59

Pleiades Constellation. From Palomar Observatory and possibly printed by Ansel Adams before 1955.

Silver print
With a numeric notation in ink in an unknown hand on verso.
The image 19 1/4 x 14 1/4 in. (48.9 x 36.2 cm.)

  • Provenance:
    Private California Dealer; to A Country Called California: The Collection of Stephen White
  • Literature:
    Stephen White, foreword by Lynell George, A Country Called California, Photographs 1850s to 1960s (Angel City Press, 2022), p. 164
  • Notes:
    This print was included in the Sierra Club exhibition This is the American Earth at Yosemite in 1955. The exhibition was a collaboration between Ansel Adams and writer Nancy Newhall and showcased stunning photography of American wilderness to promote conservation. An image from the exhibition shows this work on a wall panel.

    "While the informative content of the exhibition was of utmost importance to Newhall, she also
    aimed to present a panel exhibition that was on par with the display of photography in the art
    museum. Newhall requested that the photographers send their negatives to Adams to print, as it
    would enable them to more easily size the prints to fit each panel and would also ensure a
    consistently high print quality. Despite Newhall's opinion that photographers should have control
    over the printing of their negatives, she had to manage a wide variety of photographs, many of
    which had been made exclusively for the illustrated press and were never intended to be displayed
    as fine photographic prints. Therefore, excluding eight negatives from the work of six different
    photographers, the entire show was printed by Adams with assistance from his student Pirkle
    Jones." --"This is the American Earth: An exhibition and book by Ansel Adams, Nancy Newhall, and the Sierra Club," by Josephine Minhinnett, 2021
  • Condition: For condition reports, email Deborah Rogal at [email protected]

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February 12, 2026 12:00 PM EST
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