Table Rock · Cave of the Winds

**George Barker** (1844-1894) ~ [Niagara Falls], ca. 1888. Albumen silver print. View of Niagara Falls taken from the base of the falls, with large boulder in foreground and footbridge in the background. | src Getty Museum Coll.

**George Barker** (1844-1894) ~ Cave of the winds, ca. 1888. Niagara Falls with walkway in the foreground. Albumen silver print. | src Library of Congress

This Image is hosted in four American museums; three of them (Library of Congress, Getty Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art) acknowledge the authorship to George Barker. According to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art [x] this photograph is Nielson’s. In their website there is a mention to the photographer’s logo on back: “H.F. Nielson, Manuf. of all kinds of / Paper & Glass Views / Niagara Falls.”

Though the commercial market for large-scale landscape views was limited in the late 19th century, a small group of talented and savvy photographers found a lucrative niche in this genre. Herman F. Nielson, who lived most of his life in Niagara, New York, specialized in majestic tourist views of Niagara Falls. Here, Nielson depicts the American Falls (Luna Falls and Bridal Veil Falls) and the Rock of Ages. This view, or a slight variant, was reproduced in a popular guidebook at the time.

“New View Manufactory,” Niagara Falls Gazette 30:16 (October 10, 1883): n.p.

quoted from The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art [x]