German engraving of gold washing in the California diggings

1852

A steel engraving of miners washing for gold in California, published in the fifteenth volume of Meyer's Universum, a German illustrated survey of the world's sights. It was cut by the engraver Anton Rottmann for the Bibliographisches Institut at Hildburghausen. The plate shows how the rush was pictured for European readers who would never see the goldfields.