Seattle Water Front

ca. 1885

Born Saline, Michigan, 1853; died Saint Paul, Minnesota, 1921

Unlike earlier photographers who captured the pristine, uninhabited spaces east of the Mississippi, Haynes' intent was to present the imprint of settlement on the landscape-both positive and negative ramifications. These benign scenes of the developing Seattle waterfront, taken in the years just before Washington statehood, belie the tragic effects of urbanization (abetted by "Manifest Destiny") at this time: the displacement of Duwamish people from their ancestral lands along Elliot Bay, and the anti-Chinese sentiment that forced Asian immigrants from their downtown communities.

Albumen print

13 1/4 x 16 in. (33.66 x 40.64 cm)

Gift of Andrew Smith and Claire Lozier

94.46

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 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.

Learn more about Equity at SAM