Pillsbury, Arthur C. (Arthur Clarence)

Arthur Pillsbury (1870-1946) was an American photographer, scientist, inventor, explorer, author, and lecturer. He was a pioneer in many areas of photography, including time-lapse, underwater, macro, micro, and x-ray.

Arthur Clarence Pillsbury (1870-1946) was a photographer and film maker based in Yosemite, California. He attended Stanford in the late 1890's, majoring in Mechanical Engineering, and eventually became known for his photographic inventions, including the panorama camera and the time lapse camera. His company, the Pillsbury Picture Company specialized in producing postcards and was one of the largest distributors in the West. While he was most famous for his nature photos of Yosemite park, Pillsbury also shot photos of the Yukon Gold Rush, the 1906 San Francisco Fire, aerial photos of San Francisco taken from a hot air balloon, and the first Southern California air show.

Arthur Clarence Pillsbury (1870-1946) became interested in photography while a student in mechanical engineering at Stanford University (class of 1897). In 1898 he set out for Alaska from Seattle in a 22-foot gasoline launch, photographing the scenery of Southeast Alaska and the route to the Klondike. On this trip he reached as far as Lake Lindeman before returning to Skagway. Wishing to travel the length of the Yukon, he successfully applied to the Census Bureau for the position of official photographer on a roving commission to photograph every city and point of interest along that river. He made the trip in 1899, traveling from Lake Lindeman to the mouth of the Yukon and then on to Saint Michael and Nome, Alaska. He left Nome for Seattle aboard the last vessel to sail that season. Once in Seattle, he found that he had the only set of pictures of the newly discovered Nome; they were published worldwide. Unfotunately, all of his Alaskan negatives were destroyed in the fire that accompanied the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, but Pillsbury went on to a long and successful career as a photographer and photographic innovator in California and the western United States. (From Pillsbury's autobiography, found at http://acpillsburyfoundation.org/acs-partial-autobiography.)

A.C. Pillsbury (1870-1946) was a photographer and film maker based in Yosemite, California. He attended Stanford in the late 1890's, majoring in Mechanical Engineering, and eventually became known for his photographic inventions, including the panorama camera and the time lapse camera. His company, the Pillsbury Picture Company specialized in producing postcards and was one of the largest distributors in the West. While, he was most famous for his nature photos of Yosemite park, Pillsbury also shot photos of the Yukon Gold Rush, the 1906 San Francisco Fire, aerial photos of San Francisco taken from a hot air balloon, and the first Southern California air show.

Photographer, scientist, inventor, explorer, author, and lecturer. He is credited with inventing time-lapse photography.