Visual Materials

Rounding Cape Horn. Road to Iowa Hill from the river, in the distance

Description: Hart #56
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Production date: approximately 1860s-approximately 1880s.
Call number: photCL 74
Creator: Watkins, Carleton E (1829-1916)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: In the personal library of Henry E. Huntington. Recorded in library card catalog, 1928. Presumed to have been the gift of Carleton E. Watkins to Collis P. Huntington. Henry E. Huntington was the executor of Collis P. Huntington's estate.
Restrictions: Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information. RESTRICTED: Original album (Box 10): Fragile; available with curatorial approval.

56. Rounding Cape Horn. Road to Iowa Hill from the river in the distance

Visual Materials

This collection contains 372 stereographic photographs (including some variants and duplicates) by photographer A. A. Hart that document the construction of the western half of first transcontinental railroad by the Central Pacific Railroad between 1864 and 1869. The collection includes all but seven of the original series, numbered from 1 to 364 by Hart (lacking 193, 323, 333, 358, 359, 362, and 364). The images chronicle the advancement of the railroad over 742 miles in California and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Nevada, and Utah. The majority of the photographs are views of mountains, lakes, rivers, and forested areas (some with stumps from clear-cutting in the foreground), often with railroad tracks running through the center of the images. In addition, there are also images of locomotives, Chinese and other workers, equipment, bridges, tunnels, frontier and mining towns, construction camps, as well as some images of Native Americans, including Paiute and Shoshone Indians. The stereographs primarily contain Hart's own Sacramento imprint with series titles including: "Scenes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains"; "Scenes in the Valley of the Sacramento"; "Scenes in the Washoe Range"; "Scenes on the Humboldt River"; and "Scenes near Great Salt Lake". Interspersed in the collection are stereographs published without credit to Hart by Frank Durgan and Carleton E. Watkins.

photCL 184

Rounding Cape Horn. Road to Iowa Hill from the river, in the distance

Visual Materials

photCL 74 (17)

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Secret Ravine, Iowa Hill in distance, 61 miles from Sacramento

Visual Materials

Hart #58

photCL 74

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Canyon of Amer. River from West -- Cape Horn and RR on left

Visual Materials

Hart #38

photCL 74

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Cape Horn, from Ravine below

Visual Materials

Hart #151

photCL 74

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[American River from Cape Horn.]

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

Rounding Cape Horn. Road to Iowa Hill from the river, in the distance

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56. Rounding Cape Horn. Road to Iowa Hill from the river in the distance

Rounding Cape Horn. Road to Iowa Hill from the river, in the distance

Secret Ravine, Iowa Hill in distance, 61 miles from Sacramento

Canyon of Amer. River from West -- Cape Horn and RR on left

Cape Horn, from Ravine below

[American River from Cape Horn.]