Photographing the Frontier. By Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler.
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1980. Bibliography. Illustrations. Index. Maps.
192 pages. $9.95.
Reviewed by Ronald J. Quinn, Instructor of History, Grossmont College, El
Cajon, California.
Photographing the Frontier has much to recommend it.
Besides providing a host of photographs previously unavailable in one volume,
the authors have traced the impact of photography on the development of the
frontier.
Pictures were widely used, especially by the railroads, to
entice prospective land buyers. Environmentalists promoted the national park
system by distributing photographs of the West's most picturesque locations.
Stereo card photographs, viewed through a stereoscope, brought Western scenes to
the homes of millions of American consumers by the end of the nineteenth
century.
The authors suggest that the photographers of the pioneering
process were also its least publicized heroes. Photographers captured the
construction of the railroads, participated in the Great Surveys, and preserved
the images of early settlement life. With the invention of the wet-plate
process, which made the stereo card photograph possible, the photographer was
forced to lug hundreds of pounds of equipment to stock his traveling dark room.
Compelled to stay miles ahead of the party, or lagging miles behind it, the
photographer spent much of his time separated from his companions. Since the
presence of the photographer often slowed the pace of the expedition, he was
not the most welcomed fellow traveler. The task was at best tedious and at worst
extremely dangerous.
Photographs also contributed to the technical development of
the frontier. They made map making more accurate, and simplified the task of
the road engineer.
Photography reached a mass audience by the last quarter of
the nineteenth century. This also coincided with the closing of the frontier
period. The selections in the Hoobler work provide a permanent record of this
transitional period. Perhaps the frontier photographer's greatest professional
achievement was the preservation of wilderness appearances before the onslaught
of settlement. Ethnological photographers hurried to obtain a record of Indian
life before exposure to outside sources destroyed the pristine qualities of Native
American communities. These photographs, along with Matthew Brady's Civil War shots,
represent some of the most creative photography of the nineteenth century.
This book has a wide appeal. Few specialists will not find
some new insight into photography and its relationship to the Western
experience. Yet the volume's fresh readable prose saves it from excessive
technical jargon. The authors are to be applauded for producing a quality work
that has the ability to interest a general audience. The selected bibliography
provides good direction for the interested reader. In short, this is an
excellent addition to anyone's library.
