Yosemite Trail

Artist James David Smillie (1833 - 1909)

Date1872

MediumCharcoal and chalk on paper

Dimensionssight: 20 1/8 x 16 in. (51.1 x 40.6 cm)
Framed: 29 1/2 x 25 1/4 x 2 1/2 in. (74.9 x 64.1 x 6.4 cm)

ClassificationsDrawing

Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2007.142

Signedl.l.: JSmillie Dec. 1872.

Accession number 2007.142

On View

Not on view

Collections

Drawings and Watercolors: 18th and 19th Century

ProvenanceJill Newhouse; (Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, NY); John Driscoll, New York, NY; to (Babcock Galleries, New York, NY); purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2007
Label TextIn 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill to preserve the Yosemite Valley as protected wilderness. Yosemite’s grand scenery impressed James David Smillie, who visited the site in 1871. Later describing the excitement of his journey there, he wrote, “every step brought us nearer to a place that hitherto had been to me like some crater in the moon or spot on the sun.”