New Jersey Cedars c. 1900

Henry Troth made this photograph titled, ‘New Jersey Cedars’ in the late 19th or early 20th century. Troth was a proponent of Pictorialism, an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Pictorialist photographers like Troth sought to showcase photography as a fine art, rather than merely as a tool for documentation. The image presents a calm, tranquil scene, but if we consider the photograph in its historical moment, we can begin to understand how it spoke to the social conditions of its time. The rise of industry and urbanization in the United States led to the emergence of the conservation movement. The depiction of natural landscapes connects to the broader cultural trends of the time. To better understand this photograph, we can delve into resources such as period publications, exhibition reviews, and the writings of conservationists, which helps to better illuminate the meanings that it holds.