The Story
New Exhibit at the Muscarelle Museum
On a Saturday morning, the Muscarelle Museum is empty. While soft jazz music plays in the background, I am free to drift through its new exhibit, “Eloquent Vistas: The Art of 19th Century American Landscape” at my leisure.
“Eloquent Vistas” comprises 78 pieces of photography from the late nineteenth century, all of which are in beautiful condition despite some slight yellowing that comes with age. These large, magnificent and majestic black and white photographs are reminiscent of another period in America " one of the Civil War, a giant expansive frontier and Manifest Destiny.
The photographs were taken from the famed George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, whose owner founded the Eastman Kodak Company and is known as the father of popular photography. Eastman made photography accessible to the masses with the invention of flexible roll film, the Kodak Camera of 1888 and the $1 Brownie Camera of 1900.
“[The collection] is one of the better ones of the Muscarelle [...] it shows what [photographers] could do between 1850 and 1900,” said Muscarelle Security Guard Charles Fenning. Fenning said that this collection demonstrates how photography became more sophisticated and lasting. He thinks “the whole collection is just outstanding.” Fenning also noted that there had been a significant amount of interest in this particular exhibit, evidenced by the large turnout of last week’s gallery talk.
The photographs in “Eloquent Vistas” were created for government sponsored geological and geographical surveys and were taken to benefit railroads and the tourist industry. Some famous photographers are featured, including William Bell, James Gardner, Timothy O’Sullivan and William Henry Jackson.
The time period encompasses a significant historical era in America. Several photographs document Civil War sites and are affixed with an official War Department stamp, while others show a rugged, vast western frontier.
The exhibit also features daguerreotypes, the first successful form of photography. A copper plate coated with silver iodide was be exposed to a light in a camera, and an image would be formed once this plate was fumed with mercury vapor, which would then be made permanent from a solution of salt. These images are fascinating, considering they are over 150 years old and still in a condition beautiful enough to convey the grandness of Niagara Falls.
Several of the larger-scale photographs feature tiny figures interrupting large mountainous landscapes with their distracted stares and 19th century attire. One figure from William Henry Jackson’s “The Narrows, Canyon Creek” is seen facing the viewer holding his walking stick, accompanied by his dog.
This beautiful exhibit presents a pure look at the American landscape, one unobstructed by buildings, houses and Wal-Marts. A walk through “Eloquent Vistas” is a quiet reminder of the American Dream as well as a historical perspective of 19th century landscape. This exhibit runs through 8 January 2006 at the Muscarelle Museum and is free to students, faculty and staff of the College.