Carleton Watkins (American - View of Wharf of the Selby Lead and Silver Smelting Works, San Francisco, Cal. - Google Art Project

Public domain photograph by Carleton Watkins, 19th-century photography, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Carleton Watkins was an American photographer, born in 1829 in Oneonta, New York. He is one of the most important American landscape photographers of the 19th century. He is known for his photographs of the American West, particularly California, which he began photographing in the late 1850s. He was one of the pioneering photographers of California and his photographs of Yosemite Valley, the California coastline, and the mining towns are some of the most important early photographs of the state. Watkins was one of the first photographers to use the wet-plate process. He was also a member of the San Francisco Art Association. He died in 1916.