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The Yosemite Museum collects cultural artifacts, natural specimens, and historic records that document Yosemite National Park. Ever wondered about what's in this very special collection? In this blog the "spotlights" are brief descriptions about individual artifacts or documents, and "curious matters" will be longer articles about various selected artifacts.

Curious Matters: A Sketch in Time

November 13, 2015 Posted by: HG - Museum Intern

I like to doodle in class. Lots of people do. When I doodle, I feel this freedom that comes only in knowing that no one else is ever going to see it. Maybe Thomas Moran felt the same. Except unlike being crushed between coffee-stained pages that are likely starting to mold in a cardboard box in my basement, Moran's sketches are on display in museums all over the country, from the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., to the Yosemite Museum in California. And even though he never intended for many of the sketches to be seen, they give us something no finished piece can, something poetic and something raw.

 

Curious Matters: Dirt, Granite, and Fine China

October 02, 2015 Posted by: HG - Museum Intern

Yosemite was once ruled by grit. In the 1870s and 1880s, only the hardiest, sturdiest of travelers braved the rumbling wagon-road and the twenty-mile (or more!) mule or horseback trek into the Valley. Yet, in the packs of some of these rugged, hardened, and thick-coated voyagers was beautiful, delicate china. Dainty artisan soaps, full-length mirrors, and fresh-puffed towels floated across the treacherous terrain strapped to scratchy mules that were led by employees of the Co

 

Yosemite - A Granite Playground

September 17, 2015 Posted by: HG - Musuem Intern

It's not hard to imagine that Yosemite Valley is a mecca for rock climbing. Today, sport and amateur climbers alike flock to the park to test their skills. In 2014, professional climber Alex Honnold climbed seven routes on El Capitan in seven days. Just yesterday I saw a six year old squeal with accomplishment from the top of her first pitch. Yosemite saw its first type of climbing born out of adventure, then one that danced intimately with trepidation and danger, and then ushered in a dusty, beloved counterculture form of rock climbing. The Yosemite Museum has relics of all three of these monolithic stages....

 

Curious Matters: A Tin Cup with a Story

July 23, 2015 Posted by: HG - Museum Intern

Sometimes John Muir seems like a myth. As he trekked through the backcountry of Yosemite, he triumphantly carried “only a tin cup, a handful of tea, a loaf of bread, and a copy of Emerson.” The fact that the Yosemite Museum has his tin cup in its collection has fueled accusations of hero-worship.....

 

Curious Matters: An Interesting Link Between Los Angeles and Yosemite

May 20, 2015 Posted by: MG - Museum Technician

Perhaps because Los Angeles is farther away from Yosemite than San Francisco and other northern or central California cities, its legacy in the development of Yosemite National Park may be less obvious....

 

Curious Matters: Renaissance England meets Yosemite - A Holiday Tradition

December 10, 2014 Posted by: HG - Museum Intern

Court jesters and medieval feasts in Yosemite? Surprisingly...yes. For almost every single year since 1927, The Ahwahnee has hosted an elaborate and fanciful feast around Christmastime known as the Bracebridge Dinner.

 

Curious Matters: The Hocus-Pocus History of Glass Lantern Photography

October 22, 2014 Posted by: HG - Museum Intern

On a small piece of glass, no bigger than 3’x3’, a man floats midair. He is lying down, face to the sky, suspended in nothingness, drifting in the clear elixir of frozen glass. Yet when I place the slide down on a white piece of paper, he becomes surrounded by snow. This is the magic of glass lantern photographs.

 

Curious Matters: A Humorously Exaggerated Yosemite Masterpiece

October 08, 2014 Posted by: HG - Museum Intern

When we imagine Yosemite National Park, most of us don't think of a cartoon (that is, of course, unless we're avid Looney Tunes fans and the squat pistol-packing cowboy comes to mind). But among the masterworks at the Yosemite Museum lives a work that challenges what we think of as the real Yosemite. Jo Mora's Yosemite Carte (1931) is a brightly colored cartoon map of Yosemite Valley that is teeming with humor, wild creativity, and refreshing perspectives on what it means to be a part of this natural wonder.

 

Last updated: August 10, 2020

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