Cathedral Spires
Photograph
ca. 1865 (photographed)
ca. 1865 (photographed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Carleton E. Watkins was the foremost American landscape photographer of his day. He is best remembered for his majestic images of the American West, which he took using a ‘mammoth-plate’ camera that held glass negatives the same size as this print. This photograph and others taken by Watkins helped persuade the United States Congress to make Yosemite Valley a national park.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Cathedral Spires (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Albumen print |
| Brief description | 'Cathedral Spires', photograph by Carleton E. Watkins, albumen print, about 1865 |
| Physical description | Black and white photograph of a rock formation in the Yosemite Valley called 'Cathedral Spires' seen at a distance with trees in the foreground |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | 'Watkins / Cathedral Spires Yosemite / No 22' (Written in pencil on recto.) |
| Credit line | Acquired by exchange with the Wilson Centre for Photography, London |
| Object history | Historical significance: When Watkins visited the Yosemite Valley he made thirty mammoth plate and one hundred stereograph views that were among the first photographs of Yosemite seen in the East. Partly on the strength of Watkins's photographs, President Abraham Lincoln signed the 1864 bill that declared the valley inviolable, thus paving the way for the National Parks system. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Place depicted | |
| Summary | Carleton E. Watkins was the foremost American landscape photographer of his day. He is best remembered for his majestic images of the American West, which he took using a ‘mammoth-plate’ camera that held glass negatives the same size as this print. This photograph and others taken by Watkins helped persuade the United States Congress to make Yosemite Valley a national park. |
| Associated object | |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.3002-2004 |
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| Record created | May 26, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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