In 1900, Clatworthy traveled across the Yuma Desert from Los Angeles, California to Flagstaff, Arizona via wagon and mule team.
[2] He sold some of the photographs that he shot at Grand Canyon National Park during the trip to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
In addition to serving as the base of Clatworthy's photographic operations, "Ye Littel Shop" also functioned as a curio store.
In the coming years, Clatworthy would develop additional business interests in the Estes Park area including rental cottages, a Spaulding Athletic Agency, a Kodak store, and briefly, a zippy laundry service.
[3] Clatworthy also served as the official photographer for the Stanley Hotel, Covenant Heights, and the Rocky Mountain Young Men's Christian Association.
[5] In exchange for image use rights to Clatworthy's Autochromes, railways and transportation companies began to send him on all-expenses-paid photo assignments to various locations.
[6] While Clatworthy mostly worked in national parks throughout the American West, he also traveled outside of the continental United States to shoot Autochromes.
Held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., Clatworthy's exhibition was part of an effort headed by Colorado senator John F. Shafroth to increase the area of RMNP.
Approximately 100 of Clatworthy's Autochromes accompanied photo essays in National Geographic Magazine between 1923 and 1934, and he became one illustration editor Franklin Fisher's go-to Autochromists.
[11] The National Geographic articles included: "Western Views in the Land of the Best" (April 1923); "Photographing the Marvels of the West in Colors" (June 1928); "Scenic Glories of Western United States: Autochromes" (August 1929); "Adventures in Color in Mexico's West Coast" (July 1930); "Colorado: Among the Peaks and Parks of the Rockies" (July 1932); "Sunshine Land of Fruits, Flowers and Sport" (November 1934).