American Historical Ephemera & Photography

Half plate daguerreotype, possibly a period copy as indicated by soft focus. Housed in a full leather case, the pad stamped "Geo. H. Johnson 83 J St. Sacramento, Cal." The daguerreotype depicts a group of six miners and their shovels standing by a sluice box, with another miner beside a different box at mid distance. The sluices are being fed by an enormous wooden flume, which can be seen stretching far toward the horizon. A water wheel is visible just beyond the miners. 

Johnson, one of the most prolific daguerreotypists documenting the California Gold Rush, arrived in San Francisco in January, 1849, and in July opened his first studio in Sacramento. By the summer of 1850 he was in the Sierras documenting the boom. Johnson occupied the 83 J Street address in 1852, thus providing a likely date for the image.