Creator
CHARLES R. SAVAGE (1832-1909)
Title
Palisades, Humboldt River, C.P.R.R., Nevada,
Date
1870
Description
Savage successfully operated a photography studio in Salt Lake City by balancing the demand for portraiture with his artistic preference for landscape photography. Savage's landscape work rivaled that of his friends Carleton E. Watkins, William Henry Jackson, Timothy O'Sullivan, and Andrew Joseph Russell. In the photograph here, Savage effectively illustrates how the landscape seemed designed to accommodate the railroad with elegance and beauty. In the foreground, Savage even placed a contemplative figure appreciating the felicitous union of nature and modern technology. Savage did not work in an official capacity for the Central Pacific Railroad, but it is likely that Watkins, Central Pacific's official photographer after 1869, secured some freelance work with the company for him.
Format
Albumen print
Source
Princeton Collections of Western Americana, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. Purchase, J. Monroe Thorington Fund.