Ansel Adams Chronology
Timeline
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February 20, 1902
Born in San Francisco, California.
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1916
First trip to Yosemite.
First camera - Kodak No. 1 Box Camera.
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1927
Published his first photographic portfolio, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras.
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January 2, 1928
Married Virginia Best.
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1931
Pictorial Photographs of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a one-person exhibition, opened at the Smithsonian Institution.
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August 1, 1933
Son Michael born in Yosemite.
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1934
Elected to the Sierra Club Board of Directors.
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March 8, 1935
Daughter Anne born in San Francisco.
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1936
Exhibited photographs at Alfred Stieglitz's An American Place Gallery.
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1937
Fire in Yosemite studio destroyed many of Adams's negatives.
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1940
Adams selected as vice chairman of the new photography department at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Organized A Pageant of Photography at the San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition.
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1941
Hired by the Interior Department to photograph national parks and monuments.
Developed the Zone System of exposure.
Photographed Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico.
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1943
Photographed at Manzanar War Relocation Center.
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1944
Exhibited his photographs at the Manzanar Relocation Center.
Published Born Free and Equal: The Story of Loyal Japanese-Americans.
Exhibited Manzanar photographs at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
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1946
Awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship.
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1960
This Is the American Earth published with text by Nancy Newhall.
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1963
Retrospective exhibition, The Eloquent Light, at the M. H. de Young Museum in San Francisco (the largest exhibit of a single photographer ever held).
Began three-year project to photograph the University of California system.
Published Portfolio IV, What Majestic Word.
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1971
Resigned from Sierra Club board.
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1979
Commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to produce the official portrait of President Jimmy Carter.
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1980
Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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April 22, 1984
Died in Carmel, California.
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