Content/DescriptionMining scene showing 5 men working with shovels and a pulley system to lift large boulders. Two of the workmen's shirts have decorative buttons[?] on the front.
Details
Title
[Five riverbed miners in a rocky gulch in the Motherlode.]
Published
ca. 1850-1853
Full Collection Name
Cased photographs and related images from The Bancroft Library pictorial collections, circa 1845-circa 1870
1 photograph : daguerreotype ; half plate, visible image 8.7 x 12 cm.
Archive
The Bancroft Library
Note
Identified as "Hard Rock Miners" by collector, this misleading title may have been used in publications or exhibitions in the past. It is clearly a riverbed or placer mining scene, and not "hard-rock" mining, which implies underground tunnelling. Also, the noted date of 1849 almost certainly refers to the gold rush of '49 in a general sense rather than an exact image date. <physfacet label="Image Package Note">Original component parts: plate, mat, cover glass, preserver. Mat: rectangular (double elliptical). Preserver: decorative.</physfacet>;;;<physfacet label="Container or Case Note">Type: case. Motif: floral / geometric. Material: leather over wood. Dimensions: 15.2 x 12.2 cm. Pad: red velvet with embossed motif. Notes: spine label - 503 (from prior owner).</physfacet>;;;<physfacet label="Marks, Inscriptions and Accompanying Material">"Accompanying note (modern, possibly by collector Zelda Mackay): Five Gold Rush Miners in the Mother Lode. California, 1849. [In different ink:] "Hard Rock" miners."</physfacet>;;;
Contents
Image 2: [Five riverbed miners...] (Detail.)
Image 2: BANC PIC 1905.16242:079––DIG
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