Rephotographing Alexander Gardner's 1867 "Across the Continent on the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division"

Abstract

The photographic series made by Alexander Gardner in Kansas between mid September and late October 1867 is the earliest and most diverse systematic photo-documentation of the American West. The Kansas series, originally titled Across the Continent on the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division, is an early part of a later series titled Across the Continent on the Kansas Pacific Railroad. The entire series systematically photo-documented the surveyed railroad line which began at the Mississippi River in St. Louis and ended at the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco, California. The Kansas series, consisting of several hundred views between Kansas City and Fort Wallace, in Western Kansas, documented the initial impact of the new railroad settlements on the native prairies. This was particularly true along the Smoky Hill River route where construction was in progress as shown in Gardner's pictures. This series makes an especially valuable source for a rephotographic series to detail visually the transformation of the Kansas landscape by the early European settlements along the railroad. The picture samples presented here along the Smoky Hill route were made using traditional rephotographic techniques of repeating the original views from as close as possible to Gardner's original vantage point, at the same day of the year, and at the same time of day. This offers both old and new views with the same lighting and environmental conditions to compare and contrast the subjects 130 years apart. The documentation of the present survey also will make rephotographic surveys of the series possible in the future.