Carleton Watkins, Glass Stereographs of Col. John C. Frémont's Mariposa Estate, 1860-1861

Carleton Watkins, Glass Stereographs of Col. John C. Frémont's Mariposa Estate, 1860-1861 at the Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. "...Among the earliest outdoor photographs taken by San Francisco photographer Carleton E. Watkins, these images document the Mariposa estate of Col. John C. Frémont.
Watkins was born in Oneonta, New York, in 1829. The youngest of five children of a Scots innkeeper, he became a childhood friend of Collis P. Huntington. During the California Gold Rush, the men travelled together to California, where Huntington later built a railroad empire. Watkins' introduction to photography remains obscure, but by the early 1860s, he had established his own photographic studio in San Francisco. He soon won international acclaim for his images of the Yosemite Valley. Watkins remained an active photographer until the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 destroyed his studio and his negatives. He passed away in 1916."