106. Mountain of the Holy Cross
date: label: Date made
content: ca 1870s
label: date made
content: 1873
name: label: user
content: Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
label: maker
content: Jackson, William Henry
notes: label: Description
content: After the Civil War the United States turned its full attention to exploration of the West. A number of geological survey teams, organized by the Department of the Interior, spent the 1870s traveling throughout the region, charting the landscape and employing photographers and engravers to capture images of the people and the environment. One such photographer was William Henry Jackson, a member of the United States Geological and Geographic Survey of the Territories from 1870 to 1878. The photographs that Jackson brought back to the East helped to introduce much of the population to the existence and phenomena of the western landscape, and helped to shape public perception as well as governmental policies surrounding the region.
label: Description
content: One of Jackson's most enduring and iconic images is his photograph of the 14,000-foot Mountain of the Holy Cross, located in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The mountain was already a legend when Jackson photographed it, because of the snow-filled cross that appeared on its eastern face when weather conditions permitted. His struggle to actually locate and get the photograph—including an arduous trek up a mountainside carrying hundreds of pounds of equipment without the benefit of pack animals, and a night spent exposed to the high altitude air in order to be in the right place when the sun —only added to the status of the mountain after the image was published.
label: Description
content: In subsequent years the Holy Cross photograph continued to influence American culture. Jackson won a number of awards for the image; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow used the picture as inspiration for his poem <I>The Cross of Snow</I>; and many Christians saw the presence of the cross in such a landscape as an invitation to participate in Manifest Destiny and further explore and populate the unknown territories of the West.
label: Description
content: This image was donated to the Smithsonian in 1967.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Colorado
topic: label: Subject
content: West
label: Subject
content: Landscape
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Photographic History
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content: Religion
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content: Photography
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2004.0286.16
label: accession number
content: 2004.0286
label: catalog number
content: 2004.0286.16
objectType: label: Object Name
content: albumen print
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (print material)
label: Physical Description
content: cardboard (mount material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 40.64 cm x 50.8 cm; 16 in x 20 in
label: Measurements
content: image: 26 cm x 34 cm; 10 1/4 in x 13 3/8 in