Having recently fallen into an example of a lens used by Carleton Watkins, a Mammoth-size (16-inch) Harrison & Schnitzer Globe Lens, I've of course wasted hours reading all the Watkins threads here and on the 'net in general. Adding to the general knowledge, here's a photo purportedly of Watkins' camera:



from the site: http://www.undiscovered-yosemite.com...ographers.html

I have no idea if that's Watkins' camera or not, but the lens definitely looks like my Globe, and it's a pretty rare and distinctive lens, so I'm inclined to think it is. However, by the scale of the lens I'd say that's an 8x10 to 9x13 camera.

Here's the only other image I've run across claiming to show Watkins' camera, and it doesn't show much, on top of his wagon at the upper left...



from the site: http://cosweb.siskiyous.edu/shasta/art/cla.htm

About the mammoth (18x22) camera, I've found numerous references that Watkins had it custom built by a San Francisco cabinet maker. He's also reported to have used 14x21, 9x13, 8x10, whole-plate and stereo formats.

And the lenses he's known to have used:
a Grubb-C Landscape Lens, (a 15-inch achromatic doublet rated for 8x10 to 10x12),
a Harrison & Schnitzer 16-inch Globe lens, (rated for 19x23),
and an unknown Dallmeyer.

If anyone can add any information, please do.