Mt. Jefferson from Grizzly Tarn, Oregon

ca. 1891

American, 1869 - 1956

With her large canvas camera case strapped to her saddle, Myra Wiggins traveled on horseback into the forests around Mt. Jefferson, quite a robust adventure for a woman at that time. In her 1894 article for the Photo-American, "Amateur Photography through Women's Eyes," which was illustrated with this photograph, she asserted: "The composition of a picture claims my first attention." Wiggins nostalgically recalled "a delightful summer trip to Mt. Jefferson, when mounted on a sure footed Cayuse, with my camera strapped to the saddle, our jolly party kept the trail along the snow line…to where before the foot of woman never trod, nor feet of camera ever prod."

Platinum print

8 3/8 x 6 1/4 in. (21.3 x 15.9 cm)

Northwest Purchase Fund

99.50

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "The View From Here: The Pacific Northwest 1800-1930," August 8, 2003 - February 29, 2004

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "The American Landscape's 'Quieter Spirit': Early Paintings by Frederic Edwin Church." June 25-Oct. 16, 2005. Text by Patricia Junker

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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