Photographs by Carleton Watkins

Mammoth Albumen Photographs of Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove
In the Archives of the Gray Herbarium

Red Woods

1874

El Capitan

1865

 

Abies willaimsonii

1877

Grisley Giant

1861

 

Biography

 

Born in Oneonta, New York, on November 11, 1829, Carleton Eugene Watkins was a photographer of the American West, best known for his photographs of Yosemite, San Francisco, the Pacific Coast, Arizona, and Nevada.

Watkins initially headed west in 1851 after hearing of the California Gold Rush and eventually ended up in San Francisco. In 1854, while working at George Murray’s bookshop, he became acquainted with Robert H. Vance, a gallery owner looking for a temporary replacement photographer. Watkins, with no prior photography experience, took the job and quickly caught on to the medium.

In 1860, Watkins was commissioned to photograph the Mariposa mining estate of Colonel John C. Fremont, to procure future business ventures. An important stepping stone in Watkins's career, the photographs of the 44,000-acre estate, are his largest surviving body of work before 1861. Referring to himself as a "photographist," by 1861 Watkins had become known for his field and landscape photography. In July of that year, Watkins first traveled to Yosemite. It would also be the first time he traveled to the park with his custom-made mammoth plate camera, which held 18 x 22 inch glass plate negatives. During this trip, he would produce thirty mammoth and one hundred stereoscopic negatives. It was these photographs that led President Lincoln to sign the 1864 bill to preserve Yosemite. In 1865, Mount Watkins in Yosemite would be named in his honor.

Watkins became the official photographer for the California State Geological Survey, and just two years later, in 1867, opened his own Yosemite Art Gallery in San Francisco. During this time, Watkins began to take photographs of trees and other botanical specimens. Harvard botanist Asa Gray was one of the experts to identify plants collected as part of the California State Geological Survey.

Watkins lost his studio and his collections of the "Old Series" in 1875 to Isaiah West Taber due to financial trouble. Taber printed Watkins's negatives under his own name. This prompted Watkins to start his "New Series of Pacific Coast Views'' in an attempt to recreate his past work and discover new sites. He continued to photograph until the early 1890s but had to stop due to his rapidly diminishing eyesight and arthritis. Also burdened by financial troubles, Watkins would live his final years in poverty and even lived in an abandoned railcar with his family for 18 months. In 1906, he lost many of his photographs, negatives, and stereo works when his studio burned after a massive earthquake. In 1910 he was committed to the Napa State Hospital for the Insane where he would remain until his death on June 23, 1916. He is buried on the hospital grounds in an unmarked grave.

Friedel MK. 2007. “Guide to the Carleton E. Watkins Photographs 1861-1885.” Northwest Digital Archives. http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv99202. Accessed Jan 2022.

Hathaway B. July 2008. “About Carleton Watkins.” Smithsonian Magazine. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/carleton-watkins.html. Accessed Jan 2022.

Naef W. 2011. Carleton Watkins: The Complete Mammoth Photographs. Los Angeles (CA): J. Paul Getty Museum.

National Gallery of Art. n.d. “Carlton Watkins, the Art of Perception.” Retrieved from http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/watkinsbro.shtm. Accessed Jan 2022.

Nickel DR. 1999. Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception. San Francisco: H.N. Abrams

Palmquist PE. 1983. Carleton E. Watkins, Photographer of the American West. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

 

Conservation Note

In 1999 the 22 prints in the Watkins Archives were examined and treated by Boston Art Conservation. The objects were photographed both before and after treatment to document condition.

The Watkins photographs were placed in a custom cut mat constructed of 4-ply mat board. Corner pockets to hold the photograph in place were designed using a heavy weight, high alpha cellulose paper. The matted photographs were covered with a thin, translucent interleaving paper and placed in custom designed boxes.

 

List of Photographs

Grisley Giant, 1861
Photograph size 20 7/8 inches high by 16 inches wide.
Mirror Lake, 1865
Signed by Watkins.
Photograph size 16 1/2 inches high by 20 1/2 inches wide.
El Capitan, 1865
Signed by Watkins.
Photograph size 20 1/2 inches high by 16 1/4 inches wide.
Sugar Pines (Fir) about 200 feet high, 1866
Photograph size 20 1/2 inches high by 15 1/4 inches wide.
Sugar Pine, on the left. Sequoia gigantea, 1866
Photograph size 20 1/2 inches high by 15 1/4 inches wide.
Abies douglasii (Douglas Spruce), 1867
Photograph size 20 1/2 inches high by 15 1/4 inches wide.
Abies douglasii, 110 feet high, 1866
Photograph size 20 1/2 inches high by 15 1/4 inches wide.
Libo-cedrus decurrens, 1866
Photograph size 20 3/4 inches high by 15 1/2 inches wide.
Clarke's Ranch, 1867
Photograph size 15 1/2 inches high by 20 1/2 inches wide.
Oak San Matteo, 1872
Photograph size 15 3/8 inches high by 20 1/2 inches wide.
Watkins Oak, Quercus lobata, 1872
Photograph size 15 1/2 inches high by 20 1/2 inches wide.
Watkins 172 Dwarf Pine, 1865
Photograph size 15 1/2 inches high by 20 1/2 inches wide.