“Watkins’s visual genius was in knowing exactly where to position his camera to maximize the potential of each subject. His viewpoints were consistently so perfect they set the example for all future representations by those who walked in his footsteps. . .”
Weston Naef

During his long career chronicling the American West, Carleton Watkins produced only a few glass positives, such as the masterful view of Virginia City, Nevada, offered here. Positives were made-to-order for clients, and were typically lit from behind to create a dynamic viewing experience. Very few of Watkins’ glass positives survive. Watkins scholar Peter Palmquist identified a set of six glass views of Yosemite made for California Governor George C. Pardee. A folding screen made up of Watkins Yosemite views is in the collection of the California Museum of Photography at the University of California, Riverside.

Much rarer is this single view made in Nevada, far from Watkins’s home territory of Yosemite. As of this writing, no other glass positives of Nevada are known. Weston Naef, compiler of the Watkins catalogue raisonné, locates only two albumen prints of the image, and notes that it is the central image in a three-part panorama of Virginia City.