Residence of Charles Bernard. 312 Oak Street, San Francisco, California
ca. 1876
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Carole and Irwin Lainoff, Ruth P. Lasser and Joseph R. Lasser, Mr. and Mrs. John T. Marvin, Martin E. and Joan Messinger, Richard L. Yett and Sheri and Paul Siegel, 1986
Accession Number
1986.1189.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into 1870s San Francisco through Carleton E. Watkins' *Residence of Charles Bernard, 312 Oak Street*, an exquisite albumen silver print a glass negative, captured around 1876. Watkins, a pioneering American photographer renowned for his breathtaking Yosemite landscapes and detailed cityscapes, turned his lens to the city's burgeoning residential neighborhoods. This image showcases a stately Victorian-era home, emblematic of the prosperity following the Gold Rush, when San Francisco transformed from a rough boomtown into a sophisticated urban center. The albumen process, using egg whites ...
About the Artist
Carleton E. Watkins · 1829–1916
Carleton E. Watkins (1829–1916), one of America's pioneering landscape photographers, was born on November 11, 1829, in Oneonta, New York, the eldest of eight children to carpenter John Watkins and innkeeper Julia. Drawn by the Gold Rush, he arrived in San Francisco in 1851 at age 22 alongside childhood friend Collis Huntington, who later became a railroad tycoon. Initially working as a carpenter ...