| Carleton E. Watkins #925 Spring Valley Water Works / (Comparative details) n.d. Stereoview, details Private collection of Leonard A. Walle LL/42728 I am about as sure as I can be that this man at the left of your stereo view "925 Spring Valley Water Works" is Carleton Watkins himself. Compare the thick bushy hair as seen in the image, his hair under the hat, and his mustache.
As far as I know, there are only two known pictures of him: (above right) the famous rocker picture (B 3542. Primitive Mining. The Rocker. Calaveras Co., Cal. ) and the one of him being taken from his studio in San Francisco during the fire that destroyed the city and most of his glass negatives in 1906 as an 80 year old man. The story goes that he took the rocker picture for his family. Maybe this #925 Spring Valley Water Works" was done for that too.
Comments by Will Dunniway
Contemporary wet-plate collodion photographer
[January 2011]
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