item details
NameHydraulic mining, The Flume, Nevada County, California
ProductionCarleton Watkins; photographer; 1871; San Francisco
Classificationphotographs, albumen prints, black-and-white prints
Materialssilver, printing-out paper, albumen
Materials Summaryblack and white photograph, albumen print
Techniquesblack-and-white photography
DimensionsImage: 395mm (height), 520mm (length)
Registration NumberO.005820
Credit lineAcquisition history unknown
Overview
This elevated flume hovers, stick insect-like, over the landscape. It’s been built to wash run-off away from a hydraulic mining site.
James Hector, the director of the Colonial Museum, collected these kinds of images so that New Zealand’s mining industry could learn from them in the midst of its own gold rushes.