30 Facts About Carleton Watkins

Carleton E Watkins was an American photographer of the 19th century.

Carleton Watkins focused mainly on landscape photography, and Yosemite Valley was a favorite subject of his.

Carleton E Watkins was born on November 11,1829, the eldest of eight children.

Carleton Watkins's parents were John and Julia Watkins, a carpenter and an innkeeper.

Carleton Watkins became known for his photography skills, and Huntington became one of the "Big Four" owners of the Central Pacific Railroad.

Carleton Watkins originally worked for his friend Huntington, delivering supplies to mining operations.

Carleton Watkins did this before working as a store clerk at a George Murray's Bookstore, near the studio of Robert H Vance, a well-known Daguerreotypist.

However, when he came back, he found that Carleton Watkins had excelled at the art while he was away and his customers were satisfied.

Carleton Watkins did many commissions, including "Illustrated California Magazine" for James Mason Hutchings and the documentation of John and Jessie Fremont's mining estate in Mariposa.

Carleton Watkins made Daguerreotype stereoviews at the New Almaden mercury mine near San Jose, California.

The Oneonta Falls and Gorge were first photographed by Carleton Watkins, who named them after his hometown.

In July 1861, Carleton Watkins made the decision that changed his career: he traveled to Yosemite.

Carleton Watkins brought his mammoth-plate camera and his stereoscopic camera.

In 1867, Carleton Watkins opened his first public gallery, in addition to sending his photographs to the Universal Exposition in Paris, where he won a medal.

Carleton Watkins displayed over a hundred large Pacific Coast views in addition over a thousand images available through stereoscopes.

The 19th century had no copyright laws covering photographs, and there was nothing Carleton Watkins could do to combat this plagiarism.

Carleton Watkins was unable to complete this job because of his failing sight and health.

The Carleton Watkins family lived in an abandoned railroad car for eighteen months.

Carleton Watkins kept the majority of his work in a studio on Market Street.

Three years after Carleton Watkins retired to Capay Ranch, he was declared incompetent and put into the care of his daughter Julia.

Carleton Watkins cared for him for a year before committing him to the Napa State Hospital for the Insane in 1910, at which point Frances Watkins began referring to herself as a widow.

Carleton Watkins died on June 23,1916, and was buried in an unmarked grave on the hospital grounds.

Carleton Watkins often photographed Yosemite and had a profound influence over the politicians debating its preservation as a national park.

Carleton Watkins's photographs did more than just capture the national park; he created an icon.

Half Dome, for example, did already exist, but Carleton Watkins' photographs brought it to people in a way that they could experience it.

Carleton Watkins's images had a more concrete impact on Yosemite becoming a national park than just encouraging people to visit.

Carleton Watkins's photography was said to have influenced President Abraham Lincoln and was one of the major factors in Lincoln signing the Yosemite Grant in 1864, a bill that declared Yosemite Valley inviolable.

Carleton Watkins was a "master of the reflected image" and photographed reflections, in bodies of water, of the Yosemite mountains.

Carleton Watkins's photographs captured nature in a way that caught the eye of Americans.

Carleton Watkins created sublime images of wilderness, pristine landscapes untouched by humans.