to the line's meeting with the Union Pacific at Promontory, Utah. After a career as a painter of portraits and moving panoramas, Hart moved to California in the 1860s, where he likely learned to operate a camera while working as a retoucher in a daguerreotype studio. By 1863, he was advertising his services as a traveling photographer in the state's mining towns.  Deep cut at Trail Ridge. Length 1,000 feet. Stereograph by Alfred Hart, between 1865 and 1869. https://ift.tt/2KtJ1oY  Profile Rock, near the first crossing of the Truckee River. Stereograph by Alfred Hart, between 1865 and 1869. https://ift.tt/2MsHYDn Hart specialized in stereo views and had an intuitive understanding of elements that would best showcase the three-dimensional effects of the format: sharp angles, curving tracks, and layered foregrounds and backgrounds brought his scenes to life. Unlike Hart's counterpart, Andrew J. Russell, who would spend long stretches in the field (read about Russell's work in a previous post), Hart would travel along the line for short periods of days or weeks, then return to his Sacramento studio to print. This working style was aided by his privileges as official photographer—the company transported his full-size photographic darkroom wagon and he had authority to halt work for the purposes of making an image. In documenting the entirety of the Central Pacific Railroad construction from Sacramento to Ogden, Utah, Hart was among the first photographers to picture a major engineering project from start to finish. Compared to Russell, Hart's photographs reflect a more pronounced interest in the technical prowess required to construct the line. This aligned with company interests to assuage doubts that the rugged terrain of the Sierra Nevada could be traversed by a locomotive. Particularly notable are a series of images of snow sheds. Thirty-seven miles of timber structures were built by the Central Pacific to allow year-round operation through areas prone to deep snow and avalanches.  Snow gallery around Crested Peak. Timbers 12×14 inches, 20 inches apart. Stereograph by Alfred Hart, between 1865 and 1869. https://ift.tt/2KcaIDn While Hart often climbed high above the construction, or placed himself in precarious positions on top of railway cars or above tunnel entrances to make his pictures, most of his images include the rail line or evidence of its construction in process. Unlike Russell, he rarely moved ahead of the work at the end of the line.  American River, from Green Bluffs. Stereograph by Alfred Hart, between 1865 and 1869. https://ift.tt/2KsHDjs As Russell had, Hart often turned his lens toward the laborers building the miles of track for the railroad. In the case of the Central Pacific, these work crews initially were comprised largely of Chinese-Americans already residing in California, and later of laborers contracted directly from China. Attempts to record the flurry of work were limited by photographic technology. The wet plate collodion negatives used required long exposure times and movement resulted in blurring. For this reason, most of these images show activity at a pause.  End of track, on Humboldt Plains. Stereograph by Alfred Hart, between 1865 and 1869. https://ift.tt/2KmRZ7H  Prospect Hill Cut. Upper slope, 170 feet. Stereograph by Alfred Hart, between 1865 and 1869. https://ift.tt/2MsI0Lv Central Pacific attorney Judge Edwin B. Crocker was Hart's primary backer. Beginning in 1866, Hart supplied negatives to the company. The Central Pacific developed a final presentation series of 364 stereo views titled and sequenced to emphasize the feat of construction and a narrative of progress. These stereo cards were distributed widely as sets and reproduced as engravings in popular publications like the San Francisco Sunday Mercury and Harper's Weekly. Negatives that were not selected for the final Central Pacific Railroad set were sold to the San Francisco publishing firm Lawrence & Houseworth.  Advance of civilization. End of track, near Iron Point. Stereograph by Alfred Hart, between 1865 and 1869. https://ift.tt/2KhRcWs Hart was also involved in promoting and publishing his own work for the railroad. He sought commercial work on the side and advertised his connections with the railroad to earn it. In 1869, Crocker resigned from the Central Pacific board after a stroke. At this time, the company's commercial arrangement with Hart ceased and he would be replaced by Carleton Watkins, who was a boyhood friend of Central Pacific vice-president Collis P. Huntington. Hart sold a number of his stereoview negatives to Watkins, who later published them under his own name.  Donner Lake, 110 miles from Sacramento. Eastern summits 25 miles distant. Stereograph by Alfred Hart, between 1865 and 1869. https://ift.tt/2Kqc9dz Railroad companies would be primary patrons of photographers through the nineteenth-century as additional lines were built to traverse new routes across the country and connect to existing networks. A hundred and fifty years later, the pictures that resulted from the pairing of the two technologies continue to bring to life the epic accomplishment of building a railroad across the United States. Learn More:
Published June 27, 2018 at 10:55AM
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