(Native American Interest, Photographs: Albumen, Photographs: Native American) MUYBRIDGE, Eadweard (photographer). "754--SHOSHONE INDIANS AT CORINNE, [UTAH]."
San Francisco: Bradley & Rulofson, circa 1872. FIRST EDITION. Pair of albumen photographs measuring 3-1/16" x 2-15/16" each, on original publisher's yellow card mount measuring 3-3/8" x 6-7/8" with series title, image title, photographer's name, and publisher's name all printed in margins on mount recto, and with an extensive list of the various series of "Photographic Illustrations of the Pacific Coast" as photographed by Eadweard Muybridge and published by Bradley & Rulofson on mount verso. Stereoview No. 754 from Muybridge's "Central Pacific Railroad" series, depicting an outdoor group portrait of five Shoshone Indians wrapped in trade blankets, the central figure holding a bow with arrow pointed directly at the camera lens, set against a backdrop featuring Central Pacific Railroad freight boxcars. The physical condition of the photograph is graded (9/10) - EXCELLENT (utilizing a standardized 10-point scale for photographic prints and original works of art, indicating mild condition issues that are barely perceptible to the naked eye). Photographs exhibit very minor toning; mount verso shows minor fading along the outer edges, with virtually no physical wear to either the card mount or the albumen prints.
Eadweard Muybridge, Bradley & Rulofson, and Transcontinental Railroad Photography
Photographed during Eadweard Muybridge's celebrated tenure with San Francisco publishers Bradley & Rulofson, this remarkable stereoview captures a critical moment of cultural and technological convergence in the American West. Taken in Corinne, Utah—a burgeoning boomtown established in 1869 as a major junction along the Central Pacific Railroad—the composition starkly juxtaposes traditional Indigenous portraiture with modern industrial expansion. Muybridge positions five Shoshone figures in the foreground while freight boxcars line the tracks behind them, creating a powerful visual document of Northern Shoshone presence along the rail corridors during the early Reconstruction era.
Physical Fragility, Institutional Census, and Market Scarcity
Albumen stereographs from Muybridge's Central Pacific Railroad series were prone to edge wear, fading, mount warping, and separation due to daily nineteenth-century handling in stereoscopic viewers. Pristine examples retaining deep photographic tonal range and untrimmed original publisher mounts are exceptionally rare. A current global sweep of the OCLC/WorldCat database locates only 1 specimen preserved in institutional special collections worldwide (California Historical Society).
AN EXTRAORDINARY AND HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT CIRCA 1872 ALBUMEN STEREOVIEW BY EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE DEPICTING SHOSHONE INDIANS ALONG THE CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD IN CORINNE, UTAH, REPRESENTING A CRITICAL ACQUISITION FOR INSTITUTIONAL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS OR EXTRAORDINARY PRIVATE COLLECTIONS DEVOTED TO THE HISTORY OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY NATIVE AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY, WESTERN EXPANSION, OR THE WORK OF EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE.
# 001131