num_pages: 400
description: It is remarkable that there are so many good photographs of territorial Utah. Photography in the nineteenth century was complicated and involved sensitive silver-coated-copper, guncotton-glass, and blackened-sheet-iron plates, as well as the related storage and transportation difficulties. Yet thirteen early shutterbugs found their way to Utah to photograph the impressive gothic temple the focal point of the territory and the Mormon people, as well as their farms and factories, surrounding landscapes, and recreational pastimes. Miraculously many of these priceless portraits and scenes have been preserved to the present. Nelson Wadsworth's book includes four hundred examples of the best surviving frontier photographs taken, beginning in 1853. The images capture the progress and moods of the Utah Territory over a forty-year period as the Salt Lake temple rose from the valley floor and other buildings began to emerge on neighboring blocks. The frontier people in these photographs are featured both in formal portraits and informal group poses. One can see the changes in urban technology and fashion, in the look of the surrounding landscapes, in recreational pasttimes, and even a more refined look in the people themselves. Miraculously, many of these priceless scenes are as clear today as when they were originally captured on glass plates. Wadsworth presents the lives of these pioneer photographers as trail blazers in their own right, working with light and shadow rather than in soil and stone. Four of the artists are C. R. Savage, Marsena Cannon, Charles William Carter, and George Edward Anderson. The others left a similarly impressive library of photos. Together, their collective odyssey blends seamlessly with the epic story they captured on film. Writes Wadsworth, "There were no 'candid cameras' in those days because of the very nature of the technology at the photographers' disposal, yet the pictures they left behind capture the times in a spectacular way." In any case, snapshots would not have done justice to the panoramas these artists framed through their camera lenses.
language: English
title: Set in Stone Fixed in Glass: The Mormons, the West, and Their Photographers
titlecomplete: Set in Stone Fixed in Glass: The Mormons, the West, and Their Photographers
publisher: Signature Books