Beauty in Service to Science

Among the many treasures of the Smithsonian Institution Archives are the personal papers of Charles Doolittle Walcott, the fourth Secretary of the Smithsonian. Over the years this collection of personal papers from this prolific scientist has attracted attention from researchers, but many of the items in the collection are too fragile to access easily, including rolled panoramic photographs. Walcott’s scientific work and leadership of the Smithsonian is well known, but his photographs are an unexpected treasure as well, kept in storage at the Archives.

Members of the Preservation Team of the Technical Services Division reviewed the preservation of the rolled panoramas in the late 1990s as part of routine maintenance on SIA collections. When the panoramas were gently unrolled, it became clear that the images were worthy of exhibition. The photographs were in good condition, aside from years of being loosely rolled in boxes. The composition, clarity, breadth and sheer size of the images revealed a remarkable repository of early 20th century photographs similar to other naturalist photographs such as Ansel Adams. One member of the team (Michael Horsley) wrote a series of articles for Panorama Magazine in 2000 and 2001 on Charles Walcott’s use of the panoramic camera. About this time as well, Helena Wright, Curator of Graphic Arts at the National Museum of American History, suggested the Canadian Embassy's art gallery as an appropriate venue to exhibit Walcott images. Shortly thereafter, the Director of the Smithsonian Institution Archives, Edie Hedlin, approached the Canadian Embassy about developing an exhibition to highlight some of the stunning photographs of the Canadian Rockies.

The fifteen photographs in the exhibition were selected from approximately 80 panoramas. The photographs were chosen for their aesthetic appeal, especially images that contained flora, people or animals, or compelling atmospheric conditions like snow, clouds or rivers. Some of Walcott’s images have hand-written notations describing features important to his scientific work, and a few examples of these were included as well.