The 19th-century drive to explore and document the growing territories of the United States saw an unprecedented use of photography as the means of recording vast unexplored lands. Yet, though it was ceded to the federal government in 1821, it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that the vast wetlands system of the Everglades was systematically imaged. Imaging Eden: Photographers Discover the Everglades (Daylight, Spring 2015) presents an overview of the pictures and personalities that have formed our understanding of one of the most contested and special environments on the planet. The book is accompanied by an exhibition of the same title organized by Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida on view through July 12, 2015. Tim B. Wride, William and Sarah Ross Soter Curator of Photography at Norton, contributes a text that presents an overview of the role that photography has played in the construction of the myth and the reality of the Everglades. He writes:

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