Carleton Watkins: The Complete Mammoth PhotographsThe extraordinary body of work produced by photographer Carleton Watkins (1829-1916) between 1858 and 1891 constitutes one of the longest and most productive careers in nineteenth-century American photography. Nearly thirteen hundred "mammoth" (18 x 22 inch) glass-plate negatives were produced, the majority of which exist in only one surviving print. Of these, fewer than three hundred have been previously reproduced or exhibited. Drawing on the major collections of Watkins prints at the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, and numerous smaller collections, the authors have assembled and catalogued all of Watkins's known mammoth-plate photographs. These include views of Yosemite, San Francisco, and the Pacific Coast, as well as railroads, mines, and lumber mills throughout the west. The work will contribute not only to a fuller understanding of this pioneering photographer but also portray the barely explored frontier in its final moments of pristine beauty. The catalogue is organized by region and includes an inventory of Watkins's negatives and an illustrated guide to his signatures, both of value to scholars, collectors, and dealers. |
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427 Montgomery Street Art Collections Bancroft Library Berkeley black ink BLUCB Botanical Gardens calligraphic script center below image City Collis Columbia River Fraenkel Gallery 1989 Fulgenzio Seregni Hearst OTHER PRINTS Henry E Houseworth Huntington Library Huntington OTHER PRINTS imprinted in black ink at lower ink on pasted JPGM Kern County label at center label at lower left of center located looking northwest lower center lower right IMAGE mammoth-plate Mendocino Mill Milton Latham Milton Latham Residence mount in black mount in pencil Naef Nevada County North Oregon PAHMA Palmquist 1983 pasted paper label pencil at lower Phoebe present-day PROVENANCE TO 1900 RBCM Recto mount imprinted RELATED PHOTOGRAPHS RELATED STEREOGRAPHS REPRODUCED right of center San Francisco IMAGE San Marino San Mateo County sepia ink signed in sepia SNY April Storey County style of Fulgenzio Taber Thurlow Lodge UCLARL University of California Verso mount Watkins Watkins’s Yosemite Valley