Carleton Watkins “Ho! For California!”
were the natural outcome of Carleton’s first experiments with making daguerreotypes in the field in Valparaíso in the first half of 1850 (R.V. nos. 131, 130, 109, above). If this scenario is accepted then the nine Latin American views could have been a prelude to the larger project.
Another possibility is that the inspiration for the daguerreotype panorama came from something they saw on the journey from Valparaíso to San Francisco. For example, the Philadelphia artist, William McIlvaine, Jr. visited Acapulco in October of 1849 and made two landscape drawings that were published in early 1850 in his small book, Sketches of Scenery and Notes of Personal Adventure in California and Mexico (Philadelphia, 1850). McIlvaine’s book was illustrated with sixteen lithographs.[16] Copies of McIlvaine’s book could have found their way back to Acapulco. The subject of McIlvaine’s Acapulco drawing Plate XI [Fig. 3] is conceptually related to one of the now lost Acapulco daguerreotypes catalogued by Vance (no. 104 above). McIlvaine’s Plate XI was made from a position in the bay looking towards the town with mountains in the background. We see a frontal view showing palm trees, native huts built with reeds and a church. Vance described no. 104 as “Acapulco from the Bay, showing a front view of the city and mountains in the background” (my emphasis). It would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to make a sharply focused daguerreotype from the deck of a boat because even the slightest movement would cause the image to blur. Nor was there a wharf from which a daguerreian bay view could be secured, which causes us to wonder what the viewpoint for a daguerreotype view from the bay could have been?
Vance described no.103 as: “Panoramic View of Acapulco, from a hill back of the city, showing the City, Fort Harbor, with the Steamers Panama and “Sea Bird” and others lying at anchor,” with the word “Panoramic” referring to a possible multi-plate sequence like his no. 105. McIlvaine’s Plate XII [Fig. 4] was made from the same high point described by Vance, but was facing the opposite direction. We learn the names of two vessels at anchor in Acapulco Bay from Vance’s description for no. 103, the Panama and the Sea Bird. Acapulco was a routine stop on the route between San Francisco and Panama City for the ship Panama, while San Diego was the home port for the ship Sea Bird.[17]