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

Description

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.

Type
Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Date
1861-1880
Call number
photCL Watkins 39-98
Creator
Watkins, Carleton E (1829-1916)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance
Purchased from Goodspeed's Book Shop, 1968.
Purchased from Grahame Hardy, 1964.
Purchased from David Magee, 1958.
Gift of Arthur N. Carter, 1936; 1938.
Purchased from Warren Howell, 1966.
Transferred from John Haskell Kemble collection, 1997.
Purchased by the Library Collectors' Council from Michael Dawson, 2012.
Provenance unknown.
Restrictions
RESTRICTED. Photographs are fragile and only available with curatorial approval. Please view digital surrogates.
Dimensions
size of prints vary, approximately 40 x 53 cm (15 3/4 x 20 3/4 in.)
Find out more
View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab)
View in the Online Archive of California(Opens in new tab)

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