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1 of 30Section of the Grizzly Giant, Mariposa Grove, Yo semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
2 of 30The Grizzly Giant, Mariposa Grove, Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
3 of 30Up the Valley - Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
4 of 30Pohono-Bridal Veil-900 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
5 of 30Tutucanula - El Capitan 3600 ft, Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
6 of 30El Capitan, 3600 ft., Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
7 of 30River View - Down the Valley Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
8 of 30Cathedral Rock, Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
9 of 30River View - Cathedral Rocks - Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
10 of 30Cathedral Spires - Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
11 of 30Pompompases - Three Brothers. 4480 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
12 of 30Sentinel (View of the Valley) 3270 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
13 of 30The Three Brothers, Front View, Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
14 of 30View on the Merced - Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
15 of 30Sentinel (View down the Valley) 3270 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
16 of 30Sentinel (front view) 3270 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
17 of 30Camp Grove Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
18 of 30View from Camp Grove down the Valley - Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
19 of 30River View, Yo Semite Falls. 2477 ft. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
20 of 30Yo Semite Falls (Front View) 2477 ft. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
21 of 30Yo Semite Falls (from the Upper House) 2477 ft. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
22 of 30Half Dome, Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource -
23 of 30The Lake Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
24 of 30North Dome. Royal Arches - Washington Column. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
25 of 30Outline View of Half Dome, Yo Semetie. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
![Tacoye [sic] - North Dome, 3729 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/yosemite-carleton-watkins-26.jpg)
26 of 30Tacoye [sic] - North Dome, 3729 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
27 of 30Piwayac - Vernal Fall - 300 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
28 of 30Mt. Broderick-Nevada Fall-Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
29 of 30Nevada Fall - 700 ft., Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -
30 of 30Cascade-Nevada fall-700 ft. Yo Semite. 1861.Carleton Watkins—The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
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 Times wrote 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?”
Read more about the answer here.
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