Gezicht op de North Dome in Yosemite Valley, Californië before 1886

This is a photograph of the North Dome in Yosemite Valley, California, taken by George Fiske, though we don’t know the exact date it was made. Yosemite was the first national park, and the images from this area were important for defining an idea of American identity rooted in nature. Fiske spent much of his career photographing the Yosemite Valley, and he also sold his images to tourists. At the time, photography was a tool of exploration but also of commercialisation. Fiske's pictures helped transform Yosemite from a remote location into a destination. To understand how the image creates meaning, one might look at photographic journals of the period, tourist publications, or even the records of the companies that profited from visitors to Yosemite. Approaching an image from the perspective of social and institutional history helps us understand the cultural work it performs.