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Carleton E. Watkins

Born: Oneonta, NY, 11 November 1829
Died: Imola, CA, 23 June 1916
Nationality: American
Studies: 

with daguerreotypist Robert Vance

Career: 

1850s – moves to California

1854 – works for Robert Vance as camera operator

1858 – opens studio; begins travelling and photographing the American West

1861 – begins photographing Yosemite Valley with a mammoth-plate camera; photographs instrumental in making Yosemite a national park

1860-90 –commissioned by US government for geological surveys; works for the Central and Southern Pacific Railroads and Las Mariposas Mines; photographs sold through Watkins’s studio and exhibited internationally

1906 – all of Watkins’s negatives destroyed in San Francisco earthquake fire

Travels

Oregon (1868); Utah (1873); Nevada (1876); Arizona ( 1880); Pacific Northwest (1882-83); Idaho and Montana (1884-85)

Commissions from: 

US Government; Central and Southern Pacific Railroads; Las Mariposas MinesUS Government; Central and Southern Pacific Railroads; Las Mariposas Mines

Web Resources

Metmuseum: Carlton Watkins