by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
If you ever watched, entranced, as a
flower opened before your eyes on film, this year marks the
centennial of the first showing of such an image. The 'premier' took
place in Yosemite during a meeting of the Superintendents of the
National Parks October 14-16, 1912, not in one of the burgeoning
movie theaters then taking hold across the country.
The reason for the showing was not
entertainment, but a man's determination to illustrate the need to
preserve the multitude of species then yearly decreasing in the
meadows of Yosemite.
In 1912 the oversight of Yosemite was
still in the hands of the Cavalry and horses need fodder, so the
meadows were routinely mowed, the flowering plants gathered and dried
to nourish the hoofed transportation of the soldiers who carried out
the duties mandated by the Park Service.
On that day in October, the
Superintendents and other onlookers were stunned by the sight of
flowers arching their faces toward the sun as they unfolded into
light, performing what seemed to be a dance, before their astonished
eyes.
The first nature movie had been shown
in Yosemite three years previously, drawing fascinated crowds which
overflowed the porch of the Studio of the Three Arrows, located in
what is now the empty area between the Yosemite Chapel and the road
into the Valley.
The camera used was designed and built
on a shelf in the Three Arrows Studio by its owner, Arthur C.
Pillsbury. Pillsbury recalled in his book, “Picturing Miracles of
Plant and Animal Life,” published in 1937 by Lippincott,
In his book, Pillsbury recalled the
1912 conference writing, “I showed my pictures, talked conservation
and the necessity of all parks to protect them as a very valuable
asset.” Pillsbury also showed his photos of the meadows from
1895, showing the same meadows covered with flowers, waist high and
the meadows as they were then, in 1912, devoid of life.
Pillsbury goes on to say, “As a
result, the next day all flowers and all living things were protected
in every National Park, and the mowing machine, as the people in
Yosemite expressed it, “was put on the blink.”
1912 was also the year Pillsbury's
images were chosen by John Muir to illustrate his newest, and last
book, “The Yosemite.” Check out the First Edition.
History always holds more to be found,
if we look. Acpillsburyfoundation.org
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