These images established icons that furthered environmentalist ideals, helping to back claims about preservation. Grizzly Giant Watkins photographed one of the giant sequoia trees in California, the "Grizzly Giant." His photo was created with one of his mammoth plates, which allowed him to photograph the entire tree, which had not been done before. Watkins, in addition to creating an image not seen before, was already very well known, and the image rapidly gained fame. Despite the fact that Watkins was attempting to preserve the trees, the way his photograph captured American audiences led to an increase in tourism in the area, which led to larger commercialization, which led to a diminishing of the giant sequoias. References <ref California, U.S., Death Index, 1905-1939, 1905-1929, Surnames R-Z, p. 517 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1898255:5187?tid=&pid=&queryId=e33866f4ab50dbd42bbce8c01e3f5e7f&_phsrc=OOA1650&_phstart=successSource/ref/ref> Further reading Department of Photographs. "Carleton Watkins (1829–1916) and the West: 1860s–1870s." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (October 2004) External links Early Watkins Yosemite Photographs Watkins photographs in Josiah Whitney, The Yosemite Book (1869) Mammoth Plate Photographs of Yosemite Valley, 1861-1881 and Stereo Views of the West, ca. 1865-ca. 1880, The Bancroft Library (several other Watkins photo collections also available through the Online Archive of California) Mammoth Plate Photographs of the North American West by Watkins from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University Carleton Watkins Interior Views of Anaconda Mines (Butte, MT) Digital Collection of Photographs from the University of Idaho Library Digital Collections 1829 births 1916 deaths 19th-century American photographers Photographers from California Landscape photographers Nature photographers Rail transport photographers American people in rail transportation People from Oneonta, New York