It is interesting to note that the painting of Hetch Hetchy Valley (shown in the upper, right - above) marked the founding of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. It was purchased by Mrs. A. L. Williston and Mrs. E. H. Sawyer in 1876:   "It is our hope that this fine painting as one expression of the best in American Art, will prove an inspiration to your pupils, and that Holyoke will long continue to offer opportunities for the highest culture."

Bierstadt described his painting to the purchasers thusly:

"The scene is laid in the Hetch Hetchy Cañon, California which lies some twenty miles north of the Yosemite and is rarely visited by the tourist because of its inaccessibility. It is smaller than the more famous Valley but it presents many of the same features in its scenery and is quite as beautiful. The season I have chosen is late Autumn when distant objects are mellowed by a golden haze and when the grass is dry and yellow. A few Elk, now unfortunately becoming more rare every year — are coming up the valley in quest of one of the few mountain streams that the long dry season has not quenched. In early times the deer were very numerous — as many as a thousand head often being seen together." 

(Source:  Mount Holyoke College Art Museum)