Like many young people today, Anicartha Miller, the daughter of a New York City judge, asked her acquaintances to contribute poems, sketches, and other mementos to fill her friendship album. The artist George Catlin (1796–1872), who would later be celebrated for his depictions of Plains Indians and the American West, gave her two watercolors, including this view of Niagara Falls. Acquired with support from the Barksdale-Dabney-Henry Fund. General Manuscripts Bound, no. 577, Manuscripts Division.
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In 1839, Henry Walton set up his studio in Ithaca, New York, where he made several lithographs depicting the charms of the rural community. He continued to produce views of upstate New York until he joined the gold rush to California in 1851. Gift of Leonard L. Milberg, Class of 1953. Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Collection, Graphic Arts Collection.
After emigrating from his hometown of Oneonta, New York, in 1851, Carleton Watkins found work as a photographer’s aide in San Francisco. Once in business for himself, he began photographing the Yosemite Valley and California mining scenes. His stereoviews and mammoth photographs of Yosemite made him famous and helped to influence federal legislation to protect the valley, which President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) signed on June 30, 1864. Western Americana Photographs Collection, Manuscripts Division.