Carleton Watkins Daguerreian in the Mother Lode
Carleton Watkins stops on his way to Marysville [Fig. 4]. He has been to see us and spent the night on his way up."[18] Marysville was the main access point for mining operations in Nevada City [Fig. 5] and its environs, such as Rough & Ready [Fig. 6], French Corral and Colusa, among many other diggings.[19]
Coincidental to the above events, acting in his capacity as a financier, Vance launched the project to record daily life in California of the Gold Rush era. Carleton is believed to have been his camera operator using materials Vance supplied.[20] As a result of well established business practice[21] Vance was the owner of all the daguerreotypes that were produced with his money, materials, and equipment. Under the principle of "work for hire," Vance naturally took a proprietary interest in all the images created under the storied Daguerreotype Panorama of California rubric [Fig. 7]. However, Carleton was the hired hand who became the hitherto unsung genius of the project.
During Huntington's absence from California in the first months of 1851, Carleton performed his job as the trusted porter delivering goods, collecting payment in the form of gold dust, and taking orders from miners, store keepers [Fig. 8], hotel operators [Fig. 9], and small jobbers [Fig. 10] in the gold fields. During these periodic journeys to the mining camps [Fig. 11] and adjacent towns [Fig. 6] and settlements, it was natural for Carleton to take with him the camera and photographic materials that were provided by Vance for his use.
Fortunately, the first months of 1851 were well suited to photography in comparison to the previous year when continuous rain from November through March made placer mining impossible. The mild weather allowed work in the gold fields to continue during the first months of 1851, when Carleton was delivering the goods and taking orders for supplies from his customers. During this process Carleton would have found time at his delivery destinations to make daguerreotypes with the customers for Huntington & Hammond merchandise as his subjects such as Smith's Exchange [Fig. 12].
The inconvenient truth is that if he had known about it, Huntington would not have approved of Carleton's sideline activity in photography. "Trust in all or not at all," was Huntington's motto, "if you make [a man] feel
[18]HEH MS 5097, Elizabeth Stoddard Huntington, ALS from Sacramento, to Elizabeth Vincent Huntington and Phoebe Huntington Pardee, June 24, 1851, where she also refers to Carleton Emmons.
[19] Remi Nadeau, Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of California, Los Angeles: Ward Richie Press, 1965, p. 118.
[20] See Chapters 10 and 11 for the structure of the Vance daguerreotype project.
[21] Seed Chapter 11 for "work for hire" sources.