Down Yosemite Valley by Carleton Watkins, Published by Taber

Unmounted, large (8 x 12) albumen print c. 1870 by Watkins published by Isaiah Taber after he acquired Watkins negatives. Condition good but some handling creases and edge wear.

Carleton E. Watkins (November 11, 1829 – June 23, 1916) was a photographer in 19th-century California. He captured a series of conservation photographs of the Yosemite Valley in the 1860s that significantly influenced the United States Congress' decision to establish the valley as a National Park in 1864. He also photographed scenes of Oregon.

Most of his photographs feature landscapes or architectural features, but Watkins also photographed John Muir, Eadweard Muybridge and Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) Chief Engineer Theodore D. Judah.

Isaiah West Taber (August 17, 1830 – February 22, 1912) was an American daguerreotypist, ambrotypist, and photographer who took many pictures of noted Californians, which he donated to the California State Library "that the state may preserve the names and faces, and keep alive the memory of those who made it what it is." He was also a sketch artist and dentist.

Taber was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts and between 1845 and 1849 he worked at sea on a whaler. He first moved to California in 1850. He returned East in 1854 and opened up his first photography studio in Syracuse, New York. In 1864, he returned to California, where he worked in the studio of Bradley and Rulofson until 1873.

In 1871, Taber opened his own studio, where he gained fame for reproducing the photos of Carleton Watkins after Watkins went bankrupt, although the reproductions were published without credit to Watkins.

By the 1890s, Taber had expanded his operations to include studios in London, England and in elsewhere Europe. However, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his San Francisco studio, gallery, and negative collection, ending his photographic career.