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Exploring the West in the Golden Age of Photography

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Summary

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“Exploring the West in the Golden Age of Photography” discusses American Western photography from roughly 1860 to 1880 and encourages educators to utilize these amazing primary sources for instruction.

Historic photographs provide an excellent tool for teaching about the strengths and limitations of primary sources. Learners like to look at photographs, which are readily available online. Photographs are also sources that seem to convey deep truths and provide us with an incontestable link to Western history. What is often not readily apparent, however, is that they are constructed visions of reality, making up a small and easily manipulated part of the larger story of Anglo-American expansion in the West.

In this exhibit, photograph curator Daniel Davis provides historical background for these images, and details how to use visual resources, specifically nineteenth century Western photographs, to teach students to critically analyze visual images to create their own unique interpretations. Educators are encouraged to view “Exploring the West in the Golden Age of Photography” for a specific lesson plan that can be incorporated in the classroom.

Daniel Davis has been a photograph curator for 22 years and is the author of the book Across the Continent: The Union Pacific Railroad Photographs of Andrew J. Russell and co-author with Ken Burns of Race to Promontory: Picturing the First Transcontinental Railroad.

Exhibition Credits:

  • Dan Davis (Exhibit Curator)
  • Brittany Bertazon (Digital Project Manager)
  • Sydney Lehenbauer (Digital Exhibit Assistant)
  • Branson Roskelley (Digitization Coordinator)
  • Darcy Pumphrey (Digital Asset Librarian)
  • Shay Larsen (Graphic Designer)
  • Preston Waddoups (Copy Editor)
  • Kellianne Gammill (Marketing Coordinator)

Preferred citation for this exhibition is:

Davis, Daniel. “Exploring the West in the Golden Age of Photography” online exhibition. (2022). Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives. http://exhibits.usu.edu/exhibits/show/exploringthewest