Carleton Watkins Daguerreian in the Mother Lode
resulting object that has no evident single person who would have been the client for the photograph [Fig. 16]. Such pictures would appear to produce little or no revenue for the photographer and could have been self-directed subjects rather than works commissioned by a client.[27]
Mother Lode groups of miners is one of the largest categories of Gold Rush era daguerreotypes, many of which share repeated compositional choices. Several include workers of mixed ethnic backgrounds [Fig. 17]. One shows an African American man who is distinguished by his ethnicity [Fig. 18]. It must not be overlooked that Carleton, in the years following the daguerreian era, persistently incorporated Chinese and Native American people in his pictures. He was particularly sensitive to visualizing their working and living conditions.[28]
There are numerous visual clues that many Gold Rush era daguerreotypes were created by a single, gifted maker whose repeated compositional and content choices are the mark of one sensibility guiding the process. Let us compare a few unknown maker daguerreotypes with visually related salted paper prints from Carleton's first securely identified series of photographs made immediately following his work in the daguerreian era. Carleton created a series of approximately fifty collodion-on-glass negatives at locations across Las Mariposas mining estate, located at the southerly end of the Mother Lode mining district.[29] Las Mariposas was the property of John and Jessie Frémont. Carleton first connected with Jessie Benton Frémont when they traveled together on the steamship Crescent City from New York to Panama in the spring of 1849. Both were stranded in Panama City for almost two months, along with hundreds of other mostly North American travelers on the way to California.[30]
There are definite personal reasons why Carleton in 1850 or 1851 would have made a daguerreotype of the mining community named Mormon Island [Fig 2]. It is the place where Huntington and the Otsego County boys first tried their hand at mining for gold after arriving in California from Panama in August of 1849.[31] The daguerreotype like [Figs. 1, 9 and 10] would have held personal, historical relevance to Huntington and his associates.
[27] Vance (see Fig. 7) cataloged many daguerreotypes of miners at work (nos. 18, 42, 43,73, 80, 81 and 87).
[28] See mammoth-plate nos. 400, 401, 498, 727, 777, 784, 793, 813, 927-930, 951, 1011, and 1066. Chinese people are referenced in stereographs 832, 863, 1236, 1796, 1944, 2359, 2458, 3751-3765, and 4137, among others. Native Americans are referenced in stereographs 220-223, 832, 863, 1063, 1064, 1175, 1267, 1326, 1562, 1579, 2322, 2358, 2506, 2507, 4077, 4438, 4880-4884, among others.
[29] Complete Mammoth Plate Photographs, pp. 6-25.
[30] See Chapters 4 and 5.
[31] Lavender, pp. 28-29