Vintage Yosemite: Rare Black-and-White Photos of Pristine Landscapes

“I have seen persons of emotional temperament stand with tearful eyes, spellbound and dumb with awe, as they got their first view … overwhelmed in the sudden presence of the unspeakable, stupendous grandeur.” That’s how Galen Clark, guardian of the Yosemite Grant — the act signed by Abraham Lincoln and Congress marking the first protected wild land “for all time” — described Yosemite. 

Nineteenth-century photographer Carleton Watkins captured that beauty in “Photographs of the Yosemite Valley,” a series (shown in the slideshow above) recently displayed at Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center. The exhibition, which ran from April 23 through Aug. 17, coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act and the 150th anniversary of Yosemite’s creation. 

It’s fitting, given that Watkins’ photos proved crucial to convincing then-President Lincoln and Congress to preserve the land. “They’re quite stunning,” Roberto Trujillo, head of special collections for the Stanford University Libraries, told weather.com. “They were considered photography as an art form as opposed to photography as documentation. You have this intersection of the environment and conservation and art.”

(MORE: Six National Parks to Visit) 

That they remain in such pristine condition a century and a half later is partially due to luck. “They were very well taken care of, in part because they were almost never seen. They were housed in a private home and never shown,” Trujillo said. (The final six images show the pictures as they were found, matted and framed.) 

Their unveiling was accidental, too. Connie Wolf, the museum’s director, asked Trujillo to show her some of the university’s special collections. When she learned about the Watkins work, she immediately wanted them in an exhibition. (Trujillo said the library itself doesn’t have the proper climate control to protect the images while exhibited, hence, no previous library showcase.) “I don’t think there’s ever been a show quite this large of Watkins in one place,” Trujillo said.

That fact alone would probably have surprised Watkins if he were alive. According to Trujillo, the photographer is appreciated more in death than he ever was in life. “The poor guy died pretty destitute and was mentally ill and was even committed. He died in a pretty bad state. If he knew what his prints were selling for now, and if he saw the museum exhibitions of his work … he would be quite a surprised fellow.”

To learn more about Watkins’ other work, visit the website of the Cantor Arts Center. For more about the Yosemite Grant, visit the National Park Service site.  

MORE FROM WEATHER.COM: Five Landmarks Climate Change Could Take Away