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- Categories
Picture Categories
- Tours
Featured Watkins Photographs
Tour of selected stereographs by Carleton Watkins - Mammoth
PlatesMammoth Plate Photographs
Becoming a Professional Photographer
Yosemite Valley and Related Pictures
San Francisco and the Pacific Coast
South, East, and North of San Francisco
The Californa Missions Project
Picturing the Topographical Landscape
Railroads and Agriculture
Mining
Other Subjects
Watkins used a specially constructed camera to expose 18 x 22 inch glass plates. He created over 1200 mammoth plate photographs during his career. Watkins photographs of Yosemite were very influentual in creation of the park.
- Stereographs
1859-1874Stereographs 1859-1874 (Watkins Old Series and Watkins Pacific Railroad)
Stereographs
Stereographs
Watkins Pacific Railroad
Watkins was widely recognized for his photographs during this time, receiving a medal from the Paris International Exposition in 1867. This group of photographs are known as Watkins Old Series and are some of the earliest photographs of California and Oregon.
- Stereographs
1875-1890Stereographs 1875 to 1890 (Watkins New Series)
Stereographs
Stereographs
Unnumbered Series
Albumns
After the loss of his earlier negatives to a creditor during a financial crisis, Carleton Watkins started photographing anew in the mid-1870s. Watkins' "New Series" stereographs begin with series number 3001.
- Other
FormatsPhotographs in other Formats
Albums
Studio Portraits
CdV, Cabinet Card, Boudoir Card, Imperial Mount and other Medium Format Prints
Watkins published prints in a variety of formats during his career including Albums, Cabinet Cards, and 8x10 prints.
- Documents &
EphemeraDocuments & Ephemera
Includes advertising, trade cards, personal correspondence, and other documents.
- About
About Carleton WatkinsAbout CarletonWatkins.org
Welcome to CarletonWatkins.org
Carleton Watkins (American, 1829-1916) was one of the most highly acclaimed of early western photographers, yet Watkins's work has never been fully cataloged. No complete listings of his "Old Series" stereoviews, published before 1875, are known. This site brings together complete collections of Watkins's photographs.
Watkins extensively photographed early San Francisco, Yosemite, Mendocino and the Sierra Nevada mining regions. His photogaphs of Yosemite helped influence Congress and President Lincoln in the preservation of Yosemite Valley. Watkins also made some of the earliest photographs of Southern California and the Pacific Nortwest. Watkins' Pacific Railroad series documents construction of the trans-continental railroad from Sacramento to Utah.
CarletonWatkins.org is made possible by many institutions and private collectors with a common interest in the work of Carleton Watkins and the desire to make his complete work readily available to all.
Begin by visiting the Featured Photographs gallery to see examples of Watkins's best photographs or go directly to the series collections for a more complete view of Watkins's work. The series collections are grouped by year, 1850-1860 (Watkins's earliest photographs), 1861-1873 (Watkins' "Old" Series) and 1874-1890 (Watkins' New Series).
We hope you enjoy this compilation of California and the West in its early years.
Golden Gate, San Francisco
Cape Horn, Columbia River
Piwyac, or the Vernal Fall and Mt. Broderick, Yosemite
San Xavier Mission, near Tucson
The Wreck of the Viscata, San Francisco
Interior Ophir Hoisting Works. The Cages
Contributors to CarletonWatkins.org
CarletonWatkins.org is grateful to many institutions and individuals for their ongoing support and dedication to the ambitious goal of cataloging Carleton Watkins's photographs and making them available online.
Carleton Watkins —
A short biography
Learn about Watkins life and his incredible contribution to Western photography in the nineteenth century. Watkins producted over five thousand photographs during his career and his work was widely recognized.
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