Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
Rare Books
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Rare Books
Watkins made these photographs in Yosemite in 1861, with a camera he made himself to hold glass plate negatives measuring 18 x 22 inches, which was the largest size ever used at that time. The photographs are scenic landscape views of Yosemite Valley, including rivers, waterfalls, massive granite cliffs and boulders, and giant sequoia trees in the Mariposa Grove. One view depicts naturalist Galen Clark (1814-1910) standing in front of the ancient sequoia called Grizzly Giant.
379010
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Rare Books
A collection of 50 mammoth plate photographs of Yosemite, the New Almaden Mine, and Mendocino, California by photographer Carleton E. Watkins (1829-1916). The prints were in a two-volume set, now disbound, containing a title page dated 1863 and a dedication page reading: "To Ernest Frignet / His California Friends / April 1864." The photographs are landscape views of Yosemite and the Mariposa giant sequoias, taken by Watkins in 1861, followed by 1863 views of New Almaden Quicksilver Mine and Mendocino, both in Northern California. The mining series includes views of workers and the miners' community of small houses and wooden shacks. One view shows young boys with wheelbarrows of rock. The Mendocino Coast images focus on lumber mills near the mouths of Big River, Albion River, and Noyo River, with one view of Native Americans, possibly Pomo, in front of wood plank dwellings, and a group of soldiers at Fort Bragg.
379010
Visual Materials
Image of a sweeping landscape view of Yosemite Valley in the western Sierra Nevada mountains in California; small figures on horseback at bottom right are dwarfed by the towering cliffs.
priJLC_PRG_002309
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Rare Books
This album contains 30 reduced-size copies of Carleton E. Watkins' 1861 mammoth plate photographs of Yosemite and Mariposa Big Trees. The album was made by publisher D. Appleton & Company approximately 1865-1866, for sale to the public. The images in this album are 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches and have domed tops. The title page reads: "Album of the Yo-Semite Valley, California, D. Appleton & Company, 443 & 445 Broadway, New York."
406039
Visual Materials
A collection of 20 photographs of Yosemite National Park in California, mostly taken in Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove. The photographs feature "big trees" (i.e. Sequoia trees) in Mariposa Grove, several waterfalls, such as Nevada Falls, Vernal Falls, Yosemite Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls, and a number of peaks and geological formations, such as Sentinel Rock, Cathedral Spires, the North and South Domes, Cap of Liberty, and El Capitan. Some of the images include people, presumably tourists. The only man-made structure in the album is Black's Hotel. Some of the photographs are by Carleton E. Watkins, some by the Yosemite National Park Co.
photCL 48
![Yo-semite Valley [picture] : photographic views falls and valley of Yo-Semite in Mariposa County, California / executed by C. E. Watkins, San Francisco](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Frail.huntington.org%2FIIIF3%2FImage%2F22APN4JTD5JG%2Ffull%2F%5E360%2C%2F0%2Fdefault.jpg&w=750&q=75)