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The Ames Monument, erected in 1880 in a desolate stretch of rural Albany County, Wyoming

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The Ames Monument, erected in 1880 in a desolate stretch of rural Albany County, Wyoming

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The pyramidal stone monument, which from a distance mimicks the rocky landscape, was designed by prominent American architect Henry Hobson Richardson, for whom "Richardsonian Romanesque" an entire style of architecture. The Ames Monument is dedicated to Union Pacific Railroad financiers Oakes Ames and Oliver Ames, Jr. The brothers garnered credit for connecting the nation by rail upon completion of the United States' First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. The monument marked the highest point on the transcontinental railroad at 8,247 feet. However, the Union Pacific Railroad Company twice relocated the tracks farther south, causing the town of Sherman that arose near the monument to become a ghost town. The railroad spared no expense (including Richardson's fee) in creating the monument, effectively to itself.
Credit line: Gates Frontiers Fund Wyoming Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Gift; Gates Frontiers Fund; 2015; (DLC/PP-2015:069).
Forms part of: Gates Frontiers Fund Wyoming Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.

In 2015, documentary photographer Carol Highsmith received a letter from Getty Images accusing her of copyright infringement for featuring one of her own photographs on her own website. It demanded payment of $120. This was how Highsmith came to learn that stock photo agencies Getty and Alamy had been sending similar threat letters and charging fees to users of her images, which she had donated to the Library of Congress for use by the general public at no charge. In 2016, Highsmith has filed a $1 billion copyright infringement suit against both Alamy and Getty stating “gross misuse” of 18,755 of her photographs. “The defendants [Getty Images] have apparently misappropriated Ms. Highsmith’s generous gift to the American people,” the complaint reads. “[They] are not only unlawfully charging licensing fees … but are falsely and fraudulently holding themselves out as the exclusive copyright owner.” According to the lawsuit, Getty and Alamy, on their websites, have been selling licenses for thousands of Highsmith’s photographs, many without her name attached to them and stamped with “false watermarks.” (more: http://hyperallergic.com/314079/photographer-files-1-billion-suit-against-getty-for-licensing-her-public-domain-images/)

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Date

2000 - 2020
place

Location

albany county
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Source

Library of Congress
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