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Watkins (Carleton E.) Mammoth Plate Photographs of California Missions
photCL Watkins 1-38
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Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Carleton E. Watkins Mammoth Plate Photographs of California Missions
Creator:
Watkins, Carleton E., 1829-1916
Identifier/Call Number: photCL Watkins 1-38
Physical Description:
21.86 Linear Feet
(8 oversize boxes)
Physical Description:
37 Photographic Prints
(mammoth plate, albumen; size of prints varies, approximately 39 x 54 cm. (15 1/4 x 21 1/4 in.))
Date (inclusive): 1876-1884
Date: 3 copies of daguerreotypes, 1850s
Abstract: A collection of 37 mammoth plate photographs of Spanish missions in California by American photographer Carleton E. Watkins
(1829-1916). The photographs are among the earliest made of the former mission buildings and grounds, which are seen in various
states of ruin, 1876-1884. Sixteen missions are represented, and three photographs are copies of daguerreotypes made in the
1850s.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
RESTRICTED. Due to the fragility of the prints, available only with curatorial approval. Requires extended retrieval and delivery
time.
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.
[Identification of item]. Carleton E. Watkins mammoth plate photographs of California missions, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
In library as of 1948.
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' 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.
This collection contains 37 mammoth plate, albumen photographs of Spanish missions in California by photographer Carleton
E. Watkins. Most of the photographs were made approximately 1877, when Watkins made his first photography trip into Southern
California on the newly-built railroad route from San Francisco. Traveling in a flat railcar with room for his photography
wagon and equipment, Watkins then traversed extensively by horse and wagon from San Diego, systematically photographing most
of the missions. One view was made later - Mission San Juan Bautista (item 23) - around 1884, as it shows a steeple that was
added in restoration work completed that year. Three views in this set are mammoth-plate copies of original daguerreotypes
made in the 1850s: Mission San Jose, Mission San Francisco de Asis, and Mission Santa Clara de Asis (items 31, 37, 38), depict
the missions as they appeared in the 1850s.
Sixteen of the 21 California missions are represented in this collection. It is not known exactly why Watkins did not photograph
all of the missions, though it is likely they were in such ruin there was little left to photograph. The photographs in this
set were made at a time when the missions were in various states of decay and abandonment, just before serious preservation
efforts began in the 1880s. The views include crumbling or discolored walls, various adobe structures, bell towers, cemeteries,
fountains and other built details. The surrounding landscapes include footpaths, worn wagon roads, oak trees, palms, agricultural
fields, and some houses. A bird's-eye-view of San Luis Obispo gives an overview of the town that developed near the former
mission.
The prints are mounted on boards, accompanied by labels below the prints. Each label has a printed title, Watkins' negative
number, "Watkins' New Series," and "26 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco."
Carleton E. Watkins Mammoth Plate Photograph Albums:
Photographic Views of Kern County, California (137500); The Central Pacific Railroad and Views Adjacent (137501); Summits
of the Sierra (137502); and Arizona and Views Adjacent to the Southern Pacific Railroad (137503)
Carleton E. Watkins Mammoth Plate Photographs of Yosemite, New Almaden Mine and the Mendocino Coast, California:
(379010)
Carleton E. Watkins Photograph Collection
(photCL 74)
Carleton E. Watkins Stereograph Collection
(photST Watkins)
Watkins, Carleton E. Scenes in Yosemite photograph album
(photCL 409)
Watkins, Carleton E. Sunny Slope. San Gabriel, Cal. photograph album
(photCL 522)
Watkins, Carleton E. Album of the Yo-semite Valley, California (New York: D. Appleton, 1866)
(406039)
Huntington Library staff assigned numbers to the photographs at an unknown time, mid-20th century, and the photographs are
arranged in this sequence (1-38). Note that the number 32 was inadvertently skipped, and the numbering sequence goes from
1-31, then 33-38.
This is one of three known complete sets of Watkins' mammoth plate photographs of the California missions. Another set is
held by UCLA Special Collections, and the Hispanic Society of America, New York, holds a bound volume of all 37 photographs
titled "Franciscan Missions of California." The Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley holds an album of 35 cut-down mission views.
Naef, Weston J. and Christine Hult-Lewis.
Carleton Watkins: The Complete Mammoth Photographs (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011). See esp. 313-15, "The California Missions Project" by Jennifer A. Watts.
Palmquist, Peter E.
Carleton E. Watkins: Photographer of the American West (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983)
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Missions -- California -- Photographs
Spanish mission buildings -- California -- Photographs
Building, Adobe -- Photographs
Agriculture -- California
San Luis Obispo (Calif.) -- History
Photographs
Albumen prints
Mammoth plate
Mission San Gabriel Arcangel (San Gabriel, Calif.) -- Photographs
Santa Inés Mission (Solvang, Calif.) -- Photographs
San Luis Rey Mission (Calif.) -- Photographs
San Antonio de Pádua (Mission) -- Photographs
Mission San Carlos Borromeo (Carmel, Calif.) -- Photographs
Santa Barbara Mission -- Photographs
San Buenaventura Mission -- Photographs
Mission San Juan Capistrano -- Photographs
San Fernando, Rey de España (Mission : San Fernando, Calif.) -- Photographs
San Juan Bautista (Mission : San Juan Bautista, Calif.) -- Photographs
Mission San Miguel Arcangel (San Miguel, Calif.) -- Photographs
Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (San Luis Obispo, Calif.) -- Photographs
Mission San Jose (Alameda County, Calif.) -- Photographs
San Diego Mission -- Photographs
San Francisco de Asís Mission (San Francisco, Calif.) -- Photographs
Santa Clara Mission -- Photographs