Mount McKinley and Wonder Lake, Denali National Park, Alaska

1947, printed in or before 1979

Mount McKinley and Wonder Lake, Denali National Park, Alaska, 1947, printed in or before 1979. Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984). Gelatin silver print; image: 38.8 x 48.8 cm (15 1/4 x 19 3/16 in.); mounted: 55.6 x 70.8 cm (21 7/8 x 27 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Lynn Schreiber 2011.219 © Trustees of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust Because of Adams's choice of time and framing, the mountain floats majestically above still-dark plains, inspiring awe in nature and respect for the grand scale of the American continent. Taken in a national park that few had visited at that point, this image and others made by Adams on that trip helped inspire Alaskan tourism and furthered the territory’s battle to gain statehood. Ansel Adams shot this photograph in July 1947 at around 1:30 a.m., which is sunrise in that part of Alaska in midsummer.