(#167129) [Yosemite] THE TOMB ON TOP OF CLOUDS REST, YOSEMITE VALLEY, CAL. Albumen photograph. Martin Mason Hazeltine.

[Yosemite] THE TOMB ON TOP OF CLOUDS REST, YOSEMITE VALLEY, CAL. Albumen photograph. N.p. [Yosemite Valley, California?]: M. M. Hazeltine, Photographer, n.d. [Circa 1876.]. Albumen photograph, 18.2x22 cm (7 1/8 x 8 5/8 inches) on a printed cream card stock mount, in a vintage wooden frame under glass. Rare Hazeltine photograph of a rock outcrop on Clouds Rest, an arête between Tenaya Canyon and Little Yosemite Valley northeast of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. The photograph shows part of the spine of the ridge. Martin Mason Hazeltine (1827-1903) was a highly respected traveling photographer, a major source of western stereographic negatives in the 1860s and 1870s. One of Hazeltine’s obituaries noted that he had "accumulated the largest and most valuable collection of scenic views on the Pacific coast." Martin and his brother George Irving Hazeltine settled in California in 1853 where they operated a daguerreotype studio in San Francisco until George sold out to his brother in 1855. "Hazeltine traveled widely, photographing the scenery in Yosemite Valley and other places in California, Yellowstone National Park, Alaska, Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon [before settling down in Baker City, Oregon]. During the 1860s and 1870s, he photographed primarily in California, including Yosemite, where he established a summer studio, and Mendocino County, where he and his family occasionally wintered. In June 1876, Hazeltine joined forces with his former competitor, John James Reilly, Yosemite's first resident photographer, and the two agreed to form a monopoly for photographic services in the Valley ... Hazeltine marketed many of his images as stereographs, both on his own and through publishers such as John P. Soule of Boston, Thomas Houseworth and Company of San Francisco, Kilburn Brothers of New Hampshire, and John S. Moulton of Massachusetts. He issued many of his images in stereograph sets, titled in various ways, including "Yo-Semite Valley, California." He also assembled sets of stereographs advertising railroads, including the Southern Pacific, Union Pacific and Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, and occasionally he published the work of other photographers" (Lisa L. Crane, Special Collections, Honnold/Mudd Library, Claremont College, Claremont, CA). Minor fading to image, minor mat-burn to the mount, very good. A stunning image. The only other known copy of this photograph is held by the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. (#167129).

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