Nevada Falls, Yosemite

Albert Bierstadt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

At Nevada Falls in California’s Yosemite Valley, the Merced River plunges over a high ledge onto a jumble of boulders almost six hundred feet below, creating a torrent of white water and plumes of spray. Tourists were able to visit Nevada Falls by climbing a rocky trail that rose 1,840 feet in elevation from Vernal Falls, a mile and a half downstream. Bierstadt signals this possibility by portraying several sightseers, among them two women in hiking gear.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art