DEPARTMENTS

Timeless

July/August 2014

Reading time min

Timeless

Photograph: Lent by Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries

Photography had barely been invented when Carleton Watkins (1829–1916) first trudged into Yosemite Valley in 1861 with a custom-built camera and a mule train to carry his gear. His 18-by-22-inch negatives, developed in the field, produced images that captured the scale and grandeur of Yosemite and persuaded President Lincoln and Congress to preserve the valley for public use. In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Yosemite Valley Grant Act, more than 80 of Watkins’s original prints, including “Pompompasos, the Three Brothers,” seen here, are on view at Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center through August 17.

Trending Stories

  1. Feast Your Eyes

    Environment/Sustainability

  2. Seeing through skin; science skepticism; winning with jigsaw puzzles

    News

  3. 2024 Holiday Gift Guide

    Alumni Community

  4. Meet Carson Smith

    Native or Indigenous

  5. Chips off the Old Block

    Historical

You May Also Like

© Stanford University. Stanford, California 94305.