A complete special edition of 18 photographic prints by Ansel Adams (American,1902-1984): Photographs of Yosemite National Park, California. Images are of the following, not in any specific order: (1) Ferns, Valley Floor (2) El Capitan, Winter (3) Oaktree, Snowstorm (4) Morning, Merced River Canyon (5) Mirror Lake (6) Jeffrey Pine, Sentinel Dome (7) Yosemite Falls (8) Upper Yosemite Fall, Spring (9) El Capitan (10) Moonrise from Glacier Point (11) Bridalveil Fall (12) Lake Tenaya (13) Mt. Lyell and Mt. McClure (14) Moon and Half Dome (15) Forest Detail, Winter (16) Valley View (17) Half Dome, Merced River, Winter (18) Young Oaks, Winter. Each gelatin silver print pencil initialed in the lower right margin, “AA”. Each gelatin silver print measures approximately 9-3/8″ x 7-1/4″ and is mounted on a 16-1/2″ x 13-1/2″ archival mat board with the Special Edition title stamp on the reverse. Mat board of Moon and Half Dome gelatin silver print also stamped Printed by Alan Ross from Ansel Adams’ original negative under his supervision and initialed by him. Note: Yosemite Special Edition Photographs were printed by the assistants of Ansel Adams under his supervision; the initials indicate Adams personally inspected each finished print and approved it. Adams signed the prints through 1972 and initialed them for another two years. According to J. Bradley Burns, a former assistant to Ansel Adams (who brokered the collection to the consignor), these prints were printed by Ted Orland and/or Alan Ross in Adams’ Carmel Highlands studio darkroom. Typically the more popular prints, such as “Moon and Half Dome,” would be printed several times a year and the other less popular prints may have only been printed as infrequently as every other year. Records of how many prints were made were not consistently kept until about 1975. That same year, Burns promoted and installed a show of Ansel Adams’ fine prints at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he also took orders for prints (including these). These particular prints have always been sold exclusively through the Ansel Adams gallery in Yosemite by contractual agreement with Adams’ trust and the negatives were withheld from his archives that were sent to the Center Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson after his death. According to Burns, the selection of negatives for this particular series changed over the years and was not locked in until Ansel Adams died in 1983. Lot also contains a business card and cover letter dated December 11, 1975 to the consignor from Burns. Condition: Toning on edges of fourteen images. Two mats have slight water damage on one corner of each. Specific information and higher resolution photos available upon request.