Dr. James Swensen is a historian of photography and art whose research focuses on American photography, the American West, and Utah’s visual history. In his lecture, “Albert Bierstadt & Utah's Landscape Painters” Swensen will explore how Albert Bierstadt’s visits to Utah helped establish the Wasatch Mountains as a subject worthy of artistic attention and inspired generations of Utah painters and photographers. He will trace Bierstadt’s influence on artists including C.R. Savage, Alfred Lambourne, J.T. Harwood, and others, while examining how the Wasatch evolved from a celebrated symbol of the American West into the familiar backdrop of a growing Salt Lake Valley