{
"data": {
"id": 159285,
"accession_number": "1995.78",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Cathedral Rocks and Reflections, Yosemite, 1864. Charles Leander Weed (American, 1824\u20131903). Albumen print from wet collodion negative; image: 51.9 x 39.9 cm (20 7/16 x 15 11/16 in.); paper: 70.8 x 55.4 cm (27 7/8 x 21 13/16 in.); matted: 76.2 x 61 cm (30 x 24 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Jo Hershey Selden Fund, 1995.78",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Cathedral Rocks and Reflections, Yosemite",
"creation_date": "1864",
"creation_date_earliest": 1864,
"creation_date_latest": 1864,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "albumen print from wet collodion negative",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "Photography",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 51.9 x 39.9 cm (20 7/16 x 15 11/16 in.); Paper: 70.8 x 55.4 cm (27 7/8 x 21 13/16 in.); Matted: 76.2 x 61 cm (30 x 24 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.519,
"height_inch": 20,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.4375,
"width": 0.399,
"width_inch": 15,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.6875
},
"paper": {
"height": 0.708,
"height_inch": 27,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.875,
"width": 0.554,
"width_inch": 21,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.8125
},
"matted": {
"height": 0.762,
"height_inch": 30,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.61,
"width_inch": 24,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Written in pencil on verso: \"Cathedral Rocks & Reflections\"; \"E.B. Child, 1939 / Cathedral Rocks & Reflections / Yosemite, CA\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 311875,
"title": "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997).",
"opening_date": "1996-11-24T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 213345,
"title": "Changing Visions of the North American Landscape",
"description": "Changing Visions of the North American Landscape. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (organizer) (October 24, 2000-January 28, 2001).",
"opening_date": "2000-10-24T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 194095,
"title": "Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24-September 16, 2007).",
"opening_date": "2007-06-24T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: \"Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art.\"",
"opening_date": "1997-02-02T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art (6/24/07 - 9/16/07); \"Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art\", no exhibition catalogue.",
"opening_date": "2007-06-24T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "New York Historical Society",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "In 1859, Charles L. Weed made the first photographs of the Yosemite region. Using the wet collodion process, he produced 40 stereoviews and some 20 large (10 x 14 inches) glass negatives. His pioneering photographs informed future visitors and artists of the region's scenic splendors. About five years later, in 1864, he returned to create his remarkable mammoth plate views (approximately 17 x 22 inches) of the valley. This image of Cathedral Rocks is among the best examples of Weed's ability to combine sublime subject matter with observation. With graceful precision, he captured the complex landscape, fully reflected in the mirror-like surface of the lake's calm water.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79978671"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1995.78-cathedral-rocks-and"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, \u201cThe Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Major Works,\u201d December 20, 1995, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr4002"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 370",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1995.78",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1995.78/1995.78_web.jpg",
"width": "695",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "474176",
"filename": "1995.78_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
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},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Jo Hershey Selden Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 159285,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1067,
"description": "Charles Leander Weed (American, 1824\u20131903)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Charles Leander Weed American, 1824-1903\r\n\r\nBorn in New York state, Charles Leander Weed moved to Sacramento, where he became a camera operator in the daguerreotype portrait studio of George J. Watson in 1854. Four years later he was named the junior partner of Robert Vance, the leading daguerreotypist in California during the 1850s.\r\n\tWeed is recognized for his early views of Yosemite. In June 1859 he was the first known photographer to venture into the valley, taken there by the publisher, developer, and entrepreneur James Hutchings, who printed woodcuts after Weed's wet plate photographs later that year in his Hutchings' California Magazine. Like other photographers, Weed switched from daguerreotypes to the wet collodion technique soon after its local introduction at the 1855 California State Fair. His views of early mining and settlement in California have been much admired.\r\n\tIn 1860 Weed left his partnership to make the first of several visits to Asia, briefly establishing a studio in Hong Kong before returning to California the following year. He photographed Yosemite in 1864, then traveled to produce views of Hawaii in 1865 and of the Far East in 1867. That same year he showed his photographs at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, winning an international award for landscape photography. Weed made another trip to Yosemite in 1872, probably with Eadweard Muybridge, and later worked as a photoengraver. T.W.F.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1824",
"death_year": "1903",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1995-12-04T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1864,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1864",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 08:15:31.415000"
}
}