Awards & Accolades
1963: Received the Sierra Club’s John Muir Award
1968: Received the Conservation Service Award, U.S. Department of the Interior
!980: Awarded Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, by President Jimmy Carter
April 22, 1984: Ansel Adams died of heart failure; Area covering 100,000 acres between Yosemite National Park and the John Muir Wilderness Area declared the Ansel Adams Wilderness Area
1985: A 11,760-foot peak located at the head of the Lyell Fork of the Merced River on the southeast boundary of Yosemite National Park was officially named, Mt. Ansel Adams
“At one with the power of the American landscape, and renowned for the patient skill and timeless beauty of his work, photographer Ansel Adams has been visionary in his efforts to preserve this country’s wild and scenic areas, both in film and on Earth. Drawn to the beauty of nature’s monuments, he is regarded by environmentalists as a monument himself, and by photographers as a national institution. It is through his foresight and fortitude that so much of America has been saved for future Americans.”
– Presidential Jimmy Carter in his citation during the award of the Medal of Freedom to Ansel Adams