I must start this post by thanking Janet for providing me with the images of Alfred A. Hart’s memorial. I had read about it on Google, but to finally see photos of it and be able to share them is a real honour.
Alfred A. Hart was born on March 16th 1816 in Norwich, Connecticut, US, and is known to have worked as a portrait painter in nearby Hartford, CT. In the 1850s, he entered the world of photography as a partner in a daguerreotype studio, afterwards moving to Cleveland, Ohio, then on to California.
Figure 1: Stereocard. ‘No. 9: Bloomer Cut. 800 feet long, looking East’. Alfred A. Hart. Collection of The Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy.
Hart began issuing stereoviews from a studio in Sacramento around 1863, with the earliest series named as “The World as Seen in California – Illustrated for the Stereoscope and Album.” His stereoviews were also published by Lawrence & Houseworth.
Figure 2: Stereocard. ‘No. 44: Am. (American) River and Canon from Cape Horn. River below Railroad 1,400 feet. 57 miles from Sacramento.’ Alfred A. Hart. Collection of The Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy.
From 1865 to 1869, Hart was the official photographer for the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) during the construction of the Overland route. He used a stereoscopic camera, and from the negatives produced he published a series of 364 views, which you can find listed by number and title in a book by Mead B. Kibbey (more on that soon!). Kibbey explained that the first prints were sold to raise funds for the CPRR, and later they were sold to travellers as a profitable adventure.
Figure 3: Stereocard. ‘No. 75: Superintendent Strobridge and Family, at Alta.’ Alfred A. Hart. Collection of The Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy.
It is reported that the CPRR retained control of the negatives made by Hart, and allowed others to make prints from them. Some of them were printed under the names of photographers Frank Durgan, J. H. Heering, and also Carleton Watkins. The negatives were still being used years later, not for stereos, however, but for magic lantern slides, until they were eventually destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
Figure 4: Stereocard. ‘No. 78: Green Bluffs. 1,500 feet above American River. 71 miles from Sac.’ Alfred A. Hart. Collection of The Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy.
Figure 4a: Reverse of Stereocard. ‘No. 78: Green Bluffs. 1,500 feet above American River. 71 miles from Sac.’ Alfred A. Hart. Collection of The Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy.
After working for the CPRR, Hart was described over the years as being a traveller, author, publisher, painter, and inventor, moving numerous times around the US. Despite his commercial escapades, Alfred A. Hart sadly died in poverty in in the Alameda County Hospital, California in 1908. His body was sold to a medical school and time seemed to forget him.
Figure 5: Stereocard. ‘No. 131: Donner Lake, with Pass in the distance. Altitude above Lake 1,126 feet.’ Alfred A. Hart. Collection of The Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy.
Many years later, in 1975, California historian Mead B. Kibbey began thoroughly researching Alfred A. Hart, whose work he greatly admired. He wrote a fantastic book ‘The Railroad Photographs of Alfred J. Hart, Artist’ (ISBN 0-929722-85-X) in 1995, which was published by the California State Library Foundation. In it he describes the construction of the railroad, Hart’s biography, and his photographic techniques.
Figure 6: Stereocard. ‘No. 154: American River. From Green Bluffs.’ Alfred A. Hart. Collection of The Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy.
You can still find a video on YouTube of Kibbey discussing Hart in 2010 at California State Library, shared by the Media Arts Center San Diego:
Kibbey was clearly very fond of Hart, despite the separation of time between them, describing him as leaving the impression of a cheerful, kindly, innovative, and incredibly energetic person of whom his temporarily adopted city of Sacramento may be very proud. He also dedicated the book to Hart, as his “respected friend”.
Figure 7: Stereocard. ‘No. 252: Snow Gallery around Crested Peak. Timbers 12 x 14 inches, 20 inches apart.’ Alfred A. Hart. Collection of The Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy.
In 2014, Kibbey donated the only known complete set of Hart’s original stereoviews to the California State Library Foundation. Later, in 2017, Mead B. Kibbey proved how much Hart meant to him, by dedicating a beautiful granite monument in Sacramento’s Historic Old City Cemetery, adjacent to the Kibbey Family Plot.
Figure 8: The Stereoscopic Camera Memorial to Alfred A. Hart. Photographed by Janet Barton.
This is where I have to say a big thank you to Janet Barton for allowing me to share her photos. The memorial is a granite stereoscopic camera, similar to the one Hart used, complete with lenses, bellows, one of Hart’s stereo photos, an image of a binocular camera, and a short biography of the photographer.
Figure 9: The Stereoscopic Camera Memorial to Alfred A. Hart. Photographed by Janet Barton.
Janet says as she approached the Hart monument in the cemetery, she was first struck by some beautiful tulips which are in an area taken care of by the Sacramento Perennial Plant Club. You can be certain it will be a respectfully beautiful place to visit all year round.
Figure 10: Tulips close to the Memorial to Alfred A. Hart. Photographed by Janet Barton.
Kibbey’s kind generosity ensured that Hart has a permanent memorial recognising him as a pioneering California photographer and will be remembered in perpetuity.
Figure 11: Stereocard. ‘No. 260: Mist rising from Donner Lake. Early Morning View’ Alfred A. Hart. Collection of The Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy.
If you would like to learn more about Alfred A. Hart and Mead B. Kibbey, there are some fantastic resources online:
The Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum has PDF versions available of Kibbey’s 1995 book ‘The Railroad Photographs of Alfred J. Hart, Artist’, the biography article ‘Alfred Hart: Photographer of the Central Pacific Railroad.’ by Glenn Willumson in 1988, and also a catalogue of Hart’s CPRR views.
Many of Hart’s photographs are available in the Online Archive of California, the California State Library and in the Special Collections of University of Nevada, Reno Library.
You can also see them in Stanford Libraries online resource, along with other information about the CPRR.
There is a website for the book about Alfred A. Hart’s CPRR stereo photos ‘Waiting for the Cars: Alfred A. Hart’s Stereoscopic Views of the Central Pacific Railroad, 1863-1869‘ written by Wendell W. Huffman and published in 2012 by the Nevada State Railroad Museum.
Figure 12: Stereocard. ‘No. 283: Piute [sic] Indians, at Reno.’ (Sadly not stereoscopic, as it’s the same image pasted twice). Alfred A. Hart. Collection of The Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy.
And I’d like to thank the following resources for the information for this post:
‘The Railroad Photographs of Alfred J. Hart, Artist’ written by Mead B. Kibbey, published by California State Library Foundation, 1995. (Now out of print – but you can buy highly priced second-hand copies, or see above for an online PDF version).
‘The World of Stereographs’ written and published by William C. Darrah, 1977.
‘Alfred A. Hart Monument Unveiled by Mead B. Kibbey‘, written by Gary F. Kurutz for the California State Library Foundation, 2017.
Mead B. Kibbey’s Obituary, The Sacremento Bee, 2018.
And my sincerest gratitude to The Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy for allowing me to unearth and share stereoviews by Alfred A. Hart from the collections, and to Janet for making this post possible, remembering Hart and Kibbey on #StereoscopyDay.
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