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Photographic Treasures of the California State Library
JBIOGRAPHIES OF PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHERSj
By Heather Masqueda
Bradley &
Rulofson
(1863-1875)
Henry W. Bradley (18131891) and William H.
Rulofson (1826-1878) joined
forces in 1863, buying out the
portrait gallery of daguerreotypist Robert Vance to establish
the photographic art gallery of Bradley & Rulofson.
The duo worked well together; Rulofson completed
the managerial operations, and Bradley the curatorial
tasks. Their strong advertising campaign proved successful when Bradley & Rulofson won a commission
from the United States Quartermaster General. The
job was to develop views of San Francisco’s defense at
Fort Alcatraz and Fort Point. Because the firm believed
the over 2,000 negatives to be sanctioned under their
name, many prints from the series were sold. Without
the permission of the War Department, which prevents
the distribution of any illustrations of military installations, Bradley & Rulofson struggled with a legal scandal
that questioned their loyalty. Ultimately, the situation
was resolved and the company took the opportunity to
rebuild their reputation.
It did not take long for the team of Bradley & Rulofson to equal and even rise above their previous status,
most likely as a result of its assertive and inventive style
of business. Bradley & Rulofson bragged about their
gallery facilities, and advertised to the public their
“magnificent Reception Room, Toilet Room, Sitting
Room” and “Largest Sky Light in America.”1 The firm
could also boast associations with photographers Isaiah
Taber, and later Eadweard Muybridge, who left Thomas
Houseworth & Company, at the time of their decline,
to publish some Pacific Coast views with Bradley &
Rulofson.
A striking blow fell upon the
business when the great Chicago
fire of 1871 created unredeemable financial losses. The two
men worked together until 1877,
when Bradley filed for bankruptcy, and John H. Dall took
his place. Upon Rulofson’s death
in 1878, the company continued
for some years under the name
Bradley & Rulofson, unfortunately without the presence of
either mogul.
Thomas Houseworth & Company
(1859-1880)
Thomas Houseworth (1828-1915), with George S.
Lawrence (dates unknown), sailed from New York City
to San Francisco in 1849. They were headed for California, where they would work as miners and jewelers
before settling as merchants of a San Francisco optical
shop. In 1859 Lawrence and Houseworth began selling
stereographs from their store, and displayed them in
the windows to attract more customers. They worked
with local photographers to compile a diverse collection
of images documenting California’s major landmarks:
settlements, boom towns, placer and hydraulic mining
operations, shipping and transportation routes, and
such points of scenic interest throughout northern
California and western Nevada as the Yosemite Valley
and Calaveras Redwoods. Their views also included an
extensive pictorial survey of mid-nineteenth-century
San Francisco. The prints were mass produced and
sold at a reasonably low cost, making Lawrence &
Houseworth’s published stereographs “popular collectibles among the middle class.”2
Capitalizing on the growing market for stereographs,
in 1863 Lawrence & Houseworth decided to publish
the work of many photographers under their name
and made a public effort to acquire an impressive set of
prints. Lawrence & Houseworth’s inventory grew and
the firm soon offered the largest collection of stereographs on the Pacific Coast, competing only against
Carleton Watkins. The company was always in need of
new photographs to document the growth and change
of the region, and at one point Houseworth commissioned the photographer Eadweard Muybridge to make
a set of mammoth plate photographs of Yosemite.
In 1868 George S. Lawrence retired from the business and the firm was renamed Thomas Houseworth &
Company.
Eadweard J.
Muybridge (1830-1904)
Born Edward James Muggeridge, the photographer
moved from London to the United States in 1851 as
a commission merchant on the eastern coast. Until
1867—when he moved to San Francisco for good—he
was forced to return to England, to nurse a severe head
injury he received after being thrown from a stagecoach.
At the age of thirty-seven, Eadweard Muybridge created
a name for himself, literally, as we know him today. He
began his career as a commercial photographer, and
commonly worked under the pseudonym “Helios,” the
Greek God of the sun.
Muybridge worked contemporary to Carleton
Watkins, and often with the same subject matter. He
desired to follow the great landscape tradition—as well
as the new trend of panoramic photography. In the
nineteenth century, panoramas were luxury items; they
were expensive to produce and only sold to a limited
market. The views of San Francisco were made all the
more precious after the complete destruction of the
city in the earthquake and fires of April 1906. His
anthology of prints, Panorama of San Francisco, formed
a scope of the entire city, “its picturesque suburbs and
surrounding ranges of hills.”3
Yosemite also fascinated the photographer, and he
created many scenes of the valley with his mammothplate camera. During this time, Muybridge developed
a “sky shade,” a shutter-like device allowing various
exposures to be made on a single plate. This method
served to compensate for the wet plate’s over-sensitivity
to blue light. Muybridge could then make a single negative, instead of the combination printer’s two, and more
accurately portray a range of tones. Meanwhile, in 1872
Muybridge also realized his “first attempts to capture
the movement of a running horse, efforts which would
eventually lead to Muybridge’s extensive investigations
of animal locomotion.”4
Biographies continued on inside back cover.
Exhibition Catalog
University Library Gallery
Sacramento State University
March 3 – June 24, 2006
SACRAMENTO: California State Library Foundation, 2006
I
JFOREWORDj
teach photography courses at Sacramento State University. My interest in nineteenth century photography began when I was a student
many years ago and has, over the years, informed much of my photographic work, as well as my teaching. The appreciation and study
of great works, such as the mammoth plate albumen prints of Carleton Watkins and Eadweard Muybridge, offers a great deal to
students today—close attention to craft, ambitious pictorial strategies, rich tonalities not possible with modern photographic printing
materials. To this end, I have relied on the generosity of Gary Kurutz who, each year for many years now, has opened up the collection at
the California State Library, one of the great artistic treasures of this community, to my students. With great enthusiasm he presents early
daguerreotypes from the California Gold Rush, ambrotypes, orotones, panoramic views of pre-earthquake San Francisco, autochromes,
and platinum prints. These sessions eventually became the inspiration for this show, a greatly enlarged version, chosen by Gary with a bit
of help from me. It is my sincere hope that you will enjoy what is presented here as much as we have.
ROGER VAIL
Professor, Art Department, Sacramento State University
J INTRODUCTION j
“T
he Triumph of Helios”* exhibition grew out of Professor Roger
Table of Contents
Vail’s popular class “Art and Photography.” The Sacramento State
University professor felt it important for his students to understand
the methods and technologies from the pioneer era. Back in the early
1 Foreword
B Y RO G E R VA I L
2 Introduction
B Y G A RY F. K U RU T Z
3 Acknowledgments
5 Catalog of the Exhibition
C O M P I L E D B Y G A RY F. K U RU T Z
INSIDE
COVERS
Biographies of
Principal Photographers
B Y H E AT H E R M O S Q U E D A
28 Glossary of Terms
1980s, he approached me about bringing a class over so the students could see examples of
early photographs. Professor Vail knew that the California State Library held many vintage
prints including works by Carleton E. Watkins, Eadweard J. Muybridge, and other masters.
Ever since then, at least one class a year, numbering anywhere from sixty to seventy students,
has visited the Library to inspect up close a Gold Rush daguerreotype or to peer through a
stereoscope to magically see Yosemite’s Glacier Point in three-dimension. As the professor
stressed, it is one thing to see these images reproduced in a book or projected on a screen or
behind a glass frame, it is quite another to see them as the actual daguerreian or wet-plate
photographer saw them. In this era of digital photography, both Professor Vail and I emphasized the difficulty of making a daguerreotype in the hot but gold-rich ravines of Placer
County or the challenge of coating a 24 x 28 inch sheet of glass with light-sensitive chemicals
while standing 3,000 feet above the floor of Yosemite Valley. In addition to showing off great
treasures from the Library’s rich collections, it gave me particular satisfaction to bring out
examples of more obscure forms of photography such as the autochrome, orotone, glass positive, and even a wedding certificate adorned with actual tintypes.** The surprise and wonder
expressed by his students added to the pleasure of these evening classes held in the State
Library’s California History Room.
When the University opened its beautiful and spacious University Library Gallery,
Professor Vail suggested mounting an exhibit of the items we had shared with his students.
It was a splendid idea. Professor Phil Hitchcock, director of the Gallery and director of the
School of the Arts, was equally enthusiastic and he has been most generous in working with
the two of us in assembling this exhibition. In addition, I wish to acknowledge the invaluable
contributions of Gerrilee Hafvenstein of the State Library’s Preservation Office in preparing
many of the items for display. In particular, two elephant folio volumes of Watkins’ mammoth plates desperately needed conservation. Their leather bindings, marbled endpapers, and
linen hinges reflected generations of aging, and Mrs. Hafvenstein rose to the task by rejuvenating these stately volumes. Preservation Office volunteer L. J. Dillon used her considerable
talents in box making to create Plexiglas containers for such challenging items as the seven
and one-half foot long Muybridge panorama of San Francisco.
The items included in this display were selected primarily for their significance in the
history of California photography, not necessarily for their beauty or amusement value. Important, too, was the need to offer a variety of media. Thus, the viewer of the exhibit will see
silvery daguerreotypes, brown-toned ambrotypes, pannotypes, tintypes, albumen mammoth
plate prints, stereographs, blue-toned cyanotypes, autochromes, and silvertones. The show
exhibits prints made from wet and dry-plate negatives, flexible film negatives of all types, and
2
elegantly framed glass positives. A special treasure is a two-volume large folio with 160 prints
of the Crystal Palace in London made from wax-paper negatives dating from 1852 to 1854.
These are some of the earliest photographs made from a negative process.
This exhibition pays homage to the photographers themselves. It presents a liberal sprinkling of photographs of photographers, their equipment, and their galleries. Pictures of “sun
artists,” especially from the pioneer era rarely survive, and they offer a unique glimpse into
the lives and working conditions of those men and women who did so much to preserve our
historical memory. Other aspects of the exhibition feature representative examples from major single collections of a particular photographer’s body of work. Thus on display are two of
about twenty thousand architectural photographs from the Mott Studios in Los Angeles; one
of ten thousand Gladding, McBean & Company photographs; and one out of 5,000 prints
from the McCurry Collection of Sacramento and Northern California views. Of course, the
works of great nineteenth century masters like Watkins, Muybridge, and I. W. Taber form a
major portion of the display.
Ever since its earliest years, the State Library realized the value of acquiring photographs for its historical collections. Many came as donations as part of a larger manuscript
or book collection. Some, such as the J. B. Starkweather daguerreotypes, were transferred
to the Library from other state agencies. Staff purchased others one at a time or as entire
collections. Because of its role as the library for the State of California and its longevity,
other photographic treasures arrived in surprising ways. In essence, Library staff developed a
personal relationship with several of these giants of photography. In 1874, for example, the
Library purchased directly from C. E. Watkins 112 of his views for a dollar apiece and had
the Office of State Printing bind them together in three folio-sized albums. Regretfully, the
Above: Self-portrait of Monterey
photographer C. W. J. Johnson at
his negative retouching stand.
Below: Los Angeles and
Independent Railroad Depot,
ca. 1877. Albumen mammothplate by C. E. Watkins.
invoice shows a photograph of Watkins and his family deleted from
the purchase. Sometime in the nineteenth century, the Free Library
of Philadelphia presented the Library with a stupendous two-volume album of Watkins mammoth plates. No doubt, they saw these
albums as more fully appreciated in the Golden State. Eadweard J.
Muybridge, arguably one of the most famous photographers in the
world, graciously donated and inscribed a copy of his wonderful
book Descriptive Zoöpraxography to the Library. It is amazing to think
that this legendary figure actually corresponded with the Library. In
addition, the Library obtained his album of photographs of Central
America that he presented to the wife of his defense attorney during
his sensational murder trial. Another great picture man, I. W. Taber of
San Francisco, worked with State Librarian James Gillis at the turn of
the last century and planned to give the Library a series of portrait albums of major California personalities, but alas, the 1906 Earthquake
and Fire swept away his archive.
In the modern era, the Library continues to build upon the work
of its predecessors. Through former Sutro Librarian Richard H. Dil-
3
lon, the Library acquired the Louis J. Stellman Collection of views of San Francisco’s Chinatown and the Mother Lode country. Mead B. Kibbey, an extraordinary patron of the Library
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
and its Foundation, acquired on behalf of the Library a deluxe photograph album by I. W.
Taber of the 1894 San Francisco Midwinter Fair. In addition Kibbey purchased the William
Fletcher Collection of Southern California views during the boom years of the 1880s and
T
he creation of this exhibit at Sacramento State University and its
accompanying
catalog
received
generous and enthusiastic support from the
University’s Art Department including Roger
Vail, Phil Hitchcock, Rachel Markgraf, and
Heather Mosqueda. The staff of the California State Library provided much effort in
framing, scanning, and cataloging the photographs. The efforts of Gerrilee Hafvenstein,
Hiran Nakashima, L. J. and Dan Dillon of the
Library’s Preservation Office, and Vickie Lockhart and Anthony Martinez of the Library’s
California History Section are hereby gratefully
acknowledged. Mead B. Kibbey generously
loaned to the exhibit his antique camera.
1890s as well as an amazing daguerreotype of railroad engineer Theodore D. Judah. Through
his efforts, the collection continues to flourish as new opportunities are constantly spotted
by Mr. Kibbey. A gift from Mrs. Howard Jarvis enabled the Library to purchase an incomparable collection of southern California landscape views created by Frederick Martin of Pasadena. Stephen Anaya, one of the great collectors of daguerreotypes, generously presented the
Library with a series of open-air half-plate mirror images of Benicia in the early 1850s. Mary
Swisher, a talented local photographer discovered the Gladding, McBean photo archive and
directed that great body of negatives to the Library. Through the work of Dawson’s Bookshop
in Los Angeles, the Library hauled back to Sacramento a dozen file cabinets stuffed with high
quality architectural views done by the Mott Studios of Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s.
Denny Kruska of Sherman Oaks presented the Library with the Clifton Smith Collection of
vintage photographs that gave the Library coverage of the Santa Barbara area, a region known
for its scarcity of early images. Most recently, Tom Vano made available to the Library his
stupendous collection of prints and negatives documenting life in the San Francisco Bay Area
from the 1950s to the early 2000s. It is an unbelievable treasure trove. Two of my favorite
images are photographs of this affable and talented Italian-American holding his Hasselblad
camera alongside baseball superstar Willie Mays and another of him with Imogen Cunningham, one of the most famous and eccentric photographers of the last century.
A special word of praise must be directed to Roger Vail. He has long been an ardent
supporter of the Library’s photographic collection and has made the effort to introduce liter-
“Making Pictures” by Jack K. Hillers. Made
in 1875, this view perfectly illustrates all
the equipment needed by the wet-plate
photographer when operating in the field.
ally hundreds of students to the rich jewels to be found in the Library’s California History
Room. Professor Vail, a master of large format cameras, follows in the footsteps of Watkins and
Muybridge. He is a brilliant photographer with an impressive resume of exhibitions. His prints
may be found in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Chicago Art Institute, and the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Professor Vail’s experiments with platinum-palladium
prints, pin-hole photography, and night photography are simply breathtaking. In short, for
many decades, he has been a singular force for historical and contemporary photography. He has never forgotten the roots of his noble profession.
Gary F. Kurutz
Executive Director & Curator of Special Collections
California State Library Foundation and California State Library
* Helios is the Greek god of light. Eadweard J. Muybidge took the name
Helios as his nom-de-plume.
4
** For a short glossary of photographic terms, please refer to the end of this catalog.
DAGUERREOTYPES
T H E “M I R R O R I M A G E ”
A CAMERA IN THE GOLD RUSH
Joseph Blaney Starkweather (b. ca. 1822).
Spanish Flat, Placer County. ca. 1852.
Quarter-plate daguerreotype.
J. B. Starkweather of Boston made what is arguably the
finest surviving series of open-air daguerreotypes of the
gold country. The collection consists of eight cased images
on permanent loan from the California State Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology.
Starkweather returned to Boston and then moved back to
San Francisco in 1867. He entered his daguerreotypes in
the 1880 Industrial Exhibition at the Mechanics’ Institute
and won a silver medal. His view of Spanish Flat, showing
four gold seekers including an African American working
a long tom, has been reproduced countless times. Spanish
Flat is a half-mile above the city of Auburn.
Top: Head of Auburn Ravine, 1852.
Quarter-plate daguerreotype of J. B.
Starkweather.
Bottom: Spanish Flat, 1852.
Quarter-plate daguerreotype of J. B.
Starkweather.
Head of Auburn Ravine, Placer County. ca. 1852.
Quarter-plate daguerreotype.
This quarter plate is one of the earliest known views of
Chinese in the gold fields. It records seven miners standing
next to a sluice box including three Anglos. The Chinese
came in great numbers to the gold fields in 1852.
In Auburn Ravine, Placer County. ca. 1852.
Quarter-plate daguerreotype.
Starkweather captured three men and one woman standing
at a sluice box on a creek. The woman is holding a basket
probably loaded with food and the men are holding shovels, picks, mining pans, and wooden buckets in front of
the sluice box. This is one of the rare instances of recording
a “live” woman in the mines.
Nevada City. ca. 1852. Quarter-plate daguerreotype.
Mining towns like Nevada City sprung up near rich
diggings. This Starkweather view captures the transitory nature of the mining camp as most of buildings are
constructed of wood and sail cloth. The appearance of a
church (upper left) demonstrated that civilizing influences were arriving in this rough and tumble town. This
view documents a rebuilt Nevada City following the great
fire of March 11, 1851. On July 19, 1856, another fire
destroyed much of what is seen in this daguerreotype.
5
George Howard Johnson (b. ca. 1823).
Henry Brown & Company Store, Sacramento. 1852.
Whole-plate daguerreotype. 1852.
Johnson, Sacramento’s premier pioneer photographer,
took this whole-plate view of a prosperous Gold Rush
mercantile operation located at 89 J Street. It is the largest
daguerreotype in the Library’s collection and its earliest
photographic view of the River City. An elaborate wood
frame protects the mirror image indicating that it may
have hung on a wall rather than being enclosed in the
usual leather case. Before acquired by the Library, someone
tried to clean the image resulting in unfortunate scratches.
Nonetheless, because of its size, subject matter, and photographer, it represents an important artifact of California’s
early photographic history.
Above: Theodore D. Judah, ca. 1848.
Sixth-plate daguerreotype.
Top:
Middle: John A. Sutter, ca. 1850.
Half-plate daguerreotype.
Bottom: John Gulick at his brother’s
grave, Benicia, ca. 1852. Half-plate
daguerreotype by George H. Johnson.
George Howard Johnson [attributed to]. Benicia from
the Bay. 1854. Half-plate daguerreotype.
Johnson’s daguerreotype depicts Gulick’s Wharf at Benicia.
In the early 1850s, the ambitious town of Benicia hoped
to supplant San Francisco as the leading port of the Pacific
Coast. The daguerreian came to California in 1849 from
New York during the Gold Rush and set up shop on Front
Street in Sacramento and became one of the finest pioneer
photographers in California. Sometime in 1853 or 1854
he reestablished his business in the more affluent and
populous city of San Francisco. Noted daguerreotype
collector Stephen Anaya donated this view and the two
others of Benicia.
The Gulick Brother’s in Front of the Knickerbocker
Emporium on Gulick’s Wharf, Benicia, California.
1852. Half-plate daguerreotype.
The daguerreotype was accompanied by a slip of paper
inscribed “Benecia [sic] California. Millicent Gulick’s
birthplace, 1852.” Millicent was the first white girl born in
Benicia. The motif of the daguerreotype case is a view of
the Washington Monument.
John Gulick at His Brother’s Grave, Benicia, California.
ca. 1852. Half-plate daguerreotype.
The red velvet protective pad on the inside cover is
embossed with the following: “Geo. H. Johnson /
83 J Street / Sacramento, Cal.”
THE BARON OF NEW HELVETIA
Photographer unknown. Captain Sutter (John Augustus
Sutter, on Whose Land Gold Was First Discovered). ca.
1850. Half-plate daguerreotype.
By the time John A. Sutter posed for this daguerreotype,
gold seekers had gobbled up virtually all of his land. Nonetheless, the charisma, power, and regal bearing of the man
are immediately conveyed to the viewer. This half-plate
may be the earliest known photograph of Sutter.
6
SACRAMENTO’S FIRST HISTORIAN
George Howard Johnson. John Frederick
Morse. ca. 1852. Sixth-plate daguerreotype.
Dr. Morse (1815–1874) was a pioneer physician in
Sacramento and wrote the first history of the city. Samuel
Colville published his lively text in his Sacramento Directory for the Year 1853–54. The embossed red velvet pad
identifies the daguerreian: “Geo. H. Johnson / 83 J St. /
Sacramento.” His salon stood strategically across the street
from the fashionable Missouri Hotel which no doubt
attracted customers.
BUILDER OF THE FIRST HOUSE
IN SAN FRANCISCO
Robert H. Vance (1825–1876). Captain William
A. Richardson. ca. 1854. Half-plate daguerreotype.
Appointed by Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo as the captain
of the Port of Yerba Buena, Richardson built the first
habitation in what later became San Francisco. Richardson
Bay near Sausalito recalls the memory of this pioneer. This
half-plate, showing Richardson holding a spyglass is the
finest daguerreotype portrait in the collection. R. H. Vance
is regarded as the foremost daguerreian in the Gold Rush.
Photographer unknown. Theodore D. Judah. ca. 1848.
Sixth-plate daguerreotype.
This is the earliest known photograph of Theodore Judah,
the civil-engineering wizard who discovered a way to build
a railroad over the Sierra and link California to the rest
of the nation. The daguerreotype was made by a daguerreian in the eastern U.S. before Judah came to California
in 1854. Judah, in this portrait, dons an odd-looking hat.
The hat, however, was typical of professionals who worked
out of doors in the 1840s. Hand written on the protective
velvet pad to the left of the image carries is Judah’s name.
Mead B. Kibbey of the California State Library Foundation donated the daguerreotype.
Top: Frederick F. Morse,
Sacramento’s pioneer historian.
Sixth-plate daguerreotype.
Middle: San Francisco pioneer
William Richardson. Half-plate
daguerreotype by Robert H. Vance.
Bottom: Lillie Hitchcock Coit,
sixth plate daguerreotype.
Photographer unknown. Matilda C. Heron. ca. 1850.
Half-plate daguerreotype.
Heron was a well-known actress in Gold Rush California.
She first performed in San Francisco on December 26,
1853, and entertained audiences in Sacramento, Marysville, and Stockton as well.
Photographer unknown. Lillie Hitchcock Coit. c. 1847.
Sixth plate daguerreotype, tinted.
Born in West Point, New York in 1843, she arrived in
California in 1851. Coit was the mascot of the Knickerbocker Fire Company in San Francisco. She so loved
volunteer firemen that she left money for the construction
of Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill in their honor.
7
8
THE AMBROTYPE
OR DAGUERREOTYPE ON GLASS
RULOFSON’S PIONEER SONORA GALLERY
William Herman Rulofson (1826–1878).
William Herman Rulofson Displaying a Paper
Photograph, Sonora, Tuolumne County. ca. 1854–55.
Half-plate ambrotype.
From the viewpoint of California photographic history, the
most important cased image in the collection is this view of
the interior of Rulofson’s Sonora gallery. The ambrotype or
daguerreotype on glass depicts the bearded photographer
leaning over the shoulder of a customer, who, in turn, is
viewing the latest technological advance in the field, a paper
photograph. This half-plate is reputed to be the only image
to survive from his early days in the Tuolumne County
town. Later, Rulofson moved to San Francisco, and under
the name of Bradley and Rulofson, directed the largest
photographic business on the Pacific Coast.
Photographer unknown. Mining on Bogus Creek, Siskiyou County. ca. 1854–60. Double half-plate ambrotype.
Double-plate views such as this are quite rare. The ambrotypes dramatically record the industrialization of mining in
the late 1850s. No gold was found in Bogus Creek which
accounted for its sarcastic name.
O. B. Silver. Ambrotype Gallery of O. B. Silver,
Dutch Flat, Placer County. ca. 1863.
Half-plate ambrotype.
By the late 1850s, the ambrotype or daguerreotype on
glass supplanted the daguerreotype as the primary photographic medium. Invented around 1851 by Frederick
Scott Archer, an ambrotype may be defined as a collodion wet-plate negative placed in front of a dark surface
to produce a positive image. Each is unique and housed
in a protective leather case similar to the daguerreotype.
Shown here is a rare and beautiful view of an ambrotypist’s
gallery. The back of the building consists of his studio
that he designed to gather the maximum amount of light.
The Library has two other O. B. Silver ambrotypes of this
Mother Lode town. Silver was active in Dutch Flat from
1863–ca. 1865.
Photographer unknown. Mrs. Elizabeth Lewis Hawley
& Twin Sons Charles H. & George Percy Hawley. ca.
1859. Half-plate Ambrotype.
Mrs. Hawley married Charles A. Hawley in San Francisco
in 1855. Their sons were born on April 11, 1859. Hawley
opened one of the first hardware stores in San Francisco
known as Hawley Brothers. The thermoplastic case,
featuring the Washington monument in Richmond,
Virginia, is a superior example of the case art developed
to protect both daguerreotypes and ambrotypes.
THE PANNOTYPE
A PHOTOGRAPH ON FABRIC
Photographer unknown. Jerome’s Livery Stable,
Volcano, Amador County. ca. 1860. Pannotype or
ambrotype on fabric. 9 ½ x 12 inches.
During the formative period in the history of photography
(1840–1860), imaginative artists experimented with fixing
images on a variety of materials other than clear glass or
sheets of metal. Compatible materials for light sensitive
emulsion included leather, fabric, and porcelain. The versatility of photography is demonstrated in this amazingly
well preserved “pannotype” or photograph made on fabric
depicting a street scene in the Gold Rush town of Volcano.
Prominently featured is an unusually cooperative horse
posed with its front legs resting on a chair.
THE TINTYPE
WEDDING CERTIFICATE WITH TINTYPES
Photographer unknown. “This Is to Certify
that Frank F. Chase and Alice Harvey Were
United in Marriage, May 12, 1891.”
Sacramento, 1891. Tintype.
While wedding photography was most
common in the 1890s, the use of actual
tintypes of a happy couple in a certificate
was rare. Furthermore, tintypes were out
of fashion by the 1890s. The form for the
certificate was printed in 1882. Chase and
Harvey both hailed from Sacramento.
Photographer unknown. James Wilson
Marshall at Coloma. ca. 1870.
Half-plate Tintype.
Pictured in this tintype is James Marshall, the discoverer of
gold, along with several friends in front of Barney McBride’s
Saloon on Main Street in Coloma, El Dorado County. Marshall is the man standing to the right of the door. It was a
favorite hangout for the famed pioneer. Invented by Professor Hamilton Smith of Ohio, the tintype or ferrotype consisted of a sensitized sheet of metal (usually iron) that had
been coated with black paint, lacquer or enamel causing the
negative to appear as a positive image when viewed against a
dark background. Consequently, each tintype is unique.
Opposite page: Pigeon Point Lighthouse, San Mateo County. ca. 1875.
Albumen mammoth-plate print published by Bradley & Rulofson.
9
M A K I N G P I CTURES I N T HREE - DIMENSION :
THE STEREOGRAPH
Jack K. Hillers, “Making Pictures.” 1875.
Carleton E. Watkins. Camping in the Snow
Albumen stereograph. 4 ½ x 7 inches.
Jack Hillers accompanied the celebrated explorer John
Wesley Powell on his expedition down the Colorado River
and made the first photographs of the Grand Canyon.
This remarkable oversized stereo is a self-portrait of Hillers
while photographing the Aquarius Plateau in southeastern
Utah. It is particularly valuable for depicting an expeditionary photographer and his equipment in the field,
including a mammoth-plate camera.
on Lassen’s Butte, Siskiyou County, Cal. 1867.
Albumen stereograph. 3 ¾ x 7 inches.
This camping scene in the snow by Watkins is fascinating for
a number of reasons. The seated figure warming his hands
is possibly the famed geologist/mountaineer Clarence King.
The standing figure may be Watkins himself. To the left is
Watkins’ dark tent. It must have been a challenge to coat,
expose, and fix a wet glass plate in the freezing snow.
William Henry Jackson, “Photographing
“Tip Top of the Sentinel Dome,
Yosemite Valley, Mariposa Co,”
ca. 1865. C. E. Watkins, in this
view, recorded his dark tent and
non folding tripod for his
mammoth-plate camera.
10
in High Places.” 1872. Albumen stereograph.
3 ¾ x 7 inches.
W. H. Jackson of Denver, Colorado certainly stands as
one of America’s greatest landscape photographers. This
stereograph superbly documents the precarious conditions
of the pioneer photographer. Use of wet-plate negatives
during that era required each photographer to bring along
a portable darkroom in order to fix the wet plate before it
dried. Jackson made this self-portrait on a rock escarpment
of the Teton Range while with the Ferdinand V. Hayden
Expedition.
Under the Upper Yo Semite Fall [hand-written caption].
1861. Albumen stereograph. 3 ¾ x 7 inches.
In this unusual self-portrait, the great photographer is
seated on a rock with the non-folding tripod of his mammoth-plate camera to the right of the image and his dark
tent behind him. The overhang under the fall provided
excellent shelter for the photographer’s equipment. Watkins made this stereo and others during his first campaign
to the valley. Note how the photographer wrote and signed
the caption by hand. With the establishment of his YoSemite Gallery in San Francisco in 1867, his stereo cards
carried a printed name and title.
“Tip Top of the Sentinel Dome, Yosemite Valley,
Mariposa Co.” ca. 1865. Albumen stereograph.
No. 1142. 3 ½ x 7 in.
Watkins, in this stereograph, photographed his dark tent,
tripod, and a mule or horse high up on Sentinel Rock.
Notice how the tree provided a sliver of shelter.
Eadweard J. Muybridge. “The Flying Studio.”
1867. Albumen stereograph. 4 ¾ x 9 ¼ in.
Known later for his motion studies, Muybridge captioned
this view to reflect the mobility of his studio. In his early
days, he worked from a light horse-drawn vehicle. Taken in
the Yosemite Valley, this stereo beautifully records the extensive equipment a pioneer photographer needed in the field.
Alfred A. Hart. [Untitled View of California State
Capitol Building under Construction]. Scenes in the
Valley of the Sacramento. ca. 1867–68. Albumen
stereograph. 3 ¼ x 6 ¾ inches.
A. A. Hart, the prolific photographer of the Central Pacific
Railroad, also made a rare series of stereo views of the
capitol building under construction during the winter of
1867–1868. This stereo card depicts the front or west end
of the building with the rotunda dome in progress. Hart
then hauled his camera high up to the base of the dome
and made a number of panoramic views of the city below.
Downing, Rea & Raucher. “The Operating
Room of 3rd St., Gallery, Santa Rosa.” c. 1881.
Albumen stereograph. 3 ½ x 7 inches.
In 1875 John Henry Downing, Thomas L. Rea, and Henry
Rauscher formed their Santa Rosa partnership by taking
over a business established by E. Kraft. The collection of
their stereos features this rare interior view of the photographers’ gallery. Rauscher stands by the camera and Rea sits
in the portrait chair flanked by light reflectors on one side
and a larger window on the other.
T. L. Rea & Co., Third Street Photographic Gallery.
The logo of Eadweard J. Muybridge’s
“Flying Studio.” The famous photographer used the nom-de-plume of
“Helios,” the Greek god of light.
[View of Third Street Gallery, Santa Rosa]. 1881.
Albumen stereograph. 4 x 7 inches.
The exterior view, taken by Thomas L. Rea in April 1881,
records the façade of the firm’s business as well as the local
grocery store and barber shop.
Charles Bierstadt. “Our Party,” Yo Semite Valley.
1870. Albumen stereograph. 3 ⅜ x 7 inches.
Charles Bierstadt of Niagra Falls, the older brother of the
landscape artist Albert Bierstadt, toured Yosemite Valley in
1870 and secured a sizeable collection of stereo wet-plate
negatives. Shown in this dramatic scene are his horses laden
with boxes of glass plates, chemicals, and cameras. Bierstadt
came to California to build his stock of marketable views.
Above: “The Operating Room of 3rd St.,
Gallery, Santa Rosa.” ca. 1881.
Stereograph by Downing, Rea &
Raucher, Santa Rosa.
Left: Rare stereograph of Eadweard
J. Muybridge’s Zoöpraxigraphical Hall
at the World’s Columbia Exposition,
Chicago, 1893.
11
CARLETON E. WATKINS (1829–1916)
C A L I F O R N IA ’ S P REMIER P IONEER P HOTOGRAPH E R
A RARE SELF-PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST
Carleton E. Watkins. Primitive Mining;
The Rocker Calaveras Co., Cal. New Boudoir
Series #B 3542. ca. 1883. Albumen silver print.
4 ½ x 7 inches.
This playful boudoir card is the most famous self-portrait of
the famed pioneer photographer. It may be the only intentional self-portrait. The white shirt betrays his miner’s pose.
His traveling wagon rests in the background. According to
his daughter, Julia, Watkins did not like to have his picture
taken but made this “staged” photograph for his children.
“THE SINGLE MOST BEAUTIFUL
PHOTOGRAPH EVER MADE”
Cape Horn near Celilo, Oregon. 1867.
Albumen mammoth-plate print. 15 ¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
In 1867, Watkins visited Oregon and, by rail and ship,
followed the Columbia River making at least fifty-nine
mammoth-plate negatives and one hundred stereographs.
The Cape Horn view has been proclaimed in recent years
as “the single most beautiful photograph ever made in the
19th century.”
Above: A rare C. E. Watkins
advertising card promoting his
new series of photographs.
In the mid-1870s, lost his entire
negative collection because
of financial difficulties.
Right: A rare self-portrait
of C. E. Watkins. Note his
photographer’s wagon
in the background.
12
Cape Horn, Lower Columbia River. 1867. Albumen
mammoth-plate print. 15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Although beset by poor weather conditions in the summer of 1867, Watkins succeeded in creating a number of
breathtaking views along the Columbia.
Castle Rock, Columbia River. 1867. Albumen
mammoth-plate print. 15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
The Rapids, Indian Block House, Cascades,
Columbia River. 1867. Albumen mammoth-plate
print. 15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
[untitled] Indian Sweat House, Mendocino County.
Albumen mammoth-plate print. c. 1863.
15 ⅜ x 20 ⅛ inches.
Note the domed top of the photograph. Watkins’
earlier lens caused the edges of the prints to be distorted
or blurred; the Grubb-C lens was stretched beyond
its capability for a mammoth-plate. The dome top
edges masked this defect.
Mt. Broderick and Nevada Falls, Yosemite Valley, ca. 1865. Albumen mammoth-plate by C. E. Watkins.
HYDRAULIC MINING
Malakoff Diggings, North Bloomfield, Nevada County.
ca 1869 – 1871. Albumen mammoth-plate print.
15 ¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Watkins biographer Peter Palmquist wrote of this startling
photograph: “In Malakoff Diggings, where arching streams
of water serve as elements of design as well as actual
subject matter, Watkins has transformed a noisy, messy
operation into a lyrical composition of lyrical lines.” In
addition to this print made from a giant wet-plate negative, the Library has three other mammoth plate views
showing the immense power of hydraulic mining on the
Nevada County landscape.
The National Flume, Nevada County. c. 1869–1871.
Albumen mammoth-plate silver print.
15 ¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Flumes such as the one so dramatically portrayed by
Watkins brought water to feed the monitors used to
blast away the hills in search of gold. This aqueduct
measured 1,800 feet in length and reached a height of
sixty-five feet.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Berkeley, Alameda County, California. c. 1875. Albumen mammoth-plate silver print. 15 ¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
In this view, the great landscape photographer directed his
mammoth plate camera toward the Golden Gate. Shown
is a remarkably vacant East Bay dominated by the North
and South Halls of the nascent University of California.
13
Right: Cape Horn near Celilo,
Oregon,1867. Albumen mammothplate print by C. E. Watkins.
Below: “Viscata,” Disaster West
of Fort Point, 1868. Albumen
mammoth-plate by C. E. Watkins.
San Francisco: Presidio. 1875. Albumen
mammoth-plate print. 15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
In this sublime view, Watkins captured the Golden Gate
and Mt. Tamalpais. In the center is Angel Island.
14
State Prison, San Quentin, Marin County. No date.
Albumen mammoth-plate print. 15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
San Francisco from Russian Hill, Looking toward
Telegraph Hill. c. 1872-73. Albumen mammothplate print. 15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Washington Square dominates the center of this
photograph. Yerba Buena Island is plainly in view.
Vallejo, Solano County. No date. Albumen
mammoth-plate print. 15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Watkins amazingly succeeded in enlisting the cooperation
of several people to pose for this panoramic view even
though they stood hundreds of feet away. The steamship
Sacramento waits on the left perhaps to take Southern
Pacific Railroad passengers to San Francisco.
Southern Pacific Depot, 4th & Townsend, San
Francisco. Albumen mammoth-plate print.
15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Because of long exposure times, figures that moved as
shown in this image appear as “ghosts.” Watkins was singularly successful in convincing people to stand still
but not in this case.
Los Angeles and Independent Railroad Depot, San
Pedro Street near Wolfskill Lane. ca. 1877. Albumen
mammoth-plate print. 15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Watkins visited the Los Angeles area sometime in 1877.
This magnificent depot was closed in 1877 following the
takeover of the railroad by the Southern Pacific. In 1888, it
burned to the ground.
“Viscata,” Disaster West of Fort Point. 1868. Albumen
mammoth-plate print. 15 ¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Note Watkins’ stereo camera near the wrecked ship and
his dark tent, center right near the wagon. The Viscata was
wrecked in March 1868.
Pacific Coast Mail Steamship Company Building and
Wharf, San Diego. ca. 1877. Albumen mammoth-plate
print. 15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Watkins in this spectacular view captures the development of Alonzo Horton’s “New Town” San Diego. Horton
built this long wharf at the foot of Fifth Street. The wharf
became the center of San Diego’s commercial activity. Off
in the distance is the sublime Point Loma Peninsula.
Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite Valley. ca. 1861. Albumen
mammoth-plate print. 15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Mt. Broderick and Nevada Falls, Yosemite Valley.
ca. 1865. Albumen mammoth-plate print.
15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Yosemite from Mariposa Trail (Yosemite Valley No. 1).
ca. 1865. Albumen mammoth-plate print.
15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
The Half-Dome from Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley.
ca. 1865. Albumen mammoth-plate print.
15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
To the left is a portion of North Dome; to the center left is
Mt. Watkins; and Cloud’s Rest is seen above Half Dome.
Mammoth Grove Hotel, Calaveras Big Tree Grove.
ca. 1865. Albumen mammoth-plate print.
15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
James L. Sperry erected the hotel shortly after the discovery of the grove of sequoias in the early 1850s. It burnt
down in 1943.
Summit Station, Central Pacific Railroad. ca. 1873-78.
Albumen mammoth-plate print. 15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
At 7,017 feet altitude, Watkins recorded the highest
elevation of a railroad station in the Sierra. Shown here
are the snow sheds. The railroad constructed over twenty
miles of sheds.
“A Storm on the Lake,” Lake Tahoe. ca. 1873-78.
Albumen mammoth-plate print. 15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
The geologic feature known as Cave Rock is seen on the
left side of this print.
Virginia City. (Two-part panorama). ca. 1876. Albumen mammoth-plate prints. Each 15 ½ x 21 ¼ inches.
The Brunswick Mill—Carson River, Dayton District,
Nevada Territory. ca. 1876. Albumen mammoth-plate
print. 15 ½ x 21 ¼ inches.
Panorama of Monterey. ca. 1882. In four-parts.
Each silver print is 10 ⅝ x 11 ¾ inches or circa
42 x 46 inches.
The State Library possesses the original negatives for the
panorama. Very few Watkins negatives exist and the vast
majority burned during the April 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. This panorama depicts Watkins’ traveling
wagon that he loaded onto a railroad flatcar when traveling
a distance from this San Francisco gallery. The name of W.
H. Lawrence appears on the side of the wagon. Lawrence
financed Watkins from 1878 to the 1890s.
PERIODICAL ILLUSTRATED WITH
ORIGINAL WATKINS PHOTOGRAPHS
Fair Oaks. Residence of Hon. Thomas H. Selby, San
Mateo County, Ca. [published in] The California
Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine. (February 1873).
Albumen cabinet print. 4 x 7 ½ inches.
The editors wrote in reference to the Watkins photograph:
“We wish to draw attention to our subscribers to the
spirited photograph of the residence of T. H. Selby, Esq.
which serves as frontispiece to our present number. It is a
fair sample of ‘Christmas Photographing’ in California.”
Watkins supplied original photographs for several other
issues of this rare California periodical.
SOLD TO THE STATE LIBRARY
FOR ONE DOLLAR EACH
Photographic Views of One Hundred and Twelve of the
Principal and Most Picturesque Places of California.
Sacramento: State of California, 1866. 3 volumes.
Acclaimed as California’s great pioneer photographer, Watkins made available to the State of California a sampling
of his extraordinary work. James J. Ayers, an appreciative
state printer, bound 112 of the 8 x 12 inch albumen prints
into three volumes with a specially printed title page and
table of contents. Volumes one and two cover Watkins’
favorite subject matter, the Yosemite Valley and the Big
Trees. The third volume includes twenty-three magnificent
views of San Francisco as well as photographs of elegant
San Mateo homes. Watkins sold his prints to the State
Library on September 3, 1874 for one dollar each!
Photographs of California and Oregon.
Volume 2. Mammoth plate album of 16 x 20 ½ inch
albumen prints.
The album is open to Watkins’ brilliant mammoth-plate
of Rooster Rock on the Colubmia River. Note his dark
text for coating and fixing his wet-plate negatives in the
distance. Each mammoth-plate is identified in a calligraphic hand. Volume I contains nineteen views of
Yosemite, and Volume II preserves fifteen views of San
Francisco, Mendocino, and Oregon. The views date
from the 1860s and 1870s. The Free Library
of Philadelphia presented these
elephant folio volumes to the
Library sometime in the late
nineteenth century. It is possible
that three of the prints may have
been created by Charles L. Weed
for Thomas Houseworth.
Original 1874 receipt for the Library’s
purchase of 112 C. E. Watkins views
for one dollar each. The Library
bound the albumen photographs
into three volumes. R. O. Cravens
served as State Librarian at the time
of the purchase.
15
EADWEARD J. MUYBRIDGE (1830–1904)
A G I A N T O F P HOTOGRAPHY
Opposite page: Falls of the Yosemite,
from Glacier Rock. Albumen mammoth-plate by Eadweard J. Muybridge.
Eadweard J. Muybridge. [Muybridge broadside
ILLUSTRATED BY MUYBRIDGE
advertising his bookselling business.] ca. 1858.
Prior to embarking upon his sterling career in photography, the English-born Muybridge made a living in San
Francisco selling books. This exceedingly rare broadside
documents this short-lived chapter in his life.
John S. Hittell. Yosemite: Its Wonders and
Helios’ Flying Studio. Advertising card.
Carte de visite. ca. 1869.
With this card, Muybridge confidently promoted his services. The back or verso reads:
“Having the most complete PHOTOGRAPHIC
APPARATUS in the United States; LENSES
constructed for every variety of subject,
embracing from 10 to 100 deg. of visual
angle, and a WAGON completely fitted up
as a PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK ROOM, I am
prepared to execute all descriptions of
OPEN AIR PHOTOGRAPHY, anywhere upon
the Pacific Coast, in a manner guaranteed to command perfect satisfaction.”
Left: A rare advertising card for
Eadweard J. Muybridge.
Below: San Francisco City Hall under
Construction, ca. 1871. Albumen
mammoth-plate by Eadweard J. Muybridge.
Its Beauties. San Francisco: H. H. Bancroft &
Company, 1868.
To illustrate the first guidebook to Yosemite Valley, Hittell
commissioned Eadweard J. Muybridge to produce the
photographs. Because photomechanical means did not exist
in the late 1860s, the book was illustrated with tiny original
photographs, each laboriously tipped-in. More than likely,
Muybridge rephotographed his larger views to obtain the
desired, smaller size. In choosing to illustrate his book with
photographs, Hittell wrote: “The illustrations are photographs because no engravings could do justice to the scenes.”
Hittell’s commission helped boost Muybridge’s reputation as
a talented landscape photographer.
“THE MOST MAGNIFICENT
EVER TAKEN IN THE WORLD”
Yosemite Views. San Francisco, ca 1872. 40 albumen
mammoth-plate photographs. 16 ½ x 21 ¼ inches.
Through the brilliant photographs of Muybridge and C.
E. Watkins, Yosemite became an internationally known
natural wonder. Following upon the success of his 1868
trip, Muybridge made a second visit to the great valley in
1872. Before embarking on this campaign, he confidently
promoted his work announcing, “This series of photographs will undoubtedly be the most magnificent ever
taken in the world.” Making forty-five mammoth glass
plate negatives, he returned to San Francisco and sold
positive albumen prints in sets of forty for $100. The title
“Yosemite Views” is gold-stamped on the front cover along
with the name Marietta Harmon. Harmon may have been
one of his subscribers. Many of the plates have letterpress
captions. In recognition of these views, Muybridge won
the International Gold Medal for Landscape at the Vienna
Exhibition of 1873.
A VIEW FROM THE RIM OF THE VALLEY
16
Falls of the Yosemite, from Glacier Rock, (Great Grizzly
Bear) 2600 Feet Fall. No. 36. San Francisco: Bradley
and Rulofson, 1872. Letterpress caption and imprint in
red ink. Albumen mammoth-plate. 21 ¼ x 17 inches.
Eadweard Muybridge made this stunning mammoth plate
from the Yosemite precipice on his second trip to the
great valley. This image records a time when Muybridge
attached himself to San Francisco and California’s largest
photographic firm, Bradley and Rulofson. Proud of adding
Muybridge to their staff, Bradley and Rulofson issued a
catalog of his works modestly stating: “To most persons in
California the name of this artist is as familiar as those of
the majestic scenes he illustrates.”
17
Yosemite Creek [above Yosemite Falls]. ca. 1872. Albumen mammoth-plate silver print. 15 ¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Muybridge made this photograph on his second trip to the
valley. According to the San Francisco Daily Alta California (April 7, 1873), nothing would stop Muybridge from
obtaining the best possible views including cutting down
trees by the score and by hauling his camera to such dangerous places that even his guides refused to follow
The Mills Seminary, Alameda. [Mills College]
San Francisco: Bradley and Rulofson, n.d. Albumen
mammoth-plate. 15 ¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
The ingenious photographer succeeded in convincing
scores of ladies to pose for his mammoth plate camera.
Every window in Mills Hall is adorned with a student or
staff member. The seminary moved to this location
in 1871.
San Francisco City Hall under Construction.
San Francisco: Bradley and Rulofson. ca. 1871.
Albumen mammoth-plate print. 15 ¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Displaying his talents for composition, Muybridge took a
foreground massed with piles of bricks and a background
of city hall foundations and transformed the scene into a
brilliant photograph. Ground breaking took place in 1871,
and it took over a quarter-century to complete the job.
The April 1906 Earthquake and Fire reduced this public
works project to a heap of rubble.
The Pacific Coast of Central America and Mexico.
San Francisco, 1876. Album. Presentation copy.
Muybridge, following his sensational murder trial,
traveled to the exotic Isthmus of Panama in 1875.
Commissioned by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company,
he made hundreds of wet-plate views of cities, coffee
plantations, and natural wonders to demonstrate the area’s
commercial potential. Upon his return to San Francisco,
the photographer made up a series of five photograph
albums that he presented to friends and associates.
The State Library acquired the album given to Mrs.
Wirt W. Pendegast, the widow of Muybridge’s defense
attorney during his sensational murder trial. The album
contains sixty 6 x 9 inch albumen views, and the title
page bears the artist’s inscription.
18
Panorama of San Francisco from California Street Hill
by Muybridge. San Francisco: Morse’s Gallery, 1877.
Eleven panels, 7 feet 6 inches.
The already famed landscape photographer took his wetplate camera to the roof of the Mark Hopkins residence at
the corner of California and Mason Streets and exposed
eleven negatives to form this extraordinary 360-degree
panorama of the city and bay. Protected in a cloth-bound
cover, the panorama measures 7 feet, 6 inches in length.
The two end panels each measure 7 x 6 ⅛ inches, and the
nine inner panels measure 7 x 8 ⅛ inches. This view from
Nob Hill ranks as one of the most famous and highly
acclaimed examples of photographica made in California.
The panorama includes a key identifying 221 principal
buildings. A year later, Muybridge made an even larger
360-degree study of San Francisco.
THE GODFATHER OF THE MOTION PICTURE
Descriptive Zoöpraxography or the Science of
Animal Locomotion. Pennsylvania, 1893.
The famed landscape photographer ranks as the first to
capture instantaneous motion on film. According to
Muybridge’s biographer, Robert Haas, the zoöpraxiscope
“is the one [instrument] on which Muybridge’s fame as
an early exhibitor of motion pictures is founded.” By
use of this machine that combined elements of a magic
lantern projector and counter-rotating discs with images
projected on a screen, Muybridge successfully conveyed
motion through photography. For his studies of animal
and then human locomotion and success in projecting
moving images, he has been acclaimed as the “godfather of
the motion picture.” His book, Descriptive Zoöpraxography,
provides a well-written and succinct summary of his studies of animal locomotion. Muybridge himself donated and
inscribed the State Library’s copy.
“THE WORLD’S FIRST COMMERCIAL
MOTION-PICTURE THEATRE”
Zoöpraxigraphical Hall, World’s Columbia Exposition,
Chicago, 1893. Stereograph. 3 ½ x 7 inches.
Muybridge demonstrated his studies of animal locomotion
at the Chicago World’s Fair. This is an extremely rare view
of his Zoöpraxigraphical Hall where he gave lectures and
sold photographs. Muybridge biographer, Robert Haas,
stated that the Zoöpraxigraphical Hall “had the distinction of being the world’s first commercial motion-picture
theatre.” Magnification of the stereograph reveals a large
portrait of the celebrated photographer. Located on the
noisy and distracting Midway Plaisance, it was a commercial failure.
ISAIAH WEST TABER (1830–1912)
SAN FRANCISCO DURING THE GILDED AGE
Isaiah West Taber. California Scenery and
Industries San Francisco: I. W. Taber, 1880.
The folio volume is open to a view of actress Lillie Langtry
at Glacier Point gracefully standing 3,300 feet above the
valley floor. Illustrated with fifty-nine original albumen
photographs for dozens of San Francisco businesses, the
album represents one of the finest uses of photography in
a commercial publication during California’s pioneer era.
Taber designed the folio to be placed in elegant hotels and
steamships to advertise the delights of San Francisco. It
included images of wineries, railroads, newspaper offices,
hotels, an art dealer, bookbinder, and prominent businesses. Because of the
large number of original prints
required, only 150 copies were
published. Even so, this required
the printing and hand mounting
of 8,850 original photographs!
Presumably, those businesses
featured paid the photographer
a fee. The Library possesses a
similar Taber album published in
1884 called Taber Photographic
Album of Principal Business
Houses, Residents and Persons.
A CALIFORNIAN IN QUEEN VICTORIA’S LONDON
London Studio, 1897. Silver Print. 7 ½ x 9 ½ inches. .
The noted San Francisco photographer had gained an
international reputation and Queen Victoria invited him
to photograph her jubilee celebration on the occasion of
the sixtieth year of her reign. During his stay in the British
Isles, Taber established a portrait studio on Dover Street,
Piccadilly. Impressed by his work, Queen Victoria extended an invitation to Marlborough House to photograph the
Prince and Princess of Wales. After Victoria’s death, they
became Kind Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. Note the
light reflectors and backdrop in Taber’s posh studio.
TABER PHOTOGRAPHING
THE ECLIPSE
The Solar Eclipse January 1st
1889, Cloverdale, Cal. I. W.
Taber Operating with Special
60-inch Focus Camera.
Imperial size boudoir card,
silver print; Taber # 3776,
8 x 10 inches and Taber # 4445;
silver print. 7 ⅝ x 9 ⅝ inches.
Taber loved to experiment with
different techniques and the creation of this incredible instrument
to photograph the eclipse fully
demonstrates his creative spirit.
I. W. Taber photographing the solar eclipse at Cloverdale, 1889.
19
A VARIETY OF HELIOGRAPHIC ARTISTS
A FLOATING PALACE AT DRY DOCK
Thomas Houseworth & Company. P. M. S. S.
Co.’s Steamer City of Peking, San Francisco. ca. 1875.
Albumen mammoth-plate. 20 x 15 ¾ inches.
This is one of a series of three mammoth-plate views showing the great steamship at the Hunter’s Point Dry Dock.
San Francisco author B. E. Lloyd in 1876 described the
City of Peking as “perhaps the nearest approach to a real
floating palace.” This luxury ship that plied the Pacific
between China and California was the largest vessel in
the Pacific Mail Steamship Company’s fleet. This very
print served as the lead photograph for the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition to commemorate the
sesquicentennial of photography in 1989.
Bradley and Rulofson. “Notice to the Public.”
Carte de visite advertising card. San Francisco, ca. 1883.
The firm of Bradley and Rulofson ranked as one of the
most successful commercial photographic establishments
in the Far West. They issued this advertising card with
an original photograph mounted on it to give notice of
moving to a new location. The bearer of the card received
a discount if it were presented at their gallery. The firm
moved from 429 Montgomery Street to Geary and Dupont [Grant], San Francisco. The 400 block of Montgomery Street included the galleries of a
number of photographers.
[Untitled]. Seated woman holding a stereograph viewer. ca.
1875. Albumen cabinet card.
Shown in this view is an attractive woman pensively holding
a stereo view. On the table to
the right (her left) is a group
of stereo cards. This striking
image illustrates how the
relatively inexpensive stereo
card was meant for viewing/entertainment in one’s
home.
Above: P. M. S. S. Co.’s Steamer City of Peking,
San Francisco, ca. 1875. Albumen mammoth-plate
published by Thomas Houseworth and Company.
Right: A Bradley & Rulofson advertising card.
20
“THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE UNITED STATES”
[One dollar gold note] This will be received as an
equivalent for one dollar gold note in payment for
photographs of bearer by Bradley & Rulofson, San
Francisco. ca. 1875.
In the highly competitive market of San Francisco,
photography galleries used a variety of means to advertise
and lure potential clients including this coupon made to
look like United States currency. It proudly touted that it
received the gold medal in 1874 for the “best photographs
in the United States.” It also advertised that its studio
boasted “the only elevator connected with photography in
the world.”
Above: A one dollar gold note used by
Bradley and Rulofson to advertise their
photographic business.
Below: A woman holding a stereograph viewer, ca. 1875.
This striking portrait was published by Bradley and Rulofson,
one of the leading photographic firms in the Far West.
[sheet music] Kalakaua March. Composed by
Louis Bödecker. San Francisco: M. Gray, ca. 1874.
Albumen photograph by Bradley and Rulofson.
This photographically illustrated sheet music was dedicated to David Kalakaua, King of Hawaii, 1831-1891.
In an era before the halftone and other photomechanical processes, publishers laboriously pasted in original
photographs to illustrate their publications. Bradley and
Rulofson and their contemporaries provided thousands
of original photographs for sheet music, city directories,
periodicals, and even menus.
Bridge at Clark’s. ca. 1867. Albumen mammoth
plate-print. 15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Bradley and Rulofson published this print and employed
photographers like Eadweard Muybridge. Located at
Wawona, this was the first bridge over the South Fork
of the Merced River. Galen Clark, the famous Yosemite
guide, built the bridge in 1857.
Yosemite Falls from Glacier Point. 1872. Albumen
mammoth-plate silver print. 15 ¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
More than likely, Eadweard Muybridge took this exquisite
view. The depth of field in this plate is amazing. Bradley
and Rulofson secured his services in 1873 and published
a catalog of his Yosemite views.
Pigeon Point Lighthouse, San Mateo County. ca. 1875.
Albumen mammoth-plate print. 15¾ x 20 ¼ inches.
Unfortunately, the name of the photographer is not given.
More than likely, Carleton E. Watkins made this gorgeous
view. Note the posing of figures at the top of the 115foot lighthouse tower, a characteristic Watkins technique.
Located nineteen miles south of Half Moon Bay, the lighthouse was completed and lit on November 15, 1872.
21
Left: As demonstrated by this print,
Monterey photographer C. W. J.
Johnson combined a number of
skills to make a living.
Albert H. Wulzen (1844–1917). Panorama
of Oakland, Cal. Oakland, Calif.: A. H. Wulzen,
1879. Albumen prints consisting of seven plates.
8 ½ x 72 inches.
The fifth panel shows a photographer’s tent and wagon
and each panel includes a handwritten description by an
unknown writer. Taken from San Pablo and 14th Streets
the prints are as follows: (1) 13th Street?; (2) 14th Street
looking west, roof of public library; (3) San Pablo Avenue;
(4) San Pablo Avenue; (5) junctions of 14th, Broadway and
San Pablo Avenue; (6) junctions of 14th, Broadway and San
Pablo Avenue and the Grand Central Hotel; and (7) Washington Street looking south. A native of Germany, Wulzen
came to San Francisco in 1856 and practiced photography
in Oakland beginning in 1874. Prior to this, he had worked
for Carleton E. Watkins, the celebrated landscape photographer. The two end panels measure 8 ½ x 8 ¾ inches and the
five inner panels measure 8 ½ x 11 ⅛ inches.
THE OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE
HOTEL DEL MONTE
Charles Wallace Jacob Johnson
DOCUMENTING MARE ISLAND
22
Photographer unknown. Interior View of U. S. S.
Mohican. Albumen print. 13 x 16 inch oval. Mare
Island Photo Album, Solano County. ca. 1875.
This amazing view is the first plate in an album containing
thirty-eight albumen silver photographs of the Mare Island
shipyard. The large folio album provides a fabulous visual
summary of the graceful ships its workers created and repaired, as well as the dry docks, support buildings, military
housing, and background views of the city of Vallejo. The
view of the frame of the hull of the Mohican demonstrates
the photographer’s compositional skills. For added impact
in the album, many of the prints are trimmed in oval
shapes. Unfortunately, the photographer who created these
prints did not insert his name in the negative or anywhere
in the album. It is possible that James G. Smith’s Solano
Photographic Art Studio, the principal photographic
establishment in Vallejo in the 1870s, received a commission from the Navy to make the views.
(1833–1903). [untitled] Self-portrait of the
photographer at his negative retouching stand.
ca 1888. Modern silver print. 8 x 10 inches.
Johnson, for many years, made a living as the official
photographer of the Hotel del Monte, the posh seaside
resort on the Monterey Peninsula during the 1880s and
1890s. He came to California in 1857 working in the goldfields and the mines of Austin, Nevada. In 1868, he took
up photography and formed a partnership in Eureka with
a William N. Tuttle. They called themselves “heliographic
artists.” Johnson continued photography in various locations
before securing work at the Hotel del Monte in the early
1880s. He recorded the great fire of 1887 that consumed
the hotel. In addition to photographing guests at the hotel,
Johnson took his dry-plate camera around the Monterey
area recording Carmel Mission, city of Monterey, Carmel
Valley, and the area’s sublime natural features.
[Untitled]. C. W. J. Johnson with his “one man band”
invention. ca. 1890. Modern silver print.
Proving that photography was a sometimes-problematic
business; the photographer of the Hotel del Monte also
supported himself with his musical talent, playing his
instruments at night and taking photographs by day. In
addition, he also ran a dancing school.
Above: “Honest John.”
George Fiske used this
mule and sleigh to transport
his photographic equipment
during the winter months
at Yosemite.
Right: Johnson’s photograph
parlors at the Hotel del Monte,
Monterey Peninsula.
Photograph Parlors. ca. 1890. Modern silver print
made from Johnson dry-plate glass negative.
8 x 10 inches.
Following the burning of the Hotel del Monte, Johnson
established his gallery in this secure brick building adjacent
to the hotel’s fire department. Shown in this picture is a
flock of peacocks roaming in front of his business. Note
the number of photographs displayed on the outside of the
front façade. Johnson operated in the Monterey area from
about 1881 until 1898. In 1920, Mrs. Francis M. Hilby
of Monterey donated to the Library Johnson’s glass plates,
hundreds of his mounted and unmounted prints, diaries,
and business correspondence. It forms an extraordinary
archive of a pioneer California photographer.
YOSEMITE’S FIRST YEAR-ROUND PHOTOGRAPHER
George Fiske (1835–1918). “Honest John.”
Albumen cabinet card. ca. 1885.
Captivated by the beauty of the Yosemite Valley, George
Fiske, a native of New Hampshire, built his home and
studio on the valley floor in 1883. In so doing, Fiske
became the first photographer to live in the valley yearround. Honest John was one of his trusty mules that he
used to transport his equipment (the other mule was
called “Bake”). During the winter, he put snowshoes on
the mule so Honest John could drag his sleigh. In addition
to this print, the Library has an album of sixty-one 5 x 8
inch prints made from dry-plate negatives entitled Fiske’s
Photographs of Yosemite and Big Trees, c. 1885.
23
George Weingarth. Ferndale
[photographic] Gallery, Pasadena. ca. 1882.
Albumen silver boudoir card. 5 ¼ x 8 ½ inches.
One of the earliest photographic establishments in the
resort town of Pasadena, the Ferndale Gallery was located
in one of the “instant buildings” that dotted the San
Gabriel Valley during the boomer era. Surrounded by
young citrus trees, Weingarth’s family and friends
optimistically posed on the steps of his gallery.
STOCKTON’S LEADING PHOTOGRAPHER
J. Pitcher Spooner (1845–1917).
Photograph Parlors. Albumen cabinet view.
ca. 1876. 4 x 6 ¼ inches.
Spooner was Stockton’s principal photographer with his
gallery located at 171, 173, and 175 Main Street in the Yosemite Theater Building. Photographs of a photographer’s
studio are quite rare. This cabinet size view documents
how photographers in cities preferred the upstairs in order
to capture as much light as possible. This was especially
important in making portraits. Photographers used the
roof to make solar or contact prints from their negatives.
William H. Fletcher (1838–1922). Panorama
Top: J. Pitcher Spooner’s
photograph parlors in Stockton.
Bottom: Logotype of Stockton pioneer
photographer J. Pitcher Spooner.
24
from Belmont Hotel, Los Angeles. ca. 1889. Three gelatine silver prints. 5 x 7 inches each.
A native of Vermont, Fletcher came to Los Angeles during
the boom years of the 1880s. Captivated by what he saw,
he recorded with his dry-plate camera the mushrooming
growth of his adopted city. Fletcher took the view shown
here from the top of the observation tower of the Belmont Hotel, and it depicts a virtually empty city looking
toward the Hollywood Hills. The far right shows Angelino
Heights, the first suburb of Los Angeles. The far left view
stretches toward Santa Monica and the Pacific Ocean.
Fletcher also took his camera to the developing beach
communities, interior towns of Pasadena and Monrovia, and the Franciscan missions of Southern California.
Through the generosity of Mead B. Kibbey, the State
Library acquired Fletcher’s archive of 900 glass negatives
and mounted photographs.
Photographer unknown. [untitled] California Camera
Club. ca. 1900. Gelatin silver print. 8 x 10 inches.
Taken at an unknown location, this striking photograph
documents the popularity of photography with amateur
“sun artists.” With George Eastman’s development of the
easy to handle, hand-held camera and fast negative speeds,
everyman became his/her own photographer.
Photographer unknown. Cone Ranch, near Red Bluff,
Tehama County. Six-part panorama. ca. 1900. Gelatin
silver prints. Six prints each 6 x 7 inches.
Joseph Spencer Cone purchased Rancho Rio de los Berrendos, a 14,000- acre ranch located on the east bank of
the Sacramento River near Red Bluff in 1869. Evidently,
he commissioned this album of twenty-three photographs
of his ranch that featured wheat, fruit orchards, cattle, and
sheep. Unfortunately, the photographer shown here with
his dry-plate camera is unknown. This panorama of six 6
x 7 inch photographs of the oak-shrouded ranch carpeted
with leaves dramatically captures the pastoral days of
California.
Charles F. Lummis (1859–1928). The Home of
Ramona. Photographs of Camulos, the Fine Old Spanish
Estate Described by Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson. 1888.
Album of cyanotypes (blue prints).
Jackson’s famous novel, Ramona, inspired a nostalgic
interest in California’s Hispanic past. One of the supposed
places visited by the novel’ s heroine is Camulos, the Ygnacio del Valle adobe of Ventura County. It is an excellent
example of how an author employed actual photographs
to illustrate a book. Lummis, one of Southern California’s
most important intellectuals and a fine photographer in
his own right, made these twelve cyanotypes from dryplate negatives. Invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842,
the cyanotype was the first non-silver photographic process
and was noted for being simple and cheap to produce.
INTO THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY
Louis J. Stellman (1877–1961). [untitled] Candid
Photograph of the Photographer. c1911. Silver gelatin
print. 4 x 2 ½ inches.
Shown here with his trusty detective camera, Stellman
continued the work of Arnold Genthe in recording San
Francisco’s Chinatown. As Stellman’s biographer Richard
H. Dillon noted, he “is one of the few men who appreciated the color and strange beauty of Chinatown and senses
its evanescence.” From 1911 to the 1930s this newspaperman made thousands of photographs of Chinatown’s
people, festivals, schools, and businesses. Prowling its
streets and alleys, he used his detective camera to capture
a candid, unobtrusive look of this Cathay in El Dorado.
The Stellman Collection is one of the largest in the Library
created by a single photographer.
“THE CHINESE MARK TWAIN”
Dr. Ng Poon Chew, Editor of the Chung Sai Yat Po.
Silver gelatin print, no date. 5 x 6 ½ inches.
Dr. Chew (1866 – 1931) the founder and editor of Chung
Sai Yat Po or Chinese Journal, the first and largest Chinese
daily outside of China, posed for this handsome portrait
by Stellman. Because of his keen sense of humor, Dr.
Chew was known as the “Chinese Mark Twain.” Stellman’s
portrait of the famed editor and lecturer is one of 16,000
views he made of San Francisco and its Chinatown, the
Mother Lode, and parts of the American West from pre1906 Earthquake and Fire days to the 1940s.
THE UNOFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER
OF SACRAMENTO
Harold James McCurry. Home and Equipment
of McCurry Foto Co., Official Photographers California
State Fair, 1909 –1925. Silver gelatin print. 9 ⅛ x 13 ⅜
inches.
No less than thirteen cameras of all sizes and four photographers are depicted in front of the McCurry Foto Company studio on 731 I Street in Sacramento. Founded in 1909
by Harold James McCurry, the company produced the
most important photographic record of Sacramento and
its environs, including pictures of politicians, state fairs,
parades, businesses, street scenes, transportation, natural
disasters, and farmlands. In addition to the thousands of
McCurry prints and negatives, the State Library also has a
five-volume negative index that records photographs taken
by the company from 1909 to ca. 1950.
SHAPES OF CLAY
Gladding, McBean and Company, Lincoln
Plant. [untitled] Gargoyle for Knickerbocker Build-
ing, Los Angeles. Gelatin silver print by Mary Swisher
made from dry-plate negative. 16 x 20 inches.
In 1983, the famous terra cotta works donated to the State
Library its magnificent collection of over 10,000 dry plate
and flexible film negatives. The archive documents the ornamentation of thousands of buildings in the West including the State Library’s own building at 914 Capitol Mall.
Mary Swisher, a superb documentary photographer, made
possible the acquisition of this magnificent collection.
Home and Equipment of McCurry
Foto Co., Official Photographers
California State Fair, 1909 –1925.
Thirteen cameras and four photographers are recorded in this view by
Sacramento’s leading photographer,
Harold James McCurry.
Mott Studios. Eastman Kodak Company [lab],
6706 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, Ca. ca. 1930.
Silver gelatin print. 8 x 10 inches.
The Mott Studios of Los Angeles, for several decades,
served as one of the primary architectural photography
firms in Southern California. Its views of the art deco and
zigzag moderne styles are particularly significant. They
recorded such important structures as Bullocks Wilshire,
Mayan Theater, Los Angeles City Hall, Wiltern Theater,
and Eastern-Columbia Building. In the late 1980s, the
Library acquired the Mott Studios’ archive from Bernard
Merge which consisted of tens of thousands of prints and
negatives documenting hundreds of interior and exterior photographs of businesses, resorts, hotels, theaters,
apartment buildings, and shops. Many demonstrate the
influence of Hollywood glamour on the area’s architecture.
Merge, an architectural photographer, purchased the Mott
Studios in the 1950s.
25
Mott Studios. [untitled] Bullocks Wilshire
Department Store, 3050 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.
1929. Silver gelatin print. 8 x 10 inches.
Over 400 images by the Mott Studios present a tour
de force of this “contemporary cathedral of commerce”
shortly before its opening in 1929. Designed by John and
Donald Parkinson, the building stood proudly on the
south side of Wilshire Blvd. as the most exquisite example of zigzag moderne design in California. Its interior
furnishings from cosmetic counters to the linoleum floors
reflected the architect’s vision. Bullocks Wilshire now
houses a law school.
ILLUSTRATED BY ANSEL ADAMS
Ansel Adams and Mary Austin. Taos Pueblo,
Photographed by Ansel Easton Adams and
Described by Mary Austin. San Francisco, 1930.
20 p., 1 leaf, 12 plates.
A great photographer, Ansel Adams; a noted writer,
Mary Austin; an accomplished printing house, The
Grabhorn Press; distinguished designer, Valenti Angelo;
and a respected bookbinder, Hazel Dreis, all combined
to make one of the most distinctive photographically
illustrated books of the twentieth century. Additionally,
noted photographer Will Dassonville made the printing
paper for Adams. Devoted to that ancient Indian village
in northern New Mexico, Taos Pueblo is embellished with
twelve original Adams photographs. According to the
folio’s prospectus, “a unique feature in book making is
that the same paper will be used for both prints and text.”
Approximately 1,300 original photographs were made for
this folio. Supported by philanthropist and collector Albert
Bender, Taos Pueblo originally sold for $75. The Grabhorn
Press printed only 108 copies of this handsome work and
the State Library obtained copy number 86.
THE CHANGING FACE OF LOS ANGELES
William Reagh. The Changing Face of Los Angeles,
Third and Hill Streets. 1955–1986. Silver gelatin prints.
10 x 13 ¼ inches each.
William Reagh was one of those remarkable documentarians who had the foresight to visit the same location over
several decades to record this world-class city’s ever-changing face. Shown are three views he made of the same
intersection taken at 1955, 1978, and 1986. The first
photograph shows that famous landmark Angels’ Flight;
the second depicts a barren hill at the same intersection
stripped of its past glory; and the final print records a city
transformed crowned with sleek glass and steel skyscrapers. Long a resident of Los Angeles, this skillful photographer with an eye to history, visually recorded the advent
of towering office buildings, the leveling of Bunker Hill,
street people, the city’s ethnic diversity, and the rise and fall
of the business district. To obtain his views, he relied upon
large-format cameras including 6 x 6, 6 x 7, and 6 x 9 inch
instruments, as well as a Speed Graphic 4 x 5. The Library
obtained Reagh’s archive consisting of over 40,000 prints
and negatives.
POSITIVE PHOTOGRAPHS ON GLASS
Photographer unknown. [untitled] California State
Capitol Building. Glass positive. ca. 1877-78.
11 x 14 inches.
This beautiful and large glass positive depicts the northwest side of the Capitol shortly after the second fence was
installed. The white picket fence came from salvaged scaffolding and served to keep out wandering cows and horses.
Photographer unknown. [Untitled]. Glass Transparency/positive of Southern Pacific RR Train on Bridge
over River Canyon (possibly Canyon Diablo Bridge,
Arizona). ca. 1890. 9 ½ x 11 inches. Image surrounded
by etched glass and metal frame.
The anonymous photographer of this glass positive brilliantly captured the drama of the rugged desert landscape
as the train rested on this seemingly precarious bridge that
straddled this precipice.
26
Photographer unknown. Kratona, Hollywood. ca. 1910.
Whole-plate autochrome.
The autochrome was the first commercial form of color
photography. Invented in 1903 by August and Louis
Lumière, the process flourished from about 1907 to the
1930s before being superseded by Kodachrome film. An
autochrome is a colored glass transparency. Each is unique.
The colors come from layers of translucent granules of
potato starch dyed red, blue, or green. A diascope like the
one in this display was used to view the color plate. The
diascope held the autochrome in place at the top allowing
light to pass through it to a mirror. The viewer would actually be looking at the image via the mirror. Protective sides
kept out ambient light.
Arthur Clarence Pillsbury (1870–1946).
Rocks and Snow. Yosemite Valley. ca. 1916. Full-plate
silvertone. 12 ½ x 15 ½ inches.
Rare when compared with the orotone, the silvertone
was produced by the same method except that the back
TWO NON-CALIFORNIA TREASURES
Philip Henry Delamotte (1821–1889).
Photographic Views of the Progress of the Crystal Palace,
Sydenham, Taken during the Progress of the Works . . .
London: Crystal Palace Co., 1855. 2 volumes.
Housed in this two-volume work are the earliest paper
photographs in the State Library’s collection. Adolph
Sutro, the great San Francisco bibliophile acquired the set
sometime in the 1880s, and it is one of the treasures of
the State Library’s Sutro Library Branch. The 160 prints
made from wax paper negatives date from the preparation of the site of the Crystal Palace in London in August
1852 until the reopening of the Crystal Palace in June
1854 by Queen Victoria. Invented in 1851 by Gustave Le
Gray, this method improved upon the calotype negative by
waxing the paper before sensitization thus preventing the
chemicals from sinking into the paper fibers. By waxing, Le Gray greatly increased the sharpness and clarity of
the image. Following the Great Exhibition of 1851, the
sprawling exhibition hall known as the Crystal Palace was
dismantled and reassembled at Sydenham Hill, south of
London. A fire destroyed the great glass and steel building in 1936. This particular set was previously owned by
Matthew Digby Wyatt, himself the author of a great book
of chromolithographs on the exhibition and co-director of
the Fine Art Department of the exposition.
Alexander Gardner, (1821–1882). Rays of
Sunshine from South America. Washington, D.C:
Philip & Solomons, 1865 .
Gardner, the famed American Civil War photographer,
created this album of seventy-one gorgeous albumen photographs of Lima, Peru and the Chincha Islands, thirteen
miles off Peru’s southwestern coast. M. Moulton, probably a Gardner assistant, actually made the negatives and
Gardner made the prints. Moulton took a series of eerily
beautiful views of the great island guano heaps, including
the transport ships, loading of fertilizer, and men working
on the heaps in this rainless region. Described in the text
as “the richest fertilizing material known to agriculture,”
Gardner worried that this seemingly unlimited supply
would soon be exhausted. Somehow, Philip and Solomons
published produced this album during the final days of
the war.
was painted with a silver pigment. Pillsbury gained fame
for his striking views of Yosemite. A photojournalist, he
moved to the great valley after covering the 1906 San
Francisco Earthquake and Fire. In addition to producing
ortones and silvertones, he sold picture postcards under
the name of the Pillsbury Photo Company. Ever inventive, he is credited with creating the first circuit panoramic
camera and a time-lapse camera for photographing wildflowers in Yosemite.
The Gates. Yosemite Valley. ca. 1910.
Full-plate orotone. 16 ¾ x 19 ¾ inches.
Also known as a goldtone, the orotone consists of a glass
plate coated with light sensitive gelatin silver. After the
plate was exposed, the photographer painted the back of
the glass with a gold pigment mixed with banana oil to
give it its rich tonal qualities. For protection, the ortone
was then placed in a protective frame. Edward S. Curtis,
the noted photographer of Native Americans, also employed this strikingly beautiful method.
A spectacular glass positive of a Southern Pacific train perched on a bridge in Arizona, ca. 1890.
27
GLOSSARY
Author’s note: O. Henry Mace’s Collectors Guide to Early Photographs (Iola, WI:
Krause Publications, 1990) contains a useful glossary of antique photography terms and
was most helpful in compiling the definitions below as well as several Internet sources.
Gary F. Kurutz
Members of the California
Camera Club posed for
this engaging photograph.
Albumen: The white of an egg, it was used by photogra-
phers as a base for holding light-sensitive silver on glass or
paper. It was used extensively in the 1860s and 1870s.
Ambrotype: Invented by Frederick Scott Archer in the
early 1850s, the ambrotype consisted of a negative image
formed on a sensitized sheet of glass (collodion-coated). By
painting the back black or putting black paper behind the
image, it appeared as a positive. For protection, it was put
in a case.
Boudoir print: Slightly larger than the cabinet card
(8 ¼ x 5 inches), this style was popular in the late 1870s
and used by C. E. Watkins.
Cabinet card: Measuring 4 ¼ x 6 ½ inches, the
cabinet card usually supported an albumen print and was
popular in the 1860s and 1870s.
Caret de visite: Popular in the 1860s, the “CDV”
or calling card photograph measured 2 ½ x 4 ¼ inches. Its
mount held an albumen photograph. The back or verso
often was imprinted with a photographer’s logo.
Cased image: Daguerreotype, ambrotypes, and some-
times tintypes were placed in a protective cased made of
leather or plastic. The case also consisted of a glass covering
over the image, a mat usually made of brass, and a velvet
pad on the left side.
Collodion: Used to sensitize glass for the wet-plate
negative process, collodion or gun-cotton is a highly
flammable, viscous pale yellow liquid solution of nitro cellulous, alcohol and ether.
Cyanotype: Invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842,
the cyanotype or blue print was the first non-silver photographic process and was noted for being simple and cheap
to produce.
Daguerreotype: The first popular form of photogra-
phy and invented in 1839, the daguerreotype was produced
on a silver-coated copper plate. After the photographer
exposed the plate, it was then exposed to mercury vapors
which, in turn, brought out the image. Consequently, the
daguerreotype is sometimes called a “latent image.”
28
Dry plate: A gelatin-based glass negative is one that
has been pre-sensitized. Becoming popular in the 1880s,
such negatives supplanted the slower and much more
tedious wet-plate process.
Ferrotype: The more popular term for this photo-
graphic process is the tintype. However, the plates were
actually made from sheets of iron and not tin.
Gelatin: Becoming popular in the 1880s, gelatin made
from boiled animal bones and skins was used as the base
for photographic film and plates.
Glass positive: The negative was printed directly
onto sensitized glass. It was viewed by transmitted light.
Mammoth plate and print: Made famous by C.
E. Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, and others, the mammoth plate was made from a wet-plate negative 16 x 20
inches or larger in size.
Orotone: A positive image on glass with its back
painted or backed in gold. The silvertone uses the same
process. Yosemite photographer A. C. Pillsbury created
orotones and placed them in elegant, protective frames.
Stereograph: Consisting of paired photographs of
the same image, stereographs were created by using two
cameras at slightly different angles or with a double-barreled camera. By placing them in a stereoscope, the viewer
would see one image in three dimension. The stereograph
gained popularity in the 1860s.
Tintype: Also known as the ferrotype or melainotype,
the tintype consisted of a sheet of iron with a Japan varnish. Popular during the Civil War era, it was used as late
as 1930.
Waxed negative: Invented in 1851 by Gustave Le
Gray, this method improved upon the calotype negative by
waxing the paper before sensitization thus preventing the
chemicals from sinking into the paper fibers. By waxing,
Le Gray greatly increased the sharpness and clarity of the
image.
Wet-plate: The negative image was placed on a sen-
sitized sheet of glass coated with collodion. This type of
plate had to be exposed and fixed while still wet.
Joseph B. Starkweather
(b. ca. 1822)
Joseph Starkweather (New York born) is identified as
a daguerreotypist by the inclusion of his collection of
work from 1852 in the Fifteenth Industrial Exhibition
of the Mechanics’ Institute of San Francisco, in 1880.
Starkweather worked as a fancy goods dealer in
Boston before officially embarking on the career that
occupied him as far as can be traced—the career of
photographer. From 1854-1863, Starkweather maintained residence in Boston as a daguerreotypist. He
then moved his work to San Francisco around 1867,
to operate the T. C. Lancy and J. B. Starkweather
California Photographic Gallery. Though the partnership broke-up after only two years, Starkweather again
teamed up from at least 1881-1893, this time with his
son, Herbert J. Starkweather.
The photographer’s personal history remains highly
elusive to the world today, completely dropping off
from public record in 1904. However, Starkweather
does leave us with some incredible examples of early
photography.
Bibliography
Andrews, Ralph W. Picture Gallery Pioneers. New
York: Bonanza Books, 1964.
Haas, Robert Bartlett. Muybridge: Man in Motion.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.
Harris, David, and Eric Sandweiss. Eadweard
Muybridge and the Photographic Panorama of San
Francisco, 1850-1880. Cambridge: The MIT Press,
1993.
Hendricks, Gordon. Eadweard Muybridge: The Father
of the Motion Picture. New York: Grossman Publishers,
1975.
Hirsch, Robert. Seizing the Light: A History of
Photography. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
The Library of Congress Online. “Lawrence and
Houseworth Collection.” Prints and Photographs
Online Catalog. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/lawhouhtml/
lawhouback.html.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Online. “Carleton
Watkins and the West: 1860s-1870s.” Timeline of Art
History. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/phws/
hd_phws.htm.
Nickel, Douglas R. Carleton Watkins: The Art of
Perception. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1999.
Palmquist, Peter, and Thomas R. Kailbourne.
Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical
Dictionary, 1840-1865. Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 2000.
Isaiah W. Taber
(1830-1912)
The year 1830 produced the birth of yet another
ambitious man to pursue photography, from New
Bedford, Massachusetts. First, though, Isaiah Taber
followed several entrepreneurial pursuits, including an 1850 voyage to Valparaíso, Chile, aboard the
Hebe. While his friends stayed in California to mine
for gold, Taber traded firearms for wild hogs, and
arrived back in San Francisco comparatively wealthy.
In 1852, Taber tried his hand at running a ranch in
the Sierra foothills; he worked hard and made a profit,
but nonetheless prescribed the farming profession
for “someone with less imagination.”5 Taber’s return
to New Bedford brought on a third profession of
dentistry, in 1854, which he considered “rather a dull
profession.”6 Luckily his subsequent career choice
endured and he began working as a photographer.
He learned through the technique of ambrotype,
but switched to daguerreotypes upon opening his
first gallery in New Bedford. Taber ventured through
many partnerships with family and friends before
making a seven-year commitment to the firm of
Bradley & Rulofson. Soon after, Taber introduced a
new format of photography, called the “promenade
photograph” (4 x 7 inches), which better suited
standing portraits. Later he marketed a bas-relief
type of photograph that was invented by his brother.
These were just two of his many unique creations, all
of which never provided him with the opportunity
he would gain from his 1876 acqusition of Carleton
Watkins’s negatives, equipment, and even studio. The
new gallery opened under the name I. W. Taber and
Company, giving him an edge to the title as premier
photographer of the west.
Taber remained in the spotlight until San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake that shattered an estimated
one hundred tons of his glass negatives. Rather than
rebuild his business, he happily retired with a large
repertoire and a great collection of views of the
Pacific Coast.
Carleton E. Watkins
(1829-1916)
Watkins lived in Oneonta, New York from his birth
until 1851. He, like his contemporaries, moved to San
Francisco, California where he received an apprenticeship as a portrait photographer under daguerreotypist
Robert Vance. At twenty-nine, Watkins established an
independent practice, photographing mining operations and land claims for financiers who were building
their careers in the young state of California.
Just three years later, Watkins traveled with one
of his patrons to Yosemite and was struck by its vast
beauty. He then decided to return to the site with his
camera, in effect producing 20 mammoth-plates (18 x
22 inches) and 100 stereo views. Watkins’s photographs of the valley were among the first to be sent
to the east coast, where the stunning views became
famous. The 1861 suite of photographs launched
Watkins’s career, and he was honored with the naming
of Mt. Watkins at Yosemite.
Watkins established the fundamentals for American
landscape photography. His yearning to capture the
entire span of imagery led Watkins, not surprisingly, to
the panorama format; he used this method to photograph Yosemite, as well as the city of San Francisco.
Over a 15-year period from the mid 1860s to the
late 1870s, Watkins concentrated on the 180-degree
panorama using various photographic formats—from
stereographs to mammoth plates—discovering which
aesthetic result he preferred best. The remarkable individuality in Watkins’s work comes from his unmatched
clarity, and non-traditional composition. He combined with the “rigorous sense of pictorial structure
a virtuoso mastery of the difficult wet-plate negative
process.”7 Watkins undoubtedly worked to fulfill a passion for the art, because not only did the artist delight
in giving away his prints, he seemed almost opposed to
exchange his work for money.
(Footnotes)
1 Peter Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourne, Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840-1865 (Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 2000), 116.
2 The Library of Congress Online, “Lawrence and Houseworth Collection,” Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, http://lcweb2.loc.
gov/pp/lawhouhtml/lawhouback.html.
3 Eadweard Muybridge, “Prospectus” (San Francisco: Morse’s Gallery, 1877), quoted in David Harris and Eric Sandweiss, Eadweard Muybridge and the Photographic Panorama of San Francisco, 1850-1880 (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1993), 37.
4 Ibid., 46.
5 Ralph W. Andrews, Picture Gallery Pioneers (New York: Bonanza Books, 1964), 63.
6 “Illustrated Interviews No. 1: Colonel I. W. Taber,” Camera Craft, October 1900, 342, quoted in Peter Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourne, Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840-1865 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 538.
7 The Metropolitan Museum of Art Online, “Carleton Watkins and the West: 1860s-1870s,” Timeline of Art History, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/phws/hd_phws.htm.
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