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Show 337. as an acceptable and "humanizing" part of the landscape, a much more moderate combination of Man's and Nature's work indeed, than the " i n d u s t r i a l i z e d version of the pastoral ideal" which was becoming popular by the middle of the century, including, as i t did, f a c t o r i e s and r a i l r o a d s as part of an ideal landscape. In these Yosemite scenes, the agricultural improvements often formed the unifying a e s t h e t i c element, making Yosemite comprehensible for the viewer. A fence row directed the eye, a cow in the foreground gave a peaceful tone to the scene. Later, of course, the automobile would become an integral part of the twentieth century scenic snapshot. Like the English professor I once met who thought the Grand Canyon needed improvement by more human creations, who bewailed the fact that the only human improvement he could see from the South Rim was the small and d i s t a n t hotel on the North Rim, the pastoral viewer desires some sign that humans have made something of t h i s wild land. It was t h i s a t t i t u d e which Muir fought in his objections to "improvements" in the Valley, and i t is i n t e r e s t i n g that he usually did not find such improvements d i s t a s t e f u l when he looked a t the farms of Utah or Nevada, the orange orchards of California, Mrs. Carr's Carmelita in Pasadena, or his future f a t h e r - i n - l a w ' s spread in the Alhambra Valley. Perhaps, though, he was l u l l e d into such acceptance in the l a t e seventies, only to reawaken at the end of the decade. I t was not at a l l clear in the seventies that a d i s t i n c t i on needed to be made between National Parks and other scenic |
