CPRR Sierra Grade 360º Panoramas
Donner Summit 360 degree virtual reality panorama, August, 2006.
From "Bruce C. Cooper" BCC@CPRR.ORG
The main reason for my return visits to the grade at Cape Horn and the Summit (at which my great great grandfather, L.M. Clement, was the engineer during construction) was to take integrated sets of photographs from which to create a series of 360º interactive “QTVR” (QuickTime Virtual Reality) panoramas to add to the Sierra Grade exhibit. The first of these (which I created by digitally compositing 21 separate images) has just been posted online. The vantage point from which I took the images is the same one from which A.J. Russell took his famous 1868 stereo view of the CPRR’s then newly completed summit passage.
—Bruce C. Cooper
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 8:40 PM
26 Comments:
From: KyleWyatt@aol.com
Very nice panorama, Bruce. Many thanks.
A couple of historical comments.
Russell toured the Central Pacific in the Fall of 1869, not 1868 (assuming it was indeed a Russell photo that was your inspiration, and not a Hart stereo.
Second, it was Southern Pacific that removed the original line over Donner in 1993. Union Pacific didn't acquire the Southern Pacific until 1996.
—Kyle
Based on the mount, the stereoview is definitely not A.A. Hart.
From: KyleWyatt@aol.com
Yep. Russell it is.
I'm still working to collect reference examples of all the Russell views in California, but that one I already had.
—Kyle
From: "Chris Graves" caliron@cwnet.com
I am told, by a most reliable source, that rails are soon to be relaid on the old grade thru the snow sheds, from Summit Tunnel to Truckee. If you want to see the old grade, without being treated to the sight of a locomotive coming at you, now may the best time to view it ...
—G J Chris Graves
Panoramic photographs can be made either with specialized panoramic film or digital cameras (which can use a widefield lens, swing lens, or rotating camera), or – as was done here – can be stitched together digitally from multiple conventional film or digital images taken with an ordinary camera.
Panoramic photography has a long history and there are many examples in the Library of Congress Collection.
The Macintosh software, "CubicConverter converts various types of panoramic images into and out of cubic format QuickTime VR movies." This was used to create the QTVR panorama of Donner Summit out of a static panorama assembled using Adobe Photoshop from 21 digital images taken as an overlapping panoramic sequence using a tripod with a rotating head. Other QTVR software is also available.
For other examples of panoramas, see the International Association of Panoramic Photographers website.
From: Gwillumson@arts.ufl.edu
It is definitely Russell. I believe that it is Russell's number 549. Number 545 is a very close variant. when you put the two together it looks as if Russell was making his own stereographic panorama – 545 being slightly to the left of 549.
—Glenn Willumson
From: KyleWyatt@aol.com
Thanks for the reference, Glenn. I have a reference copy of Russell stereo 545, but not 549.
Note I believe the photo [labeled Russell 550] is actually Russell 545. (550 is looking West at the Donner station and covered turntable.)
For reference, the list I have of Russell California stereos is as follows (most of which I do not have reference samples of):
No. 14. CALIFORNIA SERIES.
545. Summit Sierra Nevadas, Snow Sheds
546. Donner Lake, Distant View
547. Summit, Old Emigrant Road
548. Summit, C. P. R. R., Looking West
549. Donner Lake and Snow Sheds
550. Show Sheds, Looking west from Summit [CPRR; from the top of Summit
tunnel]
551. Donner Lake, from Old Cedar
552. Mountain Cedar, Summit C. P. R. R.
553. Hydraulic Gold Mining
554. Hydraulic Gold Mining, Gold Fields
555. Hydraulic Gold Mining, below Bank
556. Hydraulic Gold Mining, Miners at Work
557. Lake Anna, Sierra Nevadas
558. Mountain Scenery, Sierra Nevadas
559. Colfax Station, C. P. R. R.
560. Colfax, Front Street [California]
561. White Oak Carlin
562. Live Oak Carlin [Nevada]
563. Long Leaf or Nut Pine
564. General View of Colfax
565. Live Oaks, Sacramento Valley
566. Round House, Rocklin [California]
567. Looking up K Street, Sacramento
568. Sacramento Machine Shops
569. Sacramento Machine Shops
570. Chinese Washing Clothes, Sacramento
571. C. P. R. R. Shops, Sacramento
572. K. Street, Sacramento
573. Sacramento River and Pier
574. G. Street, Sacramento
575. Chinese Quarters, Sacramento
Note that Russell mislabled 562 (the error is on the negative) – it is actually the Rocklin roundhouse, not Carlin, in a different view from 566. I don't have a reference copy of 561, but suspect it may also be in Rocklin.
Similarly, 560 is actually Front Street in Sacramento, not in Colfax. It shows the Sacramento Valley RR depot on the left.
I don't have a reference copy of 574, but suspect it is J Street, not G Street, in Sacramento.
I suspect there may be others I could correct, if I had reference images.
The Imperial plates are:
No. 14. Large Views of California
228. Donner Lake, Summit Sierra Nevadas
229. Snow Sheds, C.P.R.R. and Donner Lake
230. Hydraulic Gold mining, California
231. Hydraulic Gold mining, California
232. C.P.R.R. Machine Shops, Sacramento
233. C.P.R.R. Machine Shops, Sacramento
—Kyle Wyatt
Some of the A.J. Russell California stereoviews are shown in the Swackhamer Collection and the Archive exhibits or linked on the red dots in the Russell Catalog.
From: "P. Christiaan Klieger" cklieger@museumca.org
... We do not have [A.J. Russell stereoviews] 545-554, including negatives.
—Christiaan
Dr. P. Christiaan Klieger
Senior Curator and Chair of History
Oakland Museum of California
1000 Oak Street
Oakland, California 94607 USA
1-510-238-3845
From: susanewilliams@earthlink.net
Subject: Confirming your statement on Russell Stereo 545.
... I want to add my confirmation to your statement that CPRR.org Russell stereo 550 is actually 545.---Summit Sierra Nevada, Snow Sheds.
Unfortunately, there is no Oakland Museum negative of this image, but confirmation of the 545 title comes from Rocky Mountain Scenery stereo cards, "No. 14. California Series" printed on the reverse. Title 545 is underlined on both the Union Pacific Railroad and the Library of Congress stereos.
... what title is underlined on the reverse of the CPRR.org 550 stereo card? ...
There is no Oakland Museum for stereo 550 either, but title "550.---Snow Sheds, Looking west from Summit," is underlined on the Library of Congress stereo of the same image. CPRR.org has this image identified as 545 in one section of the website but in the Barry Swackhammer section, the stereo is identified as 550. Very confusing and the difficulty comes from not being able to see the reverse side of the stereos and the lack of documented titles.
—Susan
From: kylewyatt@aol.com
[Above] is correspondence ... from Susan Williams, who I consider to be the ranking expert on A. J. Russell and his photos.
Kyle is correct that the Russell stereoview is definitely 545, not 550 as the file is incorrectly labeled. Not sure of the source of the confusion, but we have been able to verify 545 by examining the underlined backlist indicating 545 on both this and another copy.
The Russell stereoview numbering is very confusing, especially because the earlier square mount Russell views are often numbered inconsistently with the backlists. There seem to be at least three publishers of the Russell views. Presumably Russell published the early square mount views himself. O.C. Smith published an extensive series c.1875-1878 with the printed backlists underlined in pencil to identify the view number and title, and there is yet another style with a printed label on the back but with the view number and title in manuscript.
From: "P. Christiaan Klieger" cklieger@museumca.org
Subject: Russell Photos
We intend to upload all our Russell photos on our new Website, which is in the works. We do not have a list of the photos ...
—Christiaan
Dr. P. Christiaan Klieger
Senior Curator and Chair of History
Oakland Museum of California
1000 Oak Street
Oakland, California 94607 USA
1-510-238-3845
See the list of A.J. Russell views in the A.J. Russell Catalog on the CPRR Museum website.
From: kylewyatt@aol.com
... it would be great if the CPRR Museum could work on systematically displaying samples of all the Russell images available, preferably organized by number – both stereos and Imperial views. Susan has also clued me in that Russell images were published under a couple of different number series over the years. It would be interesting to see a "Union List" helping to sort that out. ...
From: KyleWyatt@aol.com
Since the Oakland Museum plans to post all their Russell images on thier own web site, I presume the CPRR Museum could link to those images, as they have to several other institutions (and to some Oakland Museum images already). Christiaan, hopefully in the title accompanying each image the Museum will include the Russell number that is on the negative.
... What I was thinking as a "Union Catalog" might actually be two different things. A traditional Union Catalog would list the institutions holding specific Russell images. But what I thought of is since there seem to be several historic number series that Russell images were originally published under, it would be nice ot have a list that cross referenced the numbers under each system that each image has appeared under. I'm guessing that the list on the CPRR Museum web site (referenced [above]) is the most comprehensive, and matches the numbers on the surviving negatives, so maybe that can be the base, with other number series identified and correlated to individual images on the base list.
—Kyle
Not aware of any of the institutions that hold Russell images having lists of their holdings – will include this information online should it become available. The CPRR Museum website does document the institutions holding specific images for the 364 Hart stereoviews (Mead Kibbey's published list).
The Russell Imperial views do have annotations in the negatives (ink written on the glass plate collodion emulsion), but the Russell stereoviews do not appear to be numbered in the negatives, at least not on the portion of the negative used for printing the stereoviews. The Imperial view glass plate negatives survive and are held at the Oakland museum. Do any Russell stereoview negatives survive? The Imperial views were at one time attributed to Savage – the correct attribution to Russell supposedly is due to identification of the negative annotation as being in Russell's handwriting. For stereoviews, number annotation in negatives (visible as white numbers in the corner of stereoview albumen prints) is unusual. Numbers are visible in some stereoviews published by E&HT Anthony, for example views of New York City.
It's difficult to create a numbering cross reference for Russell stereoviews because fairly complete sets of duplicate stereoviews from the various publication series would be needed in order to determine and verify the corresponding numbering, but this is not available. What we currently have available is much too fragmentary. Any help with this or suggestions of how this might be accomplished would be welcome.
From: KyleWyatt@aol.com
... A passing note on stereo negative numbers. I'm pretty sure I have seen negative numbers on contact prints of Russell stereo negatives. The Beebe & Clegg collection includes a small selection of contact prints from Russell negatives (both stereo and Imperial) made while the negatives were owned by the American Geographic Society. Numbers and titles appear to be scribed into the emulsion in the same manner as was done (I believe) on the Imperial negatives. In printing these negatives, such writing is typically cropped off from the finished print, so would not show up on mounted stereo cards.
—Kyle
From: "Susan Williams" susanewilliams@earthlink.net
Your CPRR website is most comprehensive and very educational. There are so many Jackson, Russell and Savage stereo views that interest me and the documentary information is invaluable. I am sure you know that many of the Russell images that appear in the archives section and in Barry Swackhammer's section have no negatives at the Oakland Museum and some are quite rare.
As you can see by the ongoing discussion, identifying Russell's photographs by number can be very difficult because, his images were published in a number of different series. The standard numbering system used by most collectors is taken from the reverse side of the "Rocky Mountain Scenery" series which is identical to the Sedgwich Catalogue list found at the UCLA special collections and mostly corresponds to The Oakland Museum negative numbers. But the list was printed in the 1870's and does not include glass negatives that were broken before the catalogue was published. Thus not all stereo cards can be identified by titles on the list and it is important to see both the front and back side of the card to identify the series and to assess the correctness of the title. Many times an underlined title identifies two different images and frequently causes misidentification. I try to look for consistency in a number of images in different archives or libraries before making an identification.
I do not have a personal collection of Russell UPRR stereos. My interest comes from having curated The Oakland Museum's Russell negatives a long time ago. I wrote my thesis on Russell's Civil War photographs and over the years have visited various archives and libraries and maintained my interest in his work and in the work of photographers who worked at the same time and in the same locations that he did.
Thank you for all your work in creating such a wonderful website. I use it quite frequently and find it most useful. Your work is a great success!!!!!
—Susan
From: KyleWyatt@aol.com
Subject: Russell Photos
I note Union Pacific has Russell views posted online. ...
—Kyle
From: "Bruce C. Cooper" BCC@CPRR.org
Subject: CAPE HORN QTVR Panorama
I have just created a third QTVR (QuickTime Virtual Reality) 360º interactive panorama from images I took on the Sierra grade earlier this month. While the first two are of views of Donner Pass, my third QTVR is a view from Cape Horn standing by Track #2 between Curves #149 and #150. It was created by compositing 25 separate digital images.
—BCC
From: "Bruce C. Cooper" BCC@CPRR.org
Subject: CPRR Ferry Slip at Benicia, CA – QTVR
I have just created a fourth 360º QTVR (QuickTime Virtual Reality) panorama from my recent trip to the Bay Area, the Sierra grade, and Nevada, which is now posted on the CPRR Museum website. This panorama was taken from the remains of the SP ferry slip at Benicia, CA, on the North side of the Carquinez Straits. It is being used as an illustration of the 1890 engineering paper on the SP ferry Solano. (I also added four new annotated aerial photographs of the area and three images I made of the restored SP depot in Benicia.) My three earlier QTVR panoramas posted earlier are of the tunnels at Donner Pass (two images), and the view from Cape Horn between curves 149 and 150.
—BCC
From: KyleWyatt@aol.com
Once again, a nice presentation.
Looking at the aerial view of Port Costa, it looks reversed to me. Shouldn't the opening for the ferry be on the right side in the view? that seems to be what is in the historic views and plan on the same page as your view. Or am I just not recognizing what I am seeing?
—Kyle
From: "Bruce C. Cooper" BCC@CPRR.org
Right you are, Kyle! Upon further investigation, I’ve determined that this image shows the remains of the SP’s massive old wheat dock which was destroyed by fire early in the 20th century. I will change the caption on this image and have also updated and corrected the larger aerial image to reflect the correct location, show the route of the ferry crossing, and add the wheat dock. Many thanks.
From: "Larry Mullaly" lmullaly@jeffnet.org
What a magnificent, evocative, panorama. It brightened, an otherwise grim day in which the Rogue Valley seems full of smoke from some distant forest fire.
—Larry Mullaly
Very nice panorama, Bruce. Recently, I found some interactive virtual panoramas from California on http://3dtour.cz/usa-california/ . The authors claim that dozens of new panoramas from San Francisco, Death Valley, Los Angeles, Pasadena and other areas are coming soon so I'm really loking forward. I'm keen on this virtual tour technology!
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