4099 - Watkins, Carleton E.

Watkins, Carleton E. (Attributed to). El Capitan, 3,300 ft., Yosemite Valley, No. 7. 1865–66. Mammoth-plate albumen print, printed ca. 1872, mounted on original board. 51.8 x 40 cm (mount 71.2 x 55.7 cm). With printed title, number, and publisher’s imprint beneath the image: “Thomas Houseworth & Co.” and “No. 9 Montgomery St., San Francisco.” A leading photographer of the American West, Carleton E. Watkins created his celebrated views of Yosemite during expeditions in 1861 and 1865–66, using a custom mammoth-plate camera to capture the valley’s monumental formations in extraordinary detail. Watkins’s early Yosemite photographs helped shape public appreciation of the region in the years surrounding the 1864 Yosemite Grant, the legislative precursor to the National Park System. Houseworth’s later edition, published under its own name, demonstrates the widespread commercial circulation of Watkins’s Yosemite views, whose large-format clarity established a defining nineteenth-century image of the American West. – Mount with bumped edges, some chipping at the corners, slight foxing and age-related staining along the edges; print with light foxing in the sky area and a few light surface scuff marks and scratches, visible only when viewed at an angle; otherwise a strong, evenly toned print in near-excellent condition.