75 Devil's Gate, Passage of the Sweet Water River, Na. Albumen stereoview. New Bedford, Massachusetts: Bierstadt Brothers, circa 1859. Title view printed to mount recto. Bierstadt imprint to mount verso.

A rare early Wyoming view captured by Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), who accompanied the government survey expedition in early 1859 led by Frederick W. Lander to what was then Nebraska Territory, encompassing much of what is today Wyoming. He used many of the photographs he captured as references for later oil paintings (c.f. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak, 07.123). 

Here, Bierstadt frames the unusual natural rock formation Devil's Gate so that it dominates the frame. A gorge on the Sweetwater River just 5 miles from Independence Rock, it was a major landmark on both the Oregon and Mormon trails. 

[Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards, Stereographs] [Western Americana, Western History, Western Expansion, Wild West]