Lake Ah-Wi-Yah, Yosemite Valley, California

CARLETON E. WATKINS (1829-1916)

Lake Ah-Wi-Yah, Yosemite Valley, California

1861

Among the earliest American landscape photographers, Watkins became instantly famous for his views of the Yosemite Valley, which he first photographed in 1861. In an influential Atlantic Monthly article, Oliver Wendell Holmes praised Watkins for his California scenes, declaring the photographer’s compositions “a perfection of art which compares with the finest European work.” Watkins later received a prize at the Paris Universal Exposition (1867) for twenty-eight mammoth views of the Yosemite Valley. In fact, Watkins was responsible for popularizing mammoth prints, such as the one displayed here of Lake Ah-Wi-Yah, now called Mirror Lake, with Mt. Watkins in the background.

Albumen print

Princeton Collections of Western Americana, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. Gift of Thomas Lange.