The Mother of the Forest - Calaveras Grove
ca. 1878
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 12.5 x 12.5 cm (4 15/16 x 4 15/16 in.), circular Album page: 24 x 25.1 cm (9 7/16 x 9 7/8 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.556 (3)
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 19th century, E. Watkins captured the-inspiring grandeur of California's ancient giant sequoias with *The Mother of the Forest -averas Grove* (ca. 1878). This intimate albumen silver print, derived from a glass negative, showcases a massive sequoia—likely one of the colossal "Mother" trees in the famed Calaveras Grove— towering trunk filling the circular frame like a natural monument. Watkins, a pioneering landscape photographer, transported viewers to these prehistoric forests, evoking a sense of wonder at nature's scale. Watkins' work played a pivotal role in the conservation mo...
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 ...