ABSTRACT
Rudolf came to California from the east in search of the husband who had abandoned her and their child. Her search lead her to Nevada City - a wild gold rush town in Northern California. It was here that she opened a photography studio specializing in portraits. So successful was she that she was able to open a second studio in nearby Sacramento City. Her secret was her masterful sense of lighting and composition and her ability to capture a sitter’s personality while also catering to their vanity. The chapter demonstrates her ability to attract a wide variety of clients - she photographed people from many walks of life and age groups including babies and children, but also women from Sacramento’s wealthy classes. It further argues that because Rudolph needed to make a living and there was little sympathy for the foreigners who had participated in the gold rush or for the Indians whose lands and resources the settlers had taken by force, her clientele was exclusively white. Besides producing portraits, she documented Nevada City as it existed in the 1850s, producing probably the first photographic panorama ever produced by an American woman.
