Getty Museum

[Section of the Grizzly Giant]

Creator

American Photographer · 1829–1916

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At twenty, Carleton Watkins headed out to California to make his fortune. After working as a daguerreotype operator in San Jose, he established his own practice and soon made his first visit to the Yosemite Valley. There he made thirty mammoth plate and one hundred stereograph views that were among the first photographs of Yosemite seen in the East. Partly on the strength of Watkins's photographs,

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Date: 1865–1866
Medium: Albumen silver print
Culture: American
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

Carleton Watkins first photographed the base of the grizzly giant with Galen Clark, Yosemite's caretaker, in 1861. At that time, fallen branches so large they were the size of ordinary trees surrounded the base of the giant sequoia. In this image, taken five years later, the area around the tree had been cleared, giving it a less rugged, more park-like appearance. Although Yosemite Valley attracted artists and wealthy travelers as early as the 1850s, Watkins's images helped to further promote visitation to the site, especially after the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1859. When Watkins displayed his images of the Big Trees at the 1867 Paris International Exhibition, he added elegant redwood frames, providing a tactile hint of California for European viewers.

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