These days, as the National Park Service celebrates its 100th birthday on Aug. 25, taking and sharing photographs of America’s national parks is nothing special. In 1861, when Carleton Watkins created this portfolio of 30 images of Yosemite Valley, the situation was very different.
Creating the images required lugging thousands of pounds of equipment via mule to the remotest, and often steepest, California wilderness.
But it was worth the schlep.
“As specimens of the photographic art they are unequaled, and reflect great credit upon the producer, Mr. Watkins,” the New York Timeswrote in December of 1862, when the images were on view at a New York City gallery. “The views of lofty mountains, of gigantic trees, of falls of water which seem to descend from heights in the heavens and break into mists before they reach the ground, are indescribably unique and beautiful. Nothing in the way of landscape can be more impressive or picturesque.” (The day’s other news? The Civil War.)
And the pictures did more than get a good review. As argued by Weston Naef, curator emeritus for the Department of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and an expert on Watkins, they were the spark that started the national parks movement in the United States, the inspiration for Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Yosemite Grant Act in 1864, which led the way to the preservation of Yellowstone, which in turn led to the creation of enough federally conserved areas that eventually a National Park Service was necessary.
“Knowing what we know about Abraham Lincoln’s method of thinking, there is no way that he could have declared Yosemite Valley a place to be preserved unless he saw something,” Naef says. “So how would he have seen the something and what would the something have been?”
Section of the Grizzly Giant, Mariposa Grove, Yo semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesThe Grizzly Giant, Mariposa Grove, Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesUp the Valley - Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesPohono-Bridal Veil-900 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesTutucanula - El Capitan 3600 ft, Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesEl Capitan, 3600 ft., Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesRiver View - Down the Valley Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesCathedral Rock, Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesRiver View - Cathedral Rocks - Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesCathedral Spires - Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesPompompases - Three Brothers. 4480 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesSentinel (View of the Valley) 3270 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesThe Three Brothers, Front View, Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesView on the Merced - Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesSentinel (View down the Valley) 3270 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesSentinel (front view) 3270 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesCamp Grove Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesView from Camp Grove down the Valley - Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesRiver View, Yo Semite Falls. 2477 ft. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesYo Semite Falls (Front View) 2477 ft. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesYo Semite Falls (from the Upper House) 2477 ft. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesHalf Dome, Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art ResourceThe Lake Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesNorth Dome. Royal Arches - Washington Column. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesOutline View of Half Dome, Yo Semetie. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesTacoye [sic] - North Dome, 3729 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesPiwayac - Vernal Fall - 300 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesMt. Broderick-Nevada Fall-Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesNevada Fall - 700 ft., Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesCascade-Nevada fall-700 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
