William Henry Fox Talbot Oak Tree in Winter ca. 1842-43 salted-paper print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
John Jabez Edwin Mayall Crystal Palace Hall with Large Tree, London 1851 daguerreotype Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
"There is a great deal of excitement over Monsieur Daguerre's invention, and nothing is more amusing than the explanations of this marvel that are offered in all seriousness by our salon savants. Monsieur Daguerre can rest easy, however, for no one is going to steal his secret. Truly, it is an admirable discovery, but we understand nothing at all about it; there has been too much explanation."
– Madame de Girardin, writing under the pseudonym 'vicomte de Launais' in the ephemeral journal, Lettre parisienne, 1839 – quoted in The Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin
B.B. Turner Hedgerow Trees, Clerkenleap 1852 salted-paper print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
W.H. Nicholl Windsor Park 1854 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
Roger Fenton The Dark Walk, Stonyhurst ca. 1856-58 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
Roger Fenton Study of Tree ca. 1856-58 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
Mrs. Jane St John Tomb of Caius Cestius, Rome ca. 1856-59 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
Édouard Baldus Temple of Diana at Nîmes ca. 1861 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
"Some trees were associated with particular divinities for special reasons, like the mantic (oracular) oak of Zeus at Dodona; Athena's olive, which symbolized the source of Athens' prosperity; or the laurel of Apollo with its apotropaic and purifying properties. The palm was sacred to Leto on Delos; on Laconian Boeae, Artemis Soteira was worshipped in the form of a myrtle, and she had a cult as Kedreatis in Arcadian Orchomenus. In popular belief trees housed some kind of 'soul' – spirits of the woods and mountains lived in them. Some were revered for their age. The nymphs haunted sacred groves, which were the first natural sanctuaries of the gods. Poseiden had a sacred grove at Onchestus in Boeotia, Athena on Phaeacia. At Curium on Cyprus the sanctuary of Apollo Hylates arose from a sacred grove. A sacred fig-tree stood in the Roman Forum near the sanctuary of Rumina the goddess of nurture or nursing."
– Oxford Classical Dictionary
C.L. Weed Big Tree in Mariposa Grove ca. 1860-64 hand-colored albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
Samuel Bourne Great Deodar, Simla 1863 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
James Sinclair and William Bainbridge Great Beech on Manor Hill 1864 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
James Sinclair and William Bainbridge Queen Anne's Oak 1864 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
Anonymous photographer Old Chestnut Tree – Dedham, Massachusetts ca. 1865 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
Anonymous photographer The Park ca. 1865 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
Vernon Heath Beech Trees, Inverary 1871 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
"Many Mediterranean lands were forested in ancient times, but these timber stands were drastically reduced by human exploitation and by the grazing of animals, especially goats. The Mediterranean climate is capable of sustaining forests so long as they are intact, but once the trees are cut, the combination of marginal rainfall and grazing animals makes forest regeneration difficult, if not impossible. In general the history of timber supplies is one of gradual depletion, with little effort in antiquity to replant harvested lands. Only in those areas of continental rainfall conditions which lie at some distance from dense human settlement (e.g. the mountains of Macedonia) have forests survived into modern times. Thus lacking much apparent physical correlation between modern scrubland and ancient forests, we are dependent upon references in the ancient authors for a description of the location and abundance of ancient timberland."
– Oxford Classical Dictionary