New York
STODDARD, Seneca Ray (1844-1917), photographer, attrib. Photograph of a campfire scene.

8 1/4 x 6 1/2 in. unmounted albumen photograph. Pictured are a group of men, women, and children gathered under and around a small structure before a campfire. One man entertains the group by playing a fiddle.

Stoddard, of Glens Fall, New York began photographing the natural scenery and "camps" of the Adirondacks in the mid 1860s and ten years later had amassed a collection of over 2000 negatives from which he produced countless stereographs that were marketed to local tourists. He was a tireless and prolific chronicler of this region, writing guidebooks and giving lectures on the natural beauty of the mountains and lakes. Late in his career he became alarmed at the abuses of timber companies and delivered countless lectures on conservation. He is credited by many as being instrumental in the passage of the act creating the Adirondack Park. This nighttime scene - a tour-de-force for which Stoddard became known, shows a party of visitors enjoying a campfire in front of an "Adirondack-style" lean-to, replete with a fiddler and a fisherman holding a stringer of fish.

This lot is located in Cincinnati.