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Teklanika River, Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska
Teklanika River, Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska
Teklanika River, Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska
Photograph and Ditital Image © Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. Not for reproduction or publication.
On View
On view
Object number1995/6.27.1

Teklanika River, Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska

Artist (American, 1902 - 1984)
Date1947
Mediumgelatin silver print
Dimensionsimage (flush): 9 in. × 11 1/2 in. (22.9 × 29.2 cm)
mount: 14 × 18 in. (35.6 × 45.7 cm)
mat: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of Wm. John Upjohn
Exhibition History"Ansel Adams," Saginaw Art Museum (July 11 - Aug. 5, 1997). "Ansel Adams and Eadweard Muybridge," KIA (Nov. 16, 2001 - Jan. 13, 2002). "Sight and Feeling: Photographs by Ansel Adams," KIA Long Gallery (Jan. 26 - June 23, 2013). "Sight and Feeling: Photographs by Ansel Adams," KIA Traveling Exhibition: Knoxville Museum of Art (Jan. 31 - May 4, 2014). "Sight and Feeling: Photographs by Ansel Adams," KIA Traveling Exhibition: Nassau County Museum of Art (Nov. 19, 2016 - Mar. 5, 2017). "Sight and Feeling: Photographs by Ansel Adams," KIA Traveling Exhibition: Ellen Noel Art Museum, Odessa, TX (August 29 - November 24, 2019).Label TextCelebrated for his photographs of the American West, Ansel Adams’ images helped shape public understanding of the nation’s landscapes during the twentieth century. His Yosemite photographs earned him a 1946 Guggenheim Fellowship to photograph federal parklands, bringing him to Alaska the next year. While driving through Mount McKinley National Park (now Denali National Park and Preserve), Adams captured this image of one of the park’s braided rivers. Using photography both commercially and as an advocacy tool for the conservation of public lands, Adams was a longtime leader of the Sierra Club. He championed the protection of wilderness areas, including the Denali region. Adams’ photographs encouraged Americans to view public lands as part of a shared national heritage worthy of preservation for future generations. At the same time, their widespread circulation attracted growing numbers of visitors to these destinations, underscoring the complex relationship between conservation, tourism, and how Americans have defined their identities through the land. [Label Text: For the People: America at 250 Exhibition, June 27 - October 4, 2026]