- -Commentary by Jim Snyder, Yosemite Park Historian
-Interactive maps linked to Watkins’ photographs
-Searchable transcription of the entire text
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-Octavo Digital Guide and Help files
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Josiah Dwight Whitney’s Yosemite Book is the most
spectacular record of the most celebrated scenic valley in the world. California’s first State Geologist, Whitney was one of the commissioners appointed to oversee the Yosemite Valley when it was
set aside as a park in perpetuity by the government in 1864, as part of a Congressional
Act that marked the beginning of the American system of national parks. Whitney
also supervised much of the early
scientific exploration of the Sierra Nevada, from 1860 until the Geological Survey
was disbanded in 1874. Publication of the results of the Survey was erratic and
fragmentary, but fortunately included The Yosemite Book, a splendid quarto gift
book with twenty-eight mounted photographs by Carleton E. Watkins (1829-1916),
a New York-born artist who was well-known for a series of enormous and
stereoscopic images of the Yosemite Valley that he produced in 1861. The plates
in The Yosemite Book are original albumen prints, which effectively limited the edition: only 250
copies were produced. Watkins’ original images of Yosemite were instrumental
in convincing the U.S. Congress to preserve the Yosemite Valley as “inviolate.” They are not so much a documentary record of vanished splendor as a timeless
response, the direct precursor of the work of an entire school of environmentalist photographers.
The copy of The Yosemite Book presented in this Octavo Edition is from the
Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.
The original book imaged for this digital edition:
12 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches (318 x 267 mm)
The original book imaged for this digital edition:
12 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches (318 x 267 mm)
Early Environmentalist
Remarkable for its photographs, The Yosemite Book is also notable for its text. State Geologist J.D. Whitney used historical narrative as well as the judicious coinage of place-names to stake a public claim to Yosemite. In a ringing denunciation of private claimants to plots in this unparalleled natural wonder, Whitney applied the term “national park” to the Yosemite Grant, the first recorded use of the term. In contesting private claims, Whitney took a conservationist position unusual for his time.
Remarkable for its photographs, The Yosemite Book is also notable for its text. State Geologist J.D. Whitney used historical narrative as well as the judicious coinage of place-names to stake a public claim to Yosemite. In a ringing denunciation of private claimants to plots in this unparalleled natural wonder, Whitney applied the term “national park” to the Yosemite Grant, the first recorded use of the term. In contesting private claims, Whitney took a conservationist position unusual for his time.
Extended Exposures
The logistical difficulties that had to be overcome make Carleton Watkins’ nature photographs all the more amazing. In 1866 he took four cameras to Yosemite, each for a different size negative (from stereo views to mammoth size). Watkins had to bring glass plates for each camera (the mammoth ones weighed about four pounds apiece), chemicals to prepare and develop each one, a tent for a darkroom, the bulky cameras, plus baggage and supplies for his packers and assistants – as many as six extra people. Watkins had about a ton of baggage packed on a dozen mules coming into Yosemite. Photographic excursions from his base camp required five mules to move the equipment needed for the day. Unbearable heat in the dark tent and rising breezes meant that morning was the best time for photographic work. Long early-morning exposures were required to capture foliage while still: this factor explains the lack of detail in Watkins’ views of flowing bodies of water.
The logistical difficulties that had to be overcome make Carleton Watkins’ nature photographs all the more amazing. In 1866 he took four cameras to Yosemite, each for a different size negative (from stereo views to mammoth size). Watkins had to bring glass plates for each camera (the mammoth ones weighed about four pounds apiece), chemicals to prepare and develop each one, a tent for a darkroom, the bulky cameras, plus baggage and supplies for his packers and assistants – as many as six extra people. Watkins had about a ton of baggage packed on a dozen mules coming into Yosemite. Photographic excursions from his base camp required five mules to move the equipment needed for the day. Unbearable heat in the dark tent and rising breezes meant that morning was the best time for photographic work. Long early-morning exposures were required to capture foliage while still: this factor explains the lack of detail in Watkins’ views of flowing bodies of water.
Prestigious Provenance
This copy of Whitney’s Yosemite Book was almost certainly purchased new by the Franco-American banker and entrepreneur François-Louis Pioche (1818-72), an important figure in the early history of Northern California. With extensive investments in the land and mines of California, and an interest in bringing the attractions of the state to the attention of his countrymen, Pioche was exactly the sort of local enthusiast the publisher had in mind for the book. He was a man who lived expansively, at a time of expansion. Pioche built the first street railways in California and San Francisco’s Jackson Street wharves, and largely financed the city’s early gas and water utilities. He also commissioned an engraved panorama of San Francisco that is one of the very few renderings of an American city in the manner of the Old Masters. After his mysterious suicide in 1872, Pioche’s library became a cornerstone of the collections of the newly established University of California at Berkeley.
This copy of Whitney’s Yosemite Book was almost certainly purchased new by the Franco-American banker and entrepreneur François-Louis Pioche (1818-72), an important figure in the early history of Northern California. With extensive investments in the land and mines of California, and an interest in bringing the attractions of the state to the attention of his countrymen, Pioche was exactly the sort of local enthusiast the publisher had in mind for the book. He was a man who lived expansively, at a time of expansion. Pioche built the first street railways in California and San Francisco’s Jackson Street wharves, and largely financed the city’s early gas and water utilities. He also commissioned an engraved panorama of San Francisco that is one of the very few renderings of an American city in the manner of the Old Masters. After his mysterious suicide in 1872, Pioche’s library became a cornerstone of the collections of the newly established University of California at Berkeley.
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