Warm Springs Hotel Lake Tahoe 1876 - 1880

Carleton Watkins created this circular albumen print of the Warm Springs Hotel at Lake Tahoe, a luxury resort, during a period of significant transformation in the American West. Watkins’s photographs often romanticized the landscape, contributing to a narrative of pristine wilderness ready for development. Yet, this image offers a glimpse into the complexities of that era. The hotel stands as a symbol of leisure and privilege against the backdrop of indigenous lands. Note the construction and the felled trees; these details allude to the environmental impact of such developments. The circular format itself feels like a framing, almost as if to suggest a selective view of progress. Watkins's work invites us to consider the intertwined narratives of expansion, environmental change, and the displacement of native populations. What does it mean to create an image that is at once a sales pitch and an historical record?