Nevada Fall, 700 Feet High, Near View, No. 1636 from the series "Yosemite Valley"

Art Historical Context

Thomas Houseworth’s “Nevada Fall, 700 Feet High, Near View” is a striking stereograph from his “Yosemite Valley” series, produced between 1860 and 1869. The albumen print presents two nearly identical photographs mounted side by side on a card, designed to be viewed through a stereoscope that merges the images into a single, three-dimensional scene. This technique allowed mid-nineteenth-century audiences to experience the dramatic scale of Nevada Fall—captured here in crisp detail—as if standing before its cascading waters. As one of the earliest photographic records of Yosemite’s iconic landscape, the work reflects the growing fascination with the American West during an era of exploration and westward expansion. Houseworth’s choice of the stereograph format was both artistic and practical: the small, portable cards brought remote natural wonders into parlors across the country, fostering appreciation for places most viewers would never visit. Today, this delicate print in the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection preserves not only the visual splendor of the fall but also the innovative spirit of early landscape photography.