Event Details

End: August 17, 2014
More Info: http://www.museum.stanford.edu

Born in upstate New York in 1829, Carleton Watkins ventured west in 1849 to strike it rich. But instead of prospecting for gold, Watkins developed a talent for photography—invented only 22 years before. He charted the remote Pacific Coast in the 1860s and 1870s, capturing its vast scale and spirit with a custom-built camera that created “mammoth” 18 x 22-inch glass-plate negatives. In June 1864, his stunning photographs of Yosemite’s valley, waterfalls and peaks proved instrumental in convincing President Abraham Lincoln and the 38th U.S. Congress to pass the Yosemite Valley Grant Act, legislation that preserved the land for public use and set a precedent for America’s National park system. As the nation celebrates the 150th Anniversary of the Yosemite Grant, the Cantor Arts Center presents one of the most comprehensive exhibitions of Watkins’ work from the 1860s–70s. Carleton Watkins: The Stanford Albums features more than 70 original mammoth prints from the three albums in the Special Collections of Stanford University Libraries: Photographs of the Yosemite Valley; Photographs of the Pacific Coast; and Photographs of the Columbia River and Oregon.