2. Atkins, Anna. British Algae, Cyanotype Impressions. England , 3 volumes 389 Cyanotypes

Transcription

1 A Survey of Early Photographically Illustrated Books: , Including an Account of the Volumes Present in the George Eastman House Library Rare Book Collection The importance of the photograph album and the photographically illustrated book as an early format for the presentation of photographs has been largely neglected. A vast majority of 19 th century prints were originally manufactured and meant to be seen in a bound format. It is the earliest format for the presentation of the photograph for dissemination to a large audience. The earliest books illustrated with original photographs bear witness to the growth and development of early paper photography and related processes. The George Eastman House is costodian to one of the most important collections of photography in North America; half of the books listed below are part of its collection. The George Eastman House was the first museum established solely for the exhibition, collection and research of photographic prints, negatives, film, technology and the history of photography. The main body of the collection consists of the Eastman Kodak Collection, formerly the collection Gabriel Cromer, a French collector. The Cromer Collection contains primarily Early French History of Photography in the form of books, photo albums and photographs. Another core collection is the Eastman (Photographic) Historical Collection, acquired in the 1950's from American Collector Alden Scott Boyer. The collection consists primarily of early American and English Photography including photographs and albums. Another supplementary collection added in the 1970's is the 3M-Sipley Collection, named after Louis Walton Sipley, the founder and curator of the collection that was from the former American Museum of Photography. The Eastman Kodak Patent Collection was also added in the 1970's and consists of books and photographic equipment. 1. Bertolini, Antonio. [Album of Calotypes.] Salt Prints. Talbot began corresponding with Italian botanist Antonio Bertolini in 1839 after the public announcement of the calotype process and sent him samples of his photogenic drawings which the botanist assembled in a red leather binding. Bertolini's book is probably the earliest example of a printed text augmented by the use of photographs. This bound volume can only be considered an illustrated book in the broadest sense, since it is an album that has been assembled with printed clippings of scholarly articles and some of Bertolini's written correspondence with Talbot; it was produced as a unique volume and more closely resembles by definition a scrapbook. It is significant and bears mentioning because it manifests elements contained in many illustrated books subsequent to 1844-the use of photographs to augment a text on order to impart information not sufficiently conveyed by words alone.(naef p.12) This volume is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department of Photographs. 2. Atkins, Anna. British Algae, Cyanotype Impressions. England , 3 volumes 389 Cyanotypes Atkins is considered the first woman photographer and the first to print and publish a photographically illustrated book. Her photograms (made from the impression of an 1

2 object onto light sensitive paper as opposed to an image made from a negative) of botanical specimens with accompanying text has made her a pioneer in the field of scientific illustration. "British Algae" is the first book that employs photography in lieu of conventional type to present the body of a text. Atkins used her own handwriting and strands of algae to create a unique type. The book was intended as a supplement to William Harvey's "Manual of British Algae" published in 1841.(Schaaf-Sun Gardens p.8) This work was privately printed and issued serially from 1843 to 1853, printed in Sir John Herschell's blueprint process.(schaaf-pencil Facsimile p.10) The first issue was completed in October of 1843 and by 1853 she produced three volumes that comprised fourteen pages of text and 389 photographs with accompanying captions. Binding and collation of the plates was left to the subscriber; in addition, Atkins also issued replacement plates resulting in significant variation between copies with some sets containing more than 400 plates. Although this publication would have little impact on botanical illustration as a whole it should be valued for its use as a scientific didactic tool as well as for its aesthetic originality.(schaaf-sun Gardens p.9) 3. Walter, John the III. Memorial to C.M.W. [Catherine M. Walter.] England 1844 (spring). 1 Salt Print-Frontispiece The printed memorial to Catherine M. Walter and authored by her bother is the first book illustrated with an original photograph (made from a negative) to survive in multiple copies.(naef p.13) Nicolaas Henneman, Talbot's assistant and Head of the Reading Establishment photographed a bust of Miss Walter and John Henderson, assistant to Henneman made prints form this negative to be used as a frontispiece for this publication.(naef p.13) 4. Fox Talbot, William Henry. The Pencil of Nature. England 1844 (June)-1846 (April). 24 Salt Prints The Pencil of Nature-the title page and cover are chromolithograph, the body of the text is letterpress with chromolithographic borders. Talbot registered a patent for "Photographic Publication" (No. 9753) on June 1, Talbot was a friend and colleague to the botanist Anna Atkins and saw the potential of photography as applied to the illustration of books. It is the first work that uses photographs to illustrate a printed text meant for wide distribution and by the strictest definition can be considered the first photographically illustrated book. In his introduction to the Pencil, Talbot articulates the qualities that make photography a vital tool as means of illustrating books while at the same time acknowledging the limitations of his still imperfect process.(talbot- Introduction to the Pencil of Nature.) The Pencil was originally issued unbound in six parts; the first installment of Part I of 200 was delivered on June 1844 and the remaining 85 copies delivered in December. 150 copies of Part II were delivered in January By April 1846, only 100 copies of Part VI were printed. The projected output of prints was more than double that of the prints actually produced and the project took twice as long as anticipated. Technical problems and difficulties in production plagued the Establishment at Reading. The inconsistencies in both hue and tonal range of any given batch of prints was of great concern for Talbot. He cited variability of the sun's intensity 2

3 and inconsistency of paper quality for his difficulties.(talbot-introduction) The instability of Talbot's process and tendency for prints to fade did not convince his critics of the viability of photography as practical means of book illustration. On the whole the Pencil was not a success form a commercial standpoint, as poor sales seems to indicate. Unbound and complete sets of the Pencil are rare; Newhall was able to trace 24 copies of Pencil with at least eleven that are incomplete but by the 1860's more commercially practical means of illustrating books that did not rely on tipping in of original prints had been developed. The Eastman House has two copies, one bound in leather and the other in fascicles. 5. Fox Talbot, William Henry. Sun Pictures in Scotland. England Salt Prints In contrast to the Pencil, Sun Pictures in Scotland contains no text, only a letterpress title page; it's primary focus seems to be the purely visual aspects of the prints without additional text. The presentation format used for this volume will serve as a model for the way future portfolios are conceived between the years , the period in which the growth of books illustrated with photographs seems to be the greatest. This book was produced between Parts IV and V of the Pencil and seems to suggest that lack of sales of the Pencil allowed him to concentrate his efforts elsewhere.(naef p.14) 6. Committee of the Finnisher s Friendly Associtation. The Bookfinisher s Friendly Curcular. England Salt Print. The forntispiece for this publication from the book trade is a portrait of John Jaffray, an English bookbinder interested in the early history of the bookbinder s trade union. The Jaffray Collection comprised scrapbooks, accounts and memoranda created or collected by him between 1840 and 1850; it became the principal source for Eric Lowe s The London Bookbinders and John Child s The Society of London Bookbinders (Middleton, p. 56) An extant edition of this book can be found in the Melbert B. Cary Jr. Graphic Arts Collection at the Rochester Institute of Technology. 7. Hunt, Robert. ed. The Art Union. England Salt Print In the May 1846 issue of the Art Union, a salt print produced by Talbot's method was mounted by hand into the periodical and the process renamed Talbotype by the inventor.(art Union May 1846) In the July issue of the same journal, an article about the application of the Talbotype appears. This issue is significant, for it is the where subscribers to this journal were first exposed to a pictorial medium unlike any other they had seen before. In addition, the article accompanying the photograph gave an insightful account of potential influence this medium to the other visual arts.(naef p.15) Robert Hunt, as editor of the Art Union was instrumental in promoting the calotype and nurturing the early technical progress of this process despite Talbot's patent restrictions. In 1841 he published "A popular Treatise on the Art of Photography" describing the chemistry of Talbot's process. The manual was published in Scotland, where Talbot's patents restrictions did not apply. In his manual, Hunt investigates the use of gold 3

4 chloride, first used by Sir J.W. Herschell and its potential role in the permanence of calotypes.(naef p.17) 8. Hill, David Octavius and Robert Adamson. A Series of Calotype Views of St. Andrews. England Salt Prints A Series of Calotype Views of St. Andrews had only a printed title page and accompanying text. John Adamson, Robert's brother was a professor at the University in St. Andrews where he conducted pioneering research on the salts of gold based on earlier experiments of Talbot and Herschell. In all likelihood, the results of these experiments were communicated to his brother Robert. The photographs published in St. Andrews demonstrated an overall uniformity of tonality and a certain degree of resistance to fading unlike the prints in the Pencil.(Naef pp.17-8) 9. Gedenkblatter an Goethe Germany 1846 One Salt Print The photograph was of a monument of Goethe in Frankfurt. F.C. Vogel was the photographer, his signature in pencil appears on the print and is accompanied by a printed note: "The inserted reproduction was photographed by F.C Vogel, that means it was taken by light in the Camera Obscura and that prints were also copied by light."(naef p.202) This is the first photographically illustrated book to appear outside Britain as well as the first German work. The text is letterpress, there are nine lithographs including a lithographic dedication. Not all copies contain this photograph. 10. Hill, David Octavius and Robert Adamson. One Hundred Calotype Sketches. England Salt Prints One Hundred Calotype Sketches contained all the formal elements that constitute a published book: a lithograph title page, a half-title, dedication and frontispiece; and were considered by Hill as such. There are approximately twelve of these presentation volumes and all contain slight variations due to the addition of manuscript notation in each. Hill and Adamson's mastery the calotype process and allowed them to make prints of uniform tonality and permanence comparable to that of Blanquart-Evrard and Henneman.(Naef p.205) 11. Stirling, William. Annals of the Artists of Spain-Talbotype Illustrations to the Annals of the Artists of Spain. England 1848 Sixty-six Salt Prints The prints were made by Nicholaas Henneman under Stirling's supervision. It is the first work of art history to be printed with photographs.(naef p.222) 1848 marks the end of the primitive phase of books illustrated with photographs. Although Annals of the Artists of Spain was made from engravings of art works rather than the art works themselves and does not seem to not fully exploit or take advantage of the potential of photography as a graphic and didactic medium. Some copies of this publication contain a notice(naef p.16) 4

5 12. Martin, Louis-Auguste. Portraits Parlementaires Daguerreotypes. France Salt Prints The photographs in this publication are form paper negatives produced by Martin after daguerreotypes, lithographs and engravings. Annals, along with Portraits Parlementaires, are the earliest examples of books illustrated with photographs that contain texts on subjects other than photography. This is the first book illustrated with photographs produced in France.(Naef p.16, 212) 13. Macaulay, Thomas Babington. Lays of Ancient Rome: With 'Ivry' and 'The Armada.' Germany Albumen prints This volume is the earliest example of a book illustrated with a albumen prints found in the George Eastman House Library Rare Book Collection. 14. Du Camp, Maxime. Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie. France Salt Prints Produced at Louis Desire Blanquart-Evrard's Printing establishment at Lille from Du Camp's paper negatives, the prints in this published volume exhibit a extraordinary of uniformity and permanence. Working independently, he conducted experiments in order to improve upon Talbot's process. He published the results of these experiments in Instead of brushing solutions onto the paper, he floated the paper onto the solution allowing it to absorb the solution evenly and eliminating irregularities caused by application with a brush. In addition, the quality of French paper was different then English paper; it was thinner, smoother and made with a more even sheet formation. Lastly, the application of silver salts to the sheet and the use of gallic acid to develop the latent image were applied by Blanquart-Evrard as two separate steps.(blanquart-evrard p.7-10, Frizot p.68) This is the first substantive and significant photographically illustrated produced in France. The Eastman House has two copies, on is a complete set and the second lacks plates Reports by the Juries of the Exhibition of the Works of Industries of All Nations. England Salt Prints This 4 volume publication marks the first use of albumenized glass plate negatives taken by C.M. Ferrier of Paris for use in a photographically illustrated book. Hugh Owens of Bristol also generated photographs for this publication but employed paper negatives using a modification on Talbot's process. The most significant development resulting from this publication was that Talbot publicly released all previous patent restrictions related to his processes, facilitating progress in the development of photography as a means for illustrating books.(naef pp.20, 205) 16. Bridges, George M. Selections from Seventeen Hundred Genuine Photographs: Taken Around the Shores of the Mediterranean Between the Years With or 5

6 Without Notes, Historical and Descriptive by a Wayworn Wanderer. England Salt Prints Although produced after the first decade of book illustration in England, I include this publication by Bridges since it is part of the collection here at the George Eastman House. According to Paper and Light by Brettell (p90), the Reverend George M. Bridges visited Lacock Abbey in 1845 in order to learn Talbot's calotype process. Talbot, who was not there at the time gave Nicholaas Henneman permission to teach him the process. Shortly thereafter, Bridges left for a seven year journey through Southern Europe, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. He made approximately 17,000 negatives. In Johnson's Nineteenth Century Photography: An Annotated Bibliography, it was Calvert Richard Jones who taught him the process in Malta. (p106). It was from these negatives that this publication was illustrated; printed in Cheltenham by the printer Mary Hadley, possibly for limited and private circulation. He had planned several projects including the title mentioned but the number of projects actually realized remains uncertain. 17. Homes of American Statesmen. America 1854 [late 1853] 1 Salt Print The first American book published with original photographs was Homes of American Statesmen, although there exists another book, The World of Science, Art and Industry, Illustrated from Examples in the New York Exhibition, that was published the same year and that advertised a special extra illustrated edition with twelve salt prints that was advertised as to be published in the near future. Since only one copy of the book is known to exist in the Collection of Steven White, it is not know whether this copy is just an example of a publication that was never realized 18. Silliman, Benjamin J. and C.R. Goodrich eds. The World of Science, Art and Industry, Illustrated from Examples in the New York Exhibition, America Salt Prints An article in the March 1862 issue of The British Journal of Photography by S. Thompson espouses the under appreciated value of the application of photography as a means of book illustration. PART OF THE GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE LIBRARY-RARE BOOK COLLECTION 6

7 BIBLIOGRAPHY Blanquart-Evrard, Louise Desire. Procedes Employes pour Obtenir les Epreuves de Photographie sur Papier Presenter a l'academie des Science. Paris: Charles Chevalier, Bretel, Richard with Roy Flukinger, Nancy Keeler, and Sydney Mallet Kilgore. Paper and Light: The Calotype in France and Great Britain, Boston: David R Godine, Fox Talbot, William Henry. "The Application of the Talbotype." ART UNION, July 1, 1846 p.193. Fox Talbot, William Henry. The Pencil of Nature. #1, Introduction. London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, Frizot, Michel. A New History of Photography. Koln: Konemann Verlagsgessellschaft, Goldschmidt, Lucien and Weston Naef. The Truthful Lens: A Survey of the Photographically Illustrated Book New York: The Grolier Club, Johnson, William S. Nineteenth Century Photography: An Annotated Bibliography. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., Patents for Inventions: Abridgments of Specifications Relating to Photography. Great Britain Patent Office, Vol.I. London: George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Middleton, Bernard C. Highlights From the Bernard C. Middleton Collection of Books on Bookbinding. Rochester: The Melbert B. Cary Jr. Graphic Arts Collection at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Schulzte, R.S. Victorian Book Illustration with Original Photographs and by Early Photomechanical Processes. Catalog for an Exhibition held at the National Book League, London. October Schaaf, Larry. H. Fox Talbot's The Pencil of Nature, Anniversary Facsimile. Introductory Volume. New York: Hans P. Krauss Jr. Inc., Schaaf, Larry J. Sun Gardens: Victorian Photograms by Anna Atkins. New York: Aperture, "The Talbotype-Sun Pictures." ART UNION, May 1846 p

8 8