1479
See also: O’Sullivan, Timothy Henry; Russell,
Andrew Joseph; Jackson, William Henry; Vance,
Robert; Weed, Charles Leander; and Goupil
& Cie.
Further Reading
Coplans, John, “C.E. Watkins at Yosemite.” Art in America, vol.
66, no. 6 (November/December 1978).
Naef, Weston J., and Wood, James N., Era of Exploration: The
Rise of Landscape Photography in the American West, 1860–
1885 , Buffalo and New York City, New York: Albright-Knox
Art Gallery and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975.
Nickel, Douglas R., Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception,
New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999.
Pamquist, Peter E., and Kailbourn, Thomas R., Pioneer Photogra-
phers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840–1865,
Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2000.
Palmquist, Peter E., Carleton E. Watkins: Photographer of the
American West, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico
Press, 1983.
Rule, Amy (ed.), Carleton Watkins: Selected Texts and Bibliog-
raphy, Boston, MA: G.K. Hall & Co., 1993.
WATKINS, HERBERT (1828–C.1901)
English portrait photographer
George Herbert Watkins was born in Worcester, Eng-
land, on July 12, 1828, and was still alive at the time of
the 1901 census, aged 73, and living in the Kensington
Workhouse. At the same date, his wife Augustin was
listed as a widow living alone.
Watkins’ fi rst studio opened at No.179 in London’s
Regent Street in the mid 1850s, producing high quality
portraiture, and by 1858 had moved to No.215. His fi rst
public display of his celebrity portraits was at the 1856
Exhibition of the Photographic Society in London. In the
1857 Exhibition he included portraits of Owen Jones,
George Cruikshank, and others, and a fi ne portrait of
Charles Dickens working at his desk.
His National Gallery of Photographic Portraits
with accompanying texts by Herbert Fry, a ten-part
‘photographic serial’ was published in 1857 continued
publication into 1858, each issue containing four or
fi ve portraits. By 1857 he was additionally producing
still life images and, most particularly, microphoto-
graphs. Along with John Benjamin Dancer, George
Shadbolt and Alfred Rosling, he was a leading fi gure in
the production of these tiny images. Watkins marketed
many of his portraits as cartes-de-visite throughout
the 1860s and 70s, subjects including celebrated por-
traits of Wilkie Collins, Michael Faraday and many
others.
The 1871 census listed him as living alone in St.
Pancras.
John Hannavy
WATSON, WILLIAM (1815–1881) & SONS
Optician and optics manufacturer
William Watson established his business as an optician
in 1837 in London. It moved to 313 High Holborn in
1862 and remained there until 1957 before moving to
Barnet, Hertfordshire, where it had had a manufactory
since 1906. In 1957 the fi rm was acquired by Pye and
in 1967 it was taken over by Philips, fi nally closing in
1981.
Watson’s son, Thomas Parsons Watson, was re-
sponsible for extending the fi rm’s business into optical
instrument manufacturing in 1876 when it began mak-
ing microscopes, one of its most successful and long-
lived product lines. A manufactory was established at
Dyer’s Buildings at the rear of the main premises. The
manufacturing of cameras and photographic equip-
ment commenced about the same time. By 1888 extra
manufacturing capacity was acquired at Fulwood Rents
in Holborn, and fi nally in 1906 all manufacturing was
moved to High Barnet. The factory at Barnet was de-
stroyed by fi re in 1910, was rebuilt, and further extended
in 1936 and 1950.
Although microscopes continued to be important,
photography increasingly occupied an equal position
within the fi rm and in 1878 Watson was appointed the
exclusive selling agent for Charles Bennett’s gelatine
dry plates. The fi rm’s cameras included traditional ma-
hogany tailboard such as the Tourist of 1883 and fi eld
cameras for studio and outdoor use with the patented
Acme of 1889 being one it’s most successful lines. In
1886 their Detective camera was one of the earliest hand
cameras available. A number of patents were taken out
relating to various photographic improvements.
The fi rm was an early adopter of standardisation in
camera manufacturing and in January 1888 announced
that all their own cameras would be built to standard
gauges with interchangeable fi ttings and dark slides.
These cameras were identifi able with serial numbers
from 6000 onwards starting from January 1, 1888.
Watsons introduced the Vanneck hand camera in
1890 which used an Eastman-Walker roll holder. The
camera was still being made in 1902. The Alpa of 1892
was a popular drop-baseboard camera and the 1898
Gambier-Bolton camera was a specialist refl ex camera
for use with long focus lenses. It had been designed by
F W Mills and named after a well-known nature pho-
tographer. A twin lens camera appeared in 1894. The
fi rm retailed more complex mechanical cameras from
other manufacturers, such as the stereo binocular and
monocular models made in Germany.
Their own wood cameras were usually made up in
batches of fi fty. Watson sold directly in Britain and
overseas, and made cameras for other companies to
sell under their own name. An Australian sales offi ce