Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California

Inscriptions

Printed label on mat: Special Edition / PHOTOGRAPHS of YOSEMITE / BY ANSEL ADAMS / Moon and Half Dome / Yosemite National Park, California / Printed by Alan Ross [initialed] / from Ansel Adams' original negative / under his supervision. / Sold only through / The Ansel Adams Gallery / Yosemite National Park, California.

Label

Emphasizing the wild natural beauty of Yosemite National Park, celebrated photographer Ansel Adams captures the moon hovering above Half Dome’s imposing façade. In a more recent image, Len Jenshel juxtaposes the monumental sandstone buttes of Arches National Park with a freshly laid concrete path, disrupting the conception of national parks as undisturbed landscapes.

The US government established its national park system, beginning in 1872, in order to permanently preserve lands considered ecologically or culturally significant. Far removed from rapidly growing urban centers, parks offered middle- and upper-class Americans respite and inspiration. These iconic landscapes have become enshrined in American cultural identity. Yet national parks are a direct product of the displacement of Native peoples and have continually disenfranchised rural communities along their borders. Who, then, are national parks for, and how has that changed over time?

From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022

GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022

Exhibition History

This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 5–April 11, 2022.

Provenance

Jane and Raphael Bernstein, RIdgewood, New Jersey; given to present collection, 2019.

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Subjects