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Published on: 3/30/2004
Last Visited: 3/30/2004
Alfred A. Hart, Artist
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Alfred A. Hart, Artist
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Alfred Hart: Photographer, Author and Publisher 51
Dating Hart's RR Construction Stereos 54
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3. Most of the stereographs reproduced here were obtained from the two private collections listed in Appendix D. Those from public collections are marked with an asterisk in Appendix D. As often as possible a stereograph published by Hart was reproduced, but a markedly superior Watkins-published card was occasionally used.
4. The prints are arranged in the numerical order assigned by Hart, that is, by the numbers preceding the titles.When the title on the card is absent or incorrect, the illustration is placed in position as if numbered and titled correctly.
5. The titles given below each card are not always those used by Hart, but include information to assist in identifying the location or call attention to a detail of the stereograph not readily apparent.
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Alphabetical Listing of Hart and Durgan back imprints
Illustrations of back imprints are in the order listed on pages 149-151 The notes in brackets have been added for using this list without the ilustrations.
A. Alfred A. Hart, ARTIST Sacramento [no address]
AA. The World as seen in CALIFORNIA [135 J Street]
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Alfred A. Hart
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Alfred A. Hart, Artist
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Alfred A. Hart, Artist
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Alfred Hart: Photographer, Author and Publisher 51
Dating Hart's RR Construction Stereos 54
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ALFRED HART: PHOTOGRAPHER, AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER
Alfred A. Hart has been an elusive and shadowy figure until rather recent times.In 1918, ten years after Hart's death, Charles B. Turrill mentioned him in connection with his study of photographer Carleton E. Watkins.In 1969, George Kraus devoted half a page of the forward to his book, High Road to Promontory, to the historical importance of Hart's photographs and lamented the lack of recognition he had received.
In 1969, American West magazine published a seven- page article on Hart's stereographs based on Kraus's book.Hart was not mentioned again in a publication until 1975 when Weston J. Naef and James N. Wood did so in their book Era of Exploration: the Rise of Landscape Photography in the American West, 1860-1885, (Boston: New Graphic Society, 1975) p. 45.Finally in 1976, a trained researcher became focussed on Hart as an individual rather than a little understood artist and photographer who took great pictures that others valued.Pauline Grenbeaux Spear was seeking material on Carleton Watkins at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, where she saw a letter from Hart's great grandson, John L. J. Hart then residing in Denver.John Hart was doing genealogical research and had inquired if the Bancroft Library had more information about Alfred A. Hart.
Ms. Spear, realizing the importance of this link with the past, contacted John Hart and arranged to interview him.He most graciously provided her with copies of material he had collected, and the names of other surviving family members.She followed these leads and soon began planning the publication of a fully researched book on Alfred Hart's life and work.However in 1978 her own career goals shifted, and it became apparent that it would be many years before the book's completion.In the same generous spirit, demonstrated by John Hart in sharing his research with her, she advised Dr. Joseph Baird, her former professor of art history at the University of California at Davis, that she had a possible subject for a thesis and a great deal of research available for the right graduate student.
Dr. Baird reviewed the qualifications of several of his students and suggested the name of Glenn Willumson, to whom she turned over the results of all her research on Alfred A. Hart.Mr. Willumson carried the project forward, completing his thesis in 1982.In 1988 he also published an article on Hart's life (See Appendix E).The information in the following pages about Hart's non railroad activities has been gleaned from Willumson's excellent article.
Kibbey Figure 29(Fig. 29) Portion of Thomas Houseworth No. 1204 Sacramento -J Street from Sixth Street.Hart's 135 J Street location was in the building just to the right of the post and across the street from the camera position.He was next door to (on the far side of) McDonald's Drug Store which was at 139 J Street.
Alfred A. Hart was born March 28, 1816, in Norwich, Connecticut, and received his first training as a fine arts painter, later making his living as a portrait painter for a number of years in nearby Hartford.In 1852, he painted a long panorama portaying Biblical scenes the Holy Land on a roll of canvas.In New York, the panorama was unrolled from one vertical spool to another at the opposite side of a stage, pausing while "Professor" Hart lectured about the scene depicted (See p. 191).Five years later Hart was back in Hartford as a partner in a daguerreotype studio, and in the early 1860s he moved his family to Cleveland, Ohio, where he operated an art store.Although the reasons for his next move are not clear, by 1863 he had left his family in Cleveland with the store and was taking photographs in California.In 1864 the Cleveland City Directory indicated his store was offering "photographic stock," which could be interpreted as meaning he had returned with a supply of California photographs to sell.Hart was already 46 years old and an experienced photographer and artist at the time the Central Pacific Railroad commenced construction in Sacramento on January 8, 1863.There is no evidence of Hart's presence at the ceremony, although we know from a surviving newspaper advertisement that he was in La Porte, California, during June/July 1863 and would normally have traveled there by way of Sacramento.At that time, La Porte was an isolated and rather small town in Sierra County, and it seems likely that Hart had been in California for at least a few months before deciding that this particular village was in need of a photographer.
On June 13, 1863, Hart placed an advertisement for his "La Porte Photographic Gallery" in the weekly La Porte Mountain Messenger, (published on Saturdays) and continued it through the issue of July 18, 1863 (Fig. 30).In the June 20th issue there was also an editorial comment:
PICTURES OF LIFE -- Alfred Hart has opened a Photographic Studio on Main Street, La Porte, and is taking excellent LIKENESSES.
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While we do not know of any photographs of Yuba or Sierra Counties specifically taken or published by Hart, Lawrence & Houseworth published many early Yuba County hydraulic mining stereographs which may well have been taken by Alfred A. Hart.
These hydraulic mining stereos, like the Hart CPRR Nos.134 through 148 in Appendix A, were first published by Lawrence & Houseworth without numbers, were copyrighted in 1865, and are quite similar in photographic style to the CPRR views.Other evidence also supports this idea: Hart was familiar with this hydraulic mining area, and took (and later published) stereo photographs of mining 18 miles away.Also the main wagon road in 1863/64 to La Porte was from Marysville and passed directly through Yuba County, only a few miles north west of some of the mining areas depicted in Lawrence & Houseworth's stereographs.
It seems probable that Hart initially planned to publish his own mining negatives commercially as he had already gone to the expense of having stereo card mounts printed with "Hydraulic Mining" on the front, and "Scenes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for the Stereoscope and Album.Alfred A. Hart, Artist, Sacramento."on the verso, (See Appendix A, No. 167).This would further support the theory that Hart actually took the hydraulic mining stereo photographs published by Lawrence & Houseworth and copyrighted in 1865.Hart had either held back a few of the negatives, or expected to regain their use as later happened with the CPRR stereo negatives.
Hart probably took many other non-CPRR stereos published by Lawrence & Houseworth in 1864-66.For example, Hart published (without title or number) a summer stereo view that Lawrence & Houseworth published as No. 816 "Grass Valley from Cemetery Hill, Nevada Co."Such photographic assignments could easily have occupied Hart throughout the summer of 1864."Summer" is suggested because of the heavy foliage on the trees at Grass Valley and the ample supplies of water shown in the hydraulic mining scenes.
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ABOVE: (Fig. 34) Alfred Hart: Untitled.Railroad town, probably Truckee.
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(Fig. 37) Alfred Hart: Enlarged right image of an untitled stereograph he published on a card with "Valley of the Sacramento, 135 J Street" back imprint.
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