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Collection of Photographs by Carleton E. Watkins, ca. 1874-1890
Accession 578, Catalog Numbers 13-1302 -- 13-1307; 13-1318
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Collection Title: Collection of Photographs by Carleton E.
Watkins
Date: ca. 1874-1890
Collection Number: Accession 578, Catalog Numbers 13-1302 -- 13-1307; 13-1318
Photographer:
Carleton E.
Watkins
Extent:
141 photographic prints : albumen ; on 22 x 28 inch mounts;
141 digital objects
Repository: Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology.
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-3681
Fax: (510) 642-6271
Email: PAHMA-MediaPermissions@berkeley.edu
URL: https://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/explore/
Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English
Original prints are restricted and may not be viewed unless permission is granted by the museum's Director.
Photographs should be requested by their catalog numbers.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. All requests for
permission to publish photographs must be submitted in writing to the museum's media permissions division,
see https://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/media-permissions/ for policy and procedure to request media permission.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology as the owner of
the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also
be obtained by the reader.
Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files
is restricted to research and educational purposes.
[#catalog number], Carleton E. Watkins, ca. 1874-1890, Accession 578, Catalog Numbers 13-1302 – 13-1307; 13-1318,
Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley
Digital Representations Available
Digital representations of selected original pictorial materials are available in the
list of materials below. Digital image files were prepared from selected Phoebe Hearst
Museum of Anthropology originals by the Library Photographic Service. Museum originals
were copied onto 35mm color transparency film; the film was scanned and transferred to
Kodak Photo CD (by Custom Process); and the Photo CD files were color-corrected and saved
in JFIF (JPEG) format for use as viewing files.
The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley has a large collection of work
by Carleton E. Watkins including:
Identifier/Call Number: BANC PIC 1905.17175--PIC :
Title: Hearst Mining collection of views by C.E. Watkins.
Identifier/Call Number: BANC PIC 19xx.197--PIC :
Title: Photographic views of the Golden Feather and Golden Gate Mining Claims by
Carleton E. Watkins.
Identifier/Call Number: BANC PIC 1974.019--PIC :
Title: Photographic Views of El Verano and vicinity, Sonoma Valley, California.
Photographed by Carleton E. Watkins.
Identifier/Call Number: BANC PIC 19xx.198--PIC :
Title: California Scenes [1860's - 70's] by Carleton E. Watkins.
Identifier/Call Number: BANC PIC 19xx.199--PIC :
Title: Photographs of Yosemite and Oregon by Carleton E. Watkins.
Identifier/Call Number: BANC PIC 19xx.194--PIC :
Title: Photographs of the Mariposa Estate and Environs Taken by Carleton E. Watkins,
1860.
The Collection of Photographs by Carleton E. Watkins held by the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum
of Anthropology was donated to the University of California by Phoebe A. Hearst and accessioned
by the museum in 1904.
Carleton E. Watkins was born in Oneonta, Oswego county, New York, on November 11, 1829. He
was the youngest of five children of a Scottish innkeeper. During his youth he became
acquainted with Collis P. Huntington, who frequented his father's hotel. Soon after the
discovery of gold, both young men went to California, where Huntington later became one of
the Big Four who built the Central Pacific Railroad.
In 1854, while working as a clerk in a store on Montgomery Street, Watkins met R. H. Vance,
the daguerreotyper who had studios in San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento. The employee
at Vance's San Jose studio had suddenly quit and Vance asked Watkins if he would fill in
until a permanent replacement could be found. Although he knew nothing of photographic
processes, Watkins agreed. For the first few days he was simply the care-taker of the
studio, but when Vance could not find a new operator, he instructed Watkins in coating the
daguerreotype plates and making exposures. With only the briefest instructions, Watkins was
able to make portraits and completely operated the gallery for a short period. In 1857 or
1858 Watkins returned to San Francisco where he established his own photographic studio for
portraits and view photography. Watkins usually spent a large portion of the summer
traveling throughout California, leaving his gallery and studio in the hands of an
assistant. In 1858 or 1859 he visited the Mariposa Grove and was the first person to
photograph the "Grizzly Giant." In 1861, Watkins visited the Yosemite Valley and made the
first 18" x 22" landscape photographs in California (and possibly the world). He made many
more trips to Yosemite during the 1860's and 1870's.
In 1868 Watkins made his first trip to Oregon, where he made the first photographic
reproductions of the Columbia River. Five years later, Watkins went to Utah with his wagon,
team and photographic equipment on railroad cars. Thanks to his friend Collis P. Huntington,
he traveled free. He was accompanied on this trip by close friend and artist William Keith,
who made extensive use of Watkins' photographs for many of his oil paintings.
During the winter of 1871-72, Watkins expanded his San Francisco gallery (the Yosemite
Gallery), which put an extra strain on his finances. When the Bank of California went under
in 1874, Watkins lost his Yosemite Art Galley to competitors J.J. Cook and I.W. Taber. Not
only did his competitors take over his Gallery, they took all of his negatives as well.
Watkins then began the task of rebuilding his collection, which meant rephotographing many
of the sites he had visited earlier in his career. "Watkins' New Series" of views replaced
those lost in the foreclosure. Watkins did become reassociated with the Yosemite Gallery,
first as a photographer, and later as manager, but never as the owner.
Watkins went to the Comstock Lode, near Virginia City, Nevada, in 1876. Here he made many
of the photographs that comprise The Bancroft Library's Hearst Collection. It was probably
during this trip that he met Frances Sneed, who later managed his Montgomery Street studio
and became his wife on November 11, 1880 (Watkins' fiftieth birthday). They had two children:
a daughter, Julia and a son, Collis.
In 1880, Watkins went to Southern California for the first time and traveled along the line
of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Later he went to the "End of the Track" and as far as
Tombstone, Arizona. The photographs taken by Watkins on this trip represent some of the
earliest views of San Bernardino, San Gabriel, Pasadena, Los Angeles and San Diego. On the
way back to San Francisco, he followed the old overland stage road, traveling the greater
part of the way in his wagon and photographing most of the Franciscan missions. These
pictures constitute the earliest photographic collection of California Missions.
On a second trip to the Northwest in 1890, Watkins made a series of stereoscopic views in
Victoria, B. C. He extended this trip into Montana where he made 18" x 22" views of the
Anaconda copper mines and other properties. His last large commercial job and long country
trip was to photograph the development work of the Kern County Land Company near
Bakersfield. He made seven hundred views using 8" x 10" dry plate negatives. In the late
1890's, Watkins began to photograph the Hearst Hacienda near Pleasanton for Phoebe Apperson
Hearst, but ill health prevented him from completing the assignment.
Watkins was in the process of negotiating with Stanford University for the sale of his
plates, photographs, etc. when the 1906 earthquake struck San Francisco. By this time,
Watkins was partially blind, in poor health and experiencing financial difficulties. He had
been living with his family in his studio on the top floor of a building on the southeast
corner of Ninth and Market Streets. Immediately following the quake, Watkins' wife and
daughter went to the refugee camp at the Presidio. Watkins was led by his son to the home of
his old friend, C. B. Turrill, who had assisted Watkins financially in the past. Watkins'
entire collection was destroyed in the fire which followed the quake. He was shocked by the
loss of his life's work and shortly thereafter retired to his small ranch near Capay in Yolo
County. The ranch had been deeded to Watkins through the offices of Collis P. Huntington of
the Southern Pacific Railroad for his faithful, but unpaid, service to the railroad.
Watkins never recovered from the shock of losing his entire collection in the San Francisco
fire. He managed to live at the ranch with his family until it became necessary to have him
committed to the Napa State Hospital at Imola, California in 1910. He died on June 23, 1916
at the age of eighty-seven and was buried on the hospital grounds.
(From :
The Early Pacific Coast Photographs of Carleton E.
Watkins,
by J. W. Johnson, Professor of Hydraulic Engineering, University of
California Berkeley, and "The Life and Photography of Carleton E. Watkins," by Peter E.
Palmquist.)
The collection consists of 140 albumen prints on their original 22 x 28 inch mounts. The
collection comprises views of the western United States including Upper Geyser Basin
National Park, a rare set of images of Mammoth Hot Springs National Park, Casa Grande
Pre-Historic Ruins in Arizona, scenes along the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington
including Cape Horn, views from Mt. Lola and Round Top, Lake Tahoe, scenes along the route
of the Central Pacific Railroad, views of San Francisco, and uncommon images of Monterey
county. These are primarily landscape views, but also include scenes of industrial and urban
development. The photographs are undated; however, many of the images are noted on their
mounts as being from Watkins's "New Series." Photographs in his "New Series" were made after
1874. Watkins was active between 1854 and the late 1890s.