Watkins (Carleton E.) Stereograph Collection, approximately 1870s-approximately 1880s

Summary

Title:

Carleton E. Watkins Stereograph Collection

Dates:

approximately 1870s-approximately 1880s

Creators:

Watkins, Carleton E., 1829-1916

Abstract:

This collection contains 269 stereographs by photographer Carleton E. Watkins, dating from the 1860s to about the 1880s, that chiefly depict buildings and locales in Northern and Southern California.

Extent:

267 photographs in 2 boxes : albumen prints ; 9 x 18 cm (stereograph format)

Language:

English.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Carleton E. Watkins Stereograph Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

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.

Biographical / historical:

Carleton E. Watkins (1829-1916) was born in 1829 in Oneonta, New York. In 1851, he migrated to Sacramento, California in the company of businessman Collis P. Huntington and several other residents of Oneonta. He began his photographic career as an apprentice to established San Francisco Bay area studio photographers Robert H. Vance (1825–1876) and James May Ford (c. 1827–1877).

Watkins photographed Yosemite for the first time in 1861. His large-scale images inspired President Abraham Lincoln and the United States Congress to declare Yosemite the nation’s first national preserve in 1864. By the end of the American Civil War, the photographer had become one of the medium’s leading lights, winning prestigious commissions and international awards.

Over the course of his career, Watkins operated studios at various Montgomery Street addresses in San Francisco. Around 1869, he purchased Alfred A. Hart’s stereographic negatives documenting the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. Watkins subsequently published Hart’s negatives under the series title: “Watkins Central Pacific Railroad.”

Watkins suffered severe financial reverses in 1875, losing his negative inventory to competitor Isaiah H. Taber. From that point onward, Watkins published negatives under the “New Series” heading.

In 1879, Watkins married Frances Henrietta Snead. The couple had two children, Julia (1881–1977) and Collis (1883–1965). By the early 1890s, declining health forced Watkins to curtail his activities. He took his last major commission in 1894, photographing the Phoebe Apperson Hearst residence, Hacienda del Pozo de Verona, in Pleasanton, California. The earthquake and fire of 1906 destroyed Watkins’s San Francisco studio and its contents. Shortly thereafter, he entered the Napa State Asylum for the Insane in Napa, California, where he died in 1916.

Acquisition information:

Items were received from various sources. When known, provenance information is written on the stereograph verso. Donors include Carter, 1937; and many were received as part of the Historical Society of Southern California Collection, 1992, and are stamped "Society of California Pioneers, Chas. B. Turrill Collection."

Nos. 1701 and 1704 were received as the gift of Mr. Norman Neuerburg, April 1994.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in 4 series:

• Central Pacific Railroad
• Watkins' Pacific Railroad
• Watkins' Pacific Coast
• Watkins' New Series

Within each series, stereographs are arranged numerically according to the photographer stock number printed with the image title, with unnumbered mounts listed first.

Rules or conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Note:

Finding aid last updated on January 4, 2016.

Related resources

Related material:

• Carleton E. Watkins Photograph Collection (photCL 74)
• Connie Rothstein Collection of California Missions, The Mission Play, and Southern California (photCL 496)
• Watkins, Carleton E. Scenes in Yosemite photograph album (photCL 409)
• Watkins, Carleton E. Sunny Slope. San Gabriel, Cal. (photCL 522)
• Watkins, Carleton E. [Collection of photographic views made 1863-1864] (RB 379010 v. 1-2)
• Watkins, Carleton E. Album of the Yo-semite Valley, California (New York : D. Appleton, 1866) (RB 406039)
• Watkins, Carleton E. Arizona And Views Adjacent To The Southern Pacific R.R (San Francisco, Cal. : Photographs by C.E. Watkins, [189-?]) (RB 137503)
• Watkins, Carleton E. Photographic Views Of Kern County California (San Francisco : By Watkins, ... [1889?]) (RB 137500)
• Watkins, Carleton E. Central Pacific R.R. And Views Adjacent (San Francisco, Cal. : Photographs By C.E. Watkins, [189-?]) (RB 137501)
• Watkins, Carleton E. Summits Of The Sierras (San Francisco, Cal. : Photographs By C.E. Watkins, [189-?]) (RB 137502)

Alternative form available:

Visit the Huntington Digital Library: Photographs to view digitized items from this collection.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Agriculture -- California -- Photographs.
Orchards -- California -- Photographs.
Dwellings -- California -- Photographs.
Mines and mineral resources -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Missions, Spanish -- California -- Photographs.
Wineries -- California -- San Gabriel -- Photographs.
Photographs.
Stereographs.

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:

Finding aid prepared by Lisa Janssen and Diann Benti.

Date Prepared:

© 2016

Date Encoded:

Machine readable finding aid encoded by Diann Benti in January 2016 .

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Carleton E. Watkins Stereograph Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:

Huntington Library, Photo Archives Collections

1151 Oxford Road

San Marino, CA 91108, US

Contact:

(626) 405-2129

reference@huntington.org

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