1829
William James Adams (paternal grandfather), whose descendants
had emigrated from Northern Ireland to New England in the
early 1700s, born on August 11 in Thomaston, Maine.
1835
Charles E. Bray (maternal grandfather) born April 10 in
Baltimore, Maryland.
1836
Cassandra Hills (paternal grandmother) born on January 13 in
Cushing, Maine.
1839
The invention of photography publicly demonstrated in Paris;
daguerreotype process given freely to the world.
1844
Nan Hiler (maternal grandmother) born December 31 in
Georgetown, Ohio.
1856
William James Adams, marries the young widow, Cassandra Hills
McIntyre, in Thomaston, Maine. They move to California where
they build a very successful lumber business in San
Francisco.
1857
Charles Bray moves to Keokuk, Iowa.
1861
Charles Bray and Nan Hiler marry in Charleston, Iowa.
1862
Olive Bray born December 21 in Charleston, Iowa. The Bray
family proceeds west, living for several years in Sacramento,
California before settling in Carson City, Nevada.
1868
Charles Hitchcock Adams born May 25 in San Francisco to
Cassandra and William, the last of their five children.
"Unadilla," the Adams' twenty-three room family home, is
constructed on fifty-four acres in what is now Atherton,
California.
1890
Yosemite becomes a National Park on October 1.
1892
Sierra Club established with John Muir as its first
president.
1896
Charles Adams and Olive Bray marry in Carson City, Nevada.
1902
Ansel Easton Adams born on February 20, at 114 Maple Street,
San Francisco, the only child of Olive and Charles.
1903
The family home is completed in San Francisco at 129
Twenty-fourth Avenue, in the sand dune area overlooking the
Golden Gate.
1904
Virginia Rose Best born January 18.
1906
Family survives the great San Francisco earthquake,
though
Adams falls during an aftershock and breaks his nose.
1907
Grandfather Adams dies and the family lumber business fails.
Charles Adams spends the rest of his life attempting to repay
the debts of the failed business.
1908
An enormously curious and gifted child, Adams begins a
precarious and largely unsuccessful journey through the rigid
structure of the public school system. Grandfather Bray and
Aunt Mary Bray come to live with his family. "Unadilla" burns
to the ground.
1914
Teaches himself to play the piano and excels at serious music
study with Marie Butler.
1915
Despises the regimentation of a regular education, and is
taken out of school. For that year, his father buys him a
season pass to the Panama-Pacific Exposition, which he visits
nearly every day. Private tutors provide further
instruction.
1916
Convinces parents to take family vacation in Yosemite National
Park. Begins to photograph there with first camera given
him
by his parents. Develops an enthusiastic interest in both
photography and the national park. Returns to Yosemite every
year for the rest of his life.
1917
Receives grammar school diploma from the Mrs. Kate M. Wilkins
Private School, San Francisco, his only earned degree,
although many honorary doctorates will be bestowed on him in
later years. Though largely self-taught in photography, he
begins part-time work at Frank Dittman's photo-finishing
business.
1920
Spends the first of four summers as custodian of the Sierra
Club headquarters in Yosemite. While it is still a hobby, he
begins to articulate his ideas about the creative potential of
photography. Continues piano studies with professional
ambitions, studying with Frederick Zech.
1921
During second entire summer in Yosemite, finds a piano for
practice at Best's Studio, a Yosemite concession selling
paintings, photographs, books, and gifts. Meets Virginia, the
daughter of the owner, Harry Best. Takes first high-country
trip into the Sierra with Francis "Uncle Frank" Holman and
Mistletoe, the burro.
1922
Publishes first article and has his first photograph
reproduced, of trek to the Lyell Fork of the Merced River, in
the Sierra Club Bulletin.
1923
Cedric Wright, who will become his best friend, introduces him
to the philosophy of Elbert Hubbard and Edward Carpenter.
1925
Decides to become a concert pianist and purchases a Mason and
Hamlin grand piano, the finest available. Explores the Kings
River Canyon with the LeConte family. Takes a similar trip
the following summer.
1926
Takes initial trip to Carmel with Albert Bender, who becomes
his first patron, meets Robinson Jeffers there.
1927
Makes his first acknowledged masterpiece, Monolith, the
Face of Half Dome, in April. He considers this image
to
be his first "visualization," using the term to describe the
photographer's determination of the visual and emotional
qualities of the finished print even before exposing the
negative. Publishes initial portfolio, Parmelian Prints of
the High Sierras (sic) (San Francisco: Jean Chambers
Moore). Goes on first Sierra Club outing. Travels with Bender
in California, Arizona, and New Mexico, where he meets Mary
Austin, Witter Bynner, and others.
1928
Marries Virginia Rose Best on January 2 in Yosemite. First
one-person exhibition held at Sierra Club, San Francisco. His
photographs will be included in more than 500 exhibitions
during his lifetime.
1929
Photographs at Taos Pueblo in northern New Mexico for a book
project. In Taos, meets Georgia O'Keeffe and John Marin at
Mable Dodge Luhan's estate. In Yosemite writes words, selects
music, and acts a leading role for The Bracebridge Dinner, a
Christmas production that becomes an annual event.
1930
Meets Paul Strand in Taos, becomes committed to a full-time
career in photography after understanding Strand's total
dedication to creative photography and seeing his negatives.
Builds a home and studio at 131 Twenty-fourth Avenue, San
Francisco, adjoining his parents' home. Publishes Taos
Pueblo, containing 12 original photographs with text by
Mary Austin. Begins accepting commercial photography
assignments, one of his first being catalogue pictures for
Gump's, the San Francisco specialty store. Yosemite Park and
Curry Company becomes his most frequent client and he
continues commercial work into the early 1970s.
1931
Begins writing photography column for The Fortnightly;
reviews Eugene Atget and Edward Weston exhibitions that year.
Solo exhibition of 60 prints at the Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, DC.
1932
With Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke, Edward Weston, and
other proponents of pure photography, founds Group f.64, and
is part of the renowned Group f.64 exhibition at the M. H. de
Young Museum, San Francisco. Also has a solo at the de Young.
Makes the photographs Frozen Lake and
Cliffs, The
Golden Gate Before the Bridge, and Rose and
Driftwood.
1933
Son Michael born August 1 in Yosemite. Meets Alfred Stieglitz
at his gallery, An American Place, in New York City. Opens
Ansel Adams Gallery at 166 Geary Street, San Francisco as a
center for creative photography. First New York City
exhibition at Delphic Studios.
1934
Elected to the Board of directors of the Sierra Club. Begins
publishing a series of technical articles, "An Exposition of
My Photographic Technique," in Camera Craft. Writes a
coherent thesis of his aesthetic beliefs, "The New
Photography," Modern Photography 1934-35, (London and
New York: The Studio Publications).
1935
Daughter Anne born March 8 in San Francisco. Initiates a
Conservation Forum in Yosemite to consider the preservation of
California's landscape values. Publishes technical book,
Making A Photograph; An Introduction to Photography,
(The Studio Publications). First publication of his "Personal
Credo" in Camera Craft. Teaches at Art Students League
Workshop in San Francisco.
1936
Solo exhibition at An American Place, New York. Lobbies
Congress in Washington, D. C., on behalf of the Sierra Club
for the establishment of Kings Canyon National Park. Moves to
Berkeley, where he and Virginia live for several months in a
Bernard Maybeck-designed home. Virginia inherits Best's
Studio after her father's death. Makes the photograph,
Clearing Winter
Storm late in the year or early in the
next.
1937
The Adamses move to Yosemite in the spring, where they take
over the proprietorship of Best's Studio. His Yosemite
darkroom burns, destroying more than 5,000 of his negatives.
He continues to work and maintain a professional studio in San
Francisco. Takes photography treks with Edward Weston through
the High Sierra and with Georgia O'Keeffe and David McAlphin
through the Southwest. Photographs included in the first
historical survey of the medium at the Museum of Modern Art,
New York. Hires Rondal Partridge as photographic assistant
through 1940.
1938
Takes O'Keeffe and McAlpin through Yosemite and the High
Sierra. Photographs with Edward Weston in the Owens Valley.
Publishes Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail
(Berkeley: Archetype Press).
1939
Meets Beaumont and Nancy Newhall in New York. Has major
exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Makes
the photograph, Merced
River, Cliffs, Autumn.
1940
Teaches first Yosemite workshop, the U. S. Camera Photographic
Forum, in Yosemite with Edward Weston. Organizes exhibition
and edits the catalogue for "The Pageant of Photography" held
at the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco. Helps found the
Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New
York, with Newhall and McAlpin. Makes the series of five
photographs, Surf Sequence.
1941
Develops his Zone System technique of exposure and development
control while teaching at the Art Center School in Los
Angeles. Begins the mural project to photograph national
parks and monuments for the Department of the Interior, but
project is canceled the next year because of World War II.
Makes his best-known masterpiece, Moonrise, Hernandez, New
Mexico, on October 31 at 4:05 p.m. Publishes
Michael and Anne in Yosemite Valley, text by Virginia
Adams (The
Studio Publications).
1942
Makes the photographs The
Tetons and Snake River, and
Leaves, Mount
Rainier.
1943
Photographs at Manzanar Relocation Center, begins Born Free
and Equal photo-essay on the loyal Japanese-Americans
interned there.
1944
Publishes Born Free and Equal, (New York: U. S. Camera)
and exhibits 61 prints from Manzanar at the Museum of Modern
Art, New York. Photographs in California with Dorothea Lange
for the Office of War Information. Makes the photograph,
Winter Sunrise, The Sierra
Nevada from Lone Pine. Paul
Strand visits in Yosemite.
1945
Makes the photograph Mount
Williamson.
1946
Receives the Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
to photograph the national parks and monuments. Founds
Department of Photography at the California School of Fine
Arts in San Francisco, later named the San Francisco Art
Institute. Hires Minor White to teach with him. Publishes
Illustrated Guide to Yosemite Valley, with Virginia
Adams (San Francisco: H. S. Crocker).
1947
Does extensive photography in the national parks, makes first
photographic trips to Alaska and Hawaii. Makes the
photographs White Branches,
Mono Lake and Mount
McKinley and Wonder Lake.
1948
Guggenheim Fellowship renewed. Makes the photographs Sand
Dune, Sunrise, and Tenaya Creek, Dogwood,
Rain.
Begins friendship with Dr. Edwin Land. Sierra Club issues
Portfolio I, with 12 Adams original prints in an
edition of 75. Publishes first two volumes of his Basic
Photo Series 1: Camera and Lens and 2: The Negative
(Hastings-on-Hudson, New York: Morgan & Morgan) as
well as Yosemite and the High Sierra, edited by
Charlotte E. Mauk with selected words of John Muir (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin). Gives speech to the Photo League in New
York.
1949
Becomes consultant to the newly founded Polaroid
Corporation.
1950
His mother, Olive, dies. Sierra Club issues Portfolio II,
The National Parks & Monuments, with 15 photographs
in an edition of 105. Publishes third volume of Basic
Photo Series 3: The Print (Morgan & Morgan), also
My Camera in Yosemite Valley (Yosemite: V. Adams and
Boston: Houghton Mifflin), My Camera in the National
Parks (Adams and Houghton Mifflin) and a reprint of the
1903 title The Land of Little Rain, text by Mary
Austin, with Adams photographs (Houghton Mifflin).
1951
His father, Charles, dies. Hires Pirkle Jones, who had
previously developed negatives for him when he was on extended
trips, as his photographic assistant through 1953.
1952
Publishes Basic Photo Series 4: Natural Light Photography
(Morgan & Morgan). Exhibition at the George Eastman
House, Rochester. Helps found Aperture, a journal of
creative photography, with the Newhalls, White, and others.
1953
November 2 issue of Time magazine
features photography. Photographers mentioned in article include Adams,
whose color photograph of Mono Lake
is reproduced.
1954
Publishes Death Valley (Palo Alto: 5 Associates),
Mission San Xavier del Bac (5 Associates) and
The Pageant of History in Northern California
(San Francisco: American Trust Co.), which includes a
view of the UC Berkeley campus.
Nancy Newhall
contributes the text for all three books. Life
magazine publishes article by Daniel Dixon featuring
photographs by Adams and Dorothea Lange
on the Mormons
in Utah.
1955
The Ansel Adams Yosemite Workshop, an intense short-term
creative photography learning experience, begins as an annual
event.
1956
Organizes with Nancy Newhall the exhibition "This Is the
American Earth" for the Sierra Club that is circulated by the
United States Information Service (USIS). Publishes Basic
Photo Series 5: Artificial-Light Photography (Morgan
& Morgan). Don Worth becomes a photographic assistant
through 1960, and Gerry Sharpe works on special projects
through the early 1960s.
1957
Begins producing small, inexpensive Special Edition
Prints of a number of his Yosemite photographs, printed
by assistants and for sale only at Best's Studio as a quality
souvenir of the park. Film Ansel Adams, Photographer
produced by Larry Dawson and directed by David Meyers; script
by Nancy Newhall, narrated by Beaumont Newhall.
1958
Receives third Guggenheim Fellowship. Makes the photographs
Aspens, Northern New Mexico in both horizontal and
vertical formats.
Publishes the Islands of Hawaii,
text by Edward Joesting (Honolulu: Bishop National Bank of
Hawaii). Presented Brehm Memorial Award for distinguished
contributions to photography by the Rochester Institute of
Technology.
1959
Publishes Yosemite Valley, edited by Nancy Newhall (5
Associates). Moderates a series of five films for television,
Photography, the Incisive Art, directed by Robert
Katz.
1960
Sierra Club issues Portfolio III, Yosemite Valley,
containing 16 photographs in an edition of 208. Makes the
photograph Moon and Half
Dome. Publishes This Is
the American Earth, text by Nancy Newhall (Sierra
Club).
1961
Receives honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the
University of California, Berkeley.
1962
Builds a home and studio, designed by E. T. Spencer,
overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Carmel Highlands, California.
Over the next two decades, he produces in the spacious
darkroom most of the fine prints made during his career.
Publishes Death Valley and the Creek Called Furnace,
text by Edwin Corle (Los Angeles: Ward Ritchie) and These
We Inherit; The Parklands of America (Sierra Club).
1963
The Eloquent Light, a retrospective exhibition with prints from 1923 to 1963 shown at the de Young Museum. Receives the Sierra Club's John Muir Award. Sierra Club issues Portfolio IV, What Majestic Word, with 15 photographs in an edition of 260. Publishes Polaroid Land Photography Manual (Morgan & Morgan) and the first volume of a biography, Ansel Adams: Volume 1, The Eloquent Light, text by Nancy Newhall (Sierra Club). The planned subsequent volume was not completed. Publishes revised edition of Illustrated Guide to Yosemite Valley (Sierra Club). Liliane De Cock becomes photographic assistant through 1971. Begins annual New Year's Day open house for their friends.
1964
Publishes An Introduction To Hawaii text by Edward
Joesting (5 Associates).
1965
Takes a more active role in President Johnson's environmental
task force, photographs published in the President's report.
A More Beautiful America... (New York: American
Conservation Association). Major exhibition, Ansel Adams:
The Redwood Empire, held at the San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art, circulated a decade later by the California
Historical Society.
1966
Elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences.
1967
Principal founder, president, and later chairman of the Board
of Trustees of the Friends of Photography, Carmel. Over the
next two decades the Friends will become the world's largest
non-profit creative photography membership organization.
Received honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Occidental
College. Publishes centennial book, Fiat Lux: The
University of California, text by Nancy Newhall (New York:
Mc Graw Hill).
1968
Makes the photograph El
Capitan, Winter, Sunrise.
Receives Conservation Service Award from the U.S. Department
of the Interior.
1969
Delivers Alfred Stieglitz Memorial Lecture at Princeton
University. Receives Progress Medal from the Photographic
Society of America.
1970
Receives Chubb Fellowship from Yale University. Parasol Press
issues Portfolio V, with 10 prints in an edition of
110. Publishes The Tetons and the Yellowstone, text by
Nancy Newhall (5 Associates) and revised edition of Basic
Photo Series 1: Camera and Lens (Morgan &
Morgan). The revised edition featured ten photographs
that Adams took for the University of California centennial project.
1971
Following 37 years of service, resigns position as a director
of the Sierra Club. William A. Turnage hired and becomes his
business manager through 1977.
1972
Exhibits retrospective Recollected Moments, at San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art; show is sent by USIS to Europe
and South America. Publishes a monograph, Ansel Adams,
edited by Liliane De Cock (Morgan & Morgan). Best's Studio
is renamed the AnselAdams Gallery. Ted Orland becomes
photographic assistant until1974.
1974
First trip to Europe, where he teaches at Arles, France,
Photography Festival. Major exhibition, "Photographs by Ansel
Adams," initiated and circulated by the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York, later travels to Europe and Russia, through
1977. Receives honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Parasol Press issues
Portfolio VI, with 10 prints in an edition of 110.
Publishes Singular Images (Morgan & Morgan) and
Images 1923-1974 (Boston: New York Graphic Society
[NYGS]). Andrea Gray becomes executive assistant until 1980
and Alan Ross becomes photographic assistant until 1979.
1975
Stops taking individual print orders effective at the end of
the year, but the 3,000 photographs requested by December 31st
take three years to print. Helps found the Center for Creative
Photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson, where his
archive is established. Receives honorary Doctor of Fine Arts
degree from that university. Ansel Adams Publishing Rights
Trust (AAPRT) established to advise him on publishing
decisions and posthumously to determine and authorize
publications.
1976
Parasol Press issues Portfolio VII, with 12 images in
an edition of 115. Meets President Ford at the White House to
discuss environmental policy. Returns to Arles Photography
Festival during second European trip and photographs in
Scotland, Switzerland and France. Elected Honorary Fellow of
the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. Publishes
Photographs of the Southwest (NYGS). Lectures in
London, Tucson, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Attends the
opening of a major exhibition of his work at the Victoria and
Albert Museum, London. Begins exclusive publishing agreement
with Little, Brown and Company's New York Graphics Society
division.
1977
Publishes The Portfolios of Ansel Adams (NYGS) and
facsimile reprint of the book Taos Pueblo (NYGS). With
Virginia, endows a curatorial fellowship at the Museum of
Modern Art in honor of Beaumont and Nancy Newhall.
Exhibition, "Photographs of the Southwest 1928-1968,"
organized and circulated by the Center for Creative
Photography. Begins complete revision of his technical books
with the collaboration of Robert Baker.
1978
Publishes Ansel Adams: 50 Years of Portraits, by James
Alinder (Carmel: The Friends of Photography) and Polaroid
Land Photography (NYGS). Elected Honorary Vice President
of the Sierra Club. Selected as an honorary member of the
Moscow Committee of Graphic Artists, Photography Section.
1979
Subject of Time magazine cover story. Dramatic increase in
sales of Adams' fine prints in public auctions and through
photography dealers, leading to a significant expansion of
interest in collecting creative photography. Major
retrospective exhibition, "Ansel Adams and the West," held at
the Museum of Modern Art. Publishes Yosemite and the Range
of Light (NYGS); eventual sales total more than 200,000
copies in hard and softcover editions. Begins printing his
Museum Set, 75 prints representative of his life's
work. Founding member and vice president of the board of
Trustees, the Big Sur Foundation. Lectures in Carmel, New
York, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, and
Minneapolis. Begins writing his autobiography with Mary
Alinder, who is employed as his chief of staff. John Sexton
becomes photographic assistant through 1982.
1980
Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's
highest civilian honor, from President Carter. Receives the
first Ansel Adams Award for Conservation given by The
Wilderness Society. Publishes The New Ansel Adams
Photography Series Book 1, The Camera (NYGS).
Exhibition, "Ansel Adams: Photographs of the American West,"
organized by The Friends of Photography for the USICA and
circulated through 1983 in India, the Middle East, and
Africa.
1981
Receives honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Harvard
University. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden presents him with
second Hasselblad Gold Medal Award. Named Honored
Photographer at the national meeting of the Society for
Photographic Education. Holds final workshop in Yosemite,
then transfers workshop location to Carmel area under
administration of The Friends of Photography. Publishes
Book 2 in his revised technical series, The
Negative (NYGS) and begins publishing a series of finely
printed posters. Hour-long biographical film, Ansel Adams,
Photographer, coproduced by Andrea Gray and John Huszar
for FilmAmerica. Mural-size print of Moonrise, Hernandez,
New Mexico is sold for $71,500, a record high for a
creative photograph.
1982
At eightieth birthday celebration is presented the Decoration
of Commander of the Order of the Arts and Letters, the highest
cultural award given by the French government to a foreigner.
Two exhibitions, "The Eightieth Birthday Retrospective" and
"The Unknown Ansel Adams," honor the event at the Monterey
Peninsula Museum of Art and The Friends of Photography
Gallery. Pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy plays a concert for him
in his Carmel Highlands home. Receives honorary Doctor of
Fine Arts degree from Mills College. His 1936 Steiglitz
gallery exhibition is recreated and circulated by the Center
for Creative Photography as "Ansel Adams at An American
Place." Chris Rainier becomes photographic assistant until
1985.
1983
Publishes Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs;
Book 3 of the new technical series, The Print;
and begins a series of annual calendars illustrated with his
work. Subject of an extensive interview in Playboy magazine.
Meets with President Reagan on environmental concerns.
Elected an honorary member in the American Academy and
Institute of Arts and Letters. Exhibition "Ansel Adams:
Photographer," is organized by The Friends of Photography as a
cultural exchange between the sister cities of San Francisco
and Shanghai, China. Exhibition also travels to Beijing, Hong
Kong, and Tokyo. Ansel Adams Day proclaimed by the California
State Legislature.
1984
Dies April 22 of heart failure aggravated by cancer. Major
stories appear on all primary television networks and on the
front page of most newspapers nationwide. A commemorative
exhibition and memorial celebration are held in Carmel.
California Senators Alan Cranston and Pete Wilson sponsor
successful legislation to create an Ansel Adams Wilderness
Area of more than 100,000 acres between Yosemite National Park
and the John Muir Wilderness Area. Unanimously elected as an
honoree of the International Photography Hall of Fame. A
memorial book, Ansel Adams 1902-1984, published by The
Friends of Photography.
1985
Mount Ansel Adams, a 11,760-foot peak located at the head of
the Lyell Fork of the Merced River on the southeast boundary
of Yosemite National Park, officially named on the first
anniversary of his death. Ansel Adams: An
Autobiography (with Mary Street Alinder) published in
October (NYGS). The autobiography reaches many bestseller
registers, including seventh on the New York Times list.
Pacific Telesis begins sponsorship of ongoing exhibition of
its Museum Set with "Ansel Adams: Classic Images,"
shown first at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
where it drew some 6,000 visitors a day.
1986
NYGS publishes Ansel Adams: Classic Images, text by
James Alinder and John Szarkowski.
1987
Major exhibition "Ansel Adams: One With Beauty," at the M. H.
de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco.
1988
NYGS publishes Ansel Adams, Letters and Images
1916-1984, edited by Mary Street Alinder and Andrea Gray
Stillman, foreward by Wallace Stegner. Times Books publishes
Manzanar by John Armor and Peter Wright, commentary by
John Hersey.
1989
The Ansel Adams Center, headquarters of The Friends of
Photography, opens at 250 Fourth Street, San Francisco, with
one of its five gallaries permanently dedicated to exhibiting
his photography. Reverie Press publishes The Mural
Project, photography by Ansel Adams, introduction by Peter
Wright & John Armor.
1990
Bulfinch Press (renamed from NYGS) publishes Ansel Adams:
The American Wilderness, photographs and writing edited by
Andrea Gray Stillman, introduction by William A. Turnage.
1991
Major exhibition, "Ansel Adams: Fiat Lux," organized by
University of California, Irvine, featuring selections from
the Ansel Adams UC Centennial collection, and The Museum Set
collection owned by Pacific Telesis.
Alinder Gallery
39165 South Coastal
Highway One
Gualala, California 95445-1146
Phone (707)
884-4884
Fax (707) 884-9124
