Rare Books

Carleton E. Watkins Mammoth Plate Photograph Albums

Description: This collection contains four albums of mammoth plate photographs made approximately 1876-1889 by photographer Carleton E. Watkins (1829-1916). Prints are mounted on boards and are accompanied by labels with titles, descriptions, and Watkins' imprint. The albums are described briefly here, with expanded descriptions and photograph titles in the contents list:
Photographic Views of Kern County, California (39 prints), approximately 1881-1889, focuses on agricultural production in California's Central Valley. Views include crops, details of irrigation dams built on a river, livestock, farm workers in the field, farming company ranch houses, and farm owners. Some views depict everyday farm work, such as men harvesting wheat and alfalfa with the aid of horses, tools, and large machinery. The Central Pacific Railroad and Views Adjacent (48 prints), approximately 1876-1880s, contains photographs of trains, lodging and scenery along the California-Nevada route of the Central Pacific Railroad, from ports in the San Francisco Bay Area to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Summits of the Sierra (41 prints), 1879, contains photographs of the vistas, mountain peaks, lakes, and topography of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Watkins took the photographs in the summer of 1879 while accompanying a government survey team. Arizona and Views Adjacent to the Southern Pacific Railroad (46 prints), 1880, includes views of mining camps, railroad depots, towns, desert landscapes, cactus, and the Spanish colonial mission San Xavier del Bac. There are several views of mines near Tombstone, Arizona, and the railroad bridge spanning the Colorado River at Fort Yuma. Native Americans and others are seen posed with a large steam locomotive in the desert, and there are several views of the ancient stone ruins at Casa Grande.

Carleton Watkins photographs: Mammoth Tree Grove, Yosemite

Visual Materials

This collection contains 430 albumen photographs by photographer Carleton E. Watkins that chiefly depict buildings, points of interest, and locales in Northern and Southern California in the 1870s and 1880s, as well as 223 card photographs by photographer Alfred A. Hart documenting the construction of the western half of the transcontinental railroad by the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) in the 1860s, which were later published by Watkins under his own imprint. Images by Watkins depict locations in Arizona and California including: Lake Tahoe, Los Angeles, the Mammoth Tree Grove, Paso Robles, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Gabriel, San Luis Obispo, San Pedro, Santa Monica, Soda Springs, Wilmington, and Yosemite, as well as views related to the Southern Pacific Railroad and of the Colorado River. There are a few images of Native Americans in Arizona and California, and several images related to trains and railroads. The photographs have been removed from the original album, which is a large leather album with brass bindings (Box 10). There are some handwritten identifications in the album pages, most likely written after if was received by the Library.

photCL 74

Image not available

Carleton E. Watkins photograph collection

Visual Materials

This collection contains 430 photographs by photographer Carleton E. Watkins that chiefly depict buildings, points of interest, people, and scenery in Northern and Southern California in the 1870s and 1880s, as well as 223 photographs by photographer Alfred A. Hart documenting the construction of the western half of the transcontinental railroad by the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) in the 1860s, which were later published by Watkins under his own imprint. Images by Watkins depict locations in California and Arizona including: Lake Tahoe, Los Angeles, the Mammoth Tree Grove, Paso Robles, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Gabriel, San Luis Obispo, San Pedro, Santa Monica, Soda Springs, Wilmington, and Yosemite, as well as views related to the Southern Pacific Railroad and of the Colorado River. There are a few images of Native Americans in Arizona and California, and several images related to trains and railroads. Photograph titles in the contents list were transcribed, when available, from captions and titles on the images; titles in square brackets were devised by Huntington Library staff.

photCL 74

Image not available

Photographic Views of Kern County, California

Rare Books

The 39 photographs in this album illustrate the agricultural industry of Kern County, California, and were made by Watkins on multiple trips to the area between 1881 and 1889. The album itself is not dated, but based on the dates of the photographs, it was most likely assembled in the early 1890s. Views include landscapes of agricultural crops, details of irrigation dams built on a river, livestock, farm workers in the field, farming company ranch houses, and farm owners. Some views depict everyday farm work, such as men harvesting wheat and alfalfa with the aid of horses, tools, and large machinery. Other photographs of note are a detail view of peaches in a crate, and men posed with a steam locomotive built at the Southern Pacific Railroad Shops in Kern County. The first two photographs in the album are interior views of promotional displays of Kern County produce and grains, exhibited in San Francisco in 1889.

137500; 137501; 137502; 137503

Image not available

Carleton Watkins photographs: Soda Springs; Lake Tahoe; Mammoth Tree Grove

Visual Materials

photCL 74

Image not available

Carleton E. Watkins Stereograph Collection

Visual Materials

This collection contains 269 stereographs by photographer Carleton E. Watkins, dating from the 1860s to about the 1880s, that chiefly depict buildings, points of interest, and locales in Northern and Southern California. The collection includes 1 stereograph from the Central Pacific Railroad series; 5 stereographs from Watkins' Pacific Railroad Series; 110 stereographs from Watkins' Pacific Coast series; and 150 stereographs from Watkins' New Series. The Watkins' Pacific Coast Series, created between 1861 and 1874, primarily depict locales in Northern California with many images of buildings in San Francisco, views of Yosemite and Mariposa County, Missions, and some mining operations including photographs of the North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company in Nevada County, California. The Watkins' New Series stereographs, created between 1874 and 1890, consist of images of both Southern California and Northern California, in cities including San Francisco, Pasadena, San Marino, Sierra Madre, and San Gabriel. Among the Southern California residences and properties depicted include the Sunny Slope Ranch of L.J. Rose in San Gabriel, Willow Dale owned by N.C. Carter, and Lake Vineyard owned by B.D. Wilson. Some of the stereographs in Watkins' Pacific Coast Series include titles in the margins in Watkins' own hand (see Nos. 1033, 1135, 1146, 1153, and 1721). Numbered captions with printed titles appear on many of the mounts; unnumbered mounts are numbered consecutively within the series beginning at 1. Item titles chiefly transcribed from printed titles in stereograph margin; cataloger devised titles are enclosed in square brackets.

photST Watkins

Image not available

Carleton E. Watkins mammoth plate photographs of Comstock mining, Yosemite, San Francisco, Los Angeles County, and the American West

Visual Materials

This is a collection of 61 mammoth plate photographs by Carleton Watkins made 1861-1880 in the American West, primarily California and Nevada. The subject matter is varied and includes mining views in the Comstock district, Nevada; Yosemite Valley; Los Angeles County ranches and agriculture; San Francisco's maritime commerce and stately residences; Salt Lake City, Utah; and assorted landscape and coastal views. These photographs were acquired by the Huntington Library over several decades from different sources. One of the largest series of photographs depicts mining companies and mills in the Comstock district, Nevada in 1876, when the region was in its greatest "bonanza" period. The landscape photographs depict the mine's wooden buildings and mills set in canyons and along rivers, and include piles of wood, some equipment, and occasionally employees and their families. Watkins traveled on the Virginia & Truckee Railroad to reach some sites, and railroad tracks are visible in some views. The mining sites pictured are: Mexican Mill, Merrimac Mill, Brunswick Mill, Vivian Mill, Santiago Mill, Eureka Mill, Franklin Mill, Windfield Mining Company, Land Mining Company, Empire State Mining Company, and Pacific Mining Company. A series of 20 views of Yosemite Valley, made by Watkins in 1861 and 1865-66, feature waterfalls, granite walls and cliffs, rivers and other scenery. Three views were made in the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoia trees, where naturalist Galen Clark lived in a cabin, seen in "Galen's Hospice" (item 50). Clark is also pictured in front of the "Grizzly Giant" sequoia in 1861, and on a bridge over the Merced River. Photographs in Los Angeles County depict ranches, orchards and agriculture in Pasadena and other parts of the San Gabriel Valley. Besides individual residences (see contents list for names of owners), views include: a small community of houses in Pasadena called the Indiana Colony; the "Twin Palms" in San Gabriel; Episcopal Church of Our Saviour, San Gabriel (built 1869); and the Sierra Madre Villa hotel at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. In San Francisco, there are three city views of houses in elite neighborhoods, taken 1862-1867. Two of these photographs, the "Milton S. Latham Residence, Folsom Street" (item 97) and the "Coe-Raymond-Earle Residence, Rincon Hill" (item 98), were undiscovered at the time of publishing the catalog raisonne (see Sources). The third photograph, "Residences of Mr. Robinson and Rev. W. A. Scott, Rincon Hill" (item 96), is only known to exist in one other copy (Naef catalog: no. 340). There are also three views of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company warehouse buildings and wharf, with ships seen at dock and in the bay. The views include St. Mary's Hospital on Rincon Hill, and a distant view of the U.S. Marine Hospital. The remaining photographs in the collection are: coastal views of Mendocino County and the Farallon Islands; landscapes of the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington; a bird's-eye-view of Salt Lake City and the Mormon Tabernacle; and rock formations in "Echo City from Witch Rocks, Utah." The prints are all individually mounted and vary slightly in size, approximately 15 3/4 x 20 3/4 inches. Some are signed and numbered in ink on the mount below the photograph, and some have titles and numbers written in pencil in what appears to be Watkins' hand.

Carleton E. Watkins Mammoth Plate Photograph Albums

Opening Hours

Admission Info and Tickets

You might also be interested in

Carleton Watkins photographs: Mammoth Tree Grove, Yosemite

Carleton E. Watkins photograph collection

Photographic Views of Kern County, California

Carleton Watkins photographs: Soda Springs; Lake Tahoe; Mammoth Tree Grove

Carleton E. Watkins Stereograph Collection

Carleton E. Watkins mammoth plate photographs of Comstock mining, Yosemite, San Francisco, Los Angeles County, and the American West