Albumen Photograph of Yosemite Valley

Item Details

California, Fred Hartsook, ca. 1920

6 3/4" x 10 3/4" albumen photograph of Mirror Lake with Half Dome in the background. The photograph is tipped in to light brown & grey folder with grey ruling and Hartsook design printed on front cover; 15 studio locations printed on backside. Fine condition.

Fred Hartsook (1876 – 1930) was an American photographer and owner of a California studio chain described as "the largest photographic business in the world" at the time. He was born into a family of photographers and studio owners; his father and two uncles were all successful in the business and his grandfather had been the first photographer to open a studio in Virginia. According to a 1921 profile by John S. McGroarty, "the first Hartsooks [took] up the profession when it was in the infancy of development with the old daguerrotype and the first wet plate processes." His success as a photographer and studio owner allowed him to expand into other cities along the Pacific Coast, including San Francisco and Oakland. In 1921, John S. McGroarty gives the number of studios as 20; 15 studios are listed on the backside of the folder. Hartsook counted Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, Mary Pickford, and sitting President Woodrow Wilson among his celebrity clients.