Carleton E Watkins

Carleton E Watkins was born in Oneonta, New York where his Scottish father ran a hotel. Here he met Collis P Huntingdon, and both went to California at the time of the gold rush. Huntingdon was later one of the builders of the Central Pacific Railroad.

While Watkins was working as a clerk in a store, he was asked by a leading California daguerreotypist, R H Vance, to act as a caretaker for his San Jose studio which was currently empty, its operator having left suddenly. When Vance could not find a replacemnt, he trained Watkins who operated the gallery for a short time. Around 1857 he returned to San Francisco and set up his own studio for portrait and landscape photography.

Each summer he left the studio to his assistant and travelled through California. In 1861 he made some large format (18 x 22") photographs of Yosemite, and he returned there many times in later years. He also travelled to Oregon, and Utah, making use of his friend Huntingdon for free rail travel.

Unfortunately when the Bank of California failed in 1874, Watkins lost his gallery and all his negatives to his competitors, J.J. Cook and I.W. Taber.

Watkins started to take a new series of photographs, rephotgraphing many of the sites he had previously visited. He also travelled more widely taking pictures of Nevada, Southern California and Arizona. He took some of the first views of Los Anglese, San Diego and the Franciscan missions in California. He also travelled to the Northwest, photographing British Columbia and Montana. Much of his later work included stereoscopic views.

Watkins entire collection of negatives was destroyed in the fire following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. He was by this time losing his sight and in poor health and never fully recovered from this shock, and had to be sent to the state hospital in 1910. He died there in 1916.