Historic Photographs

Photographic Processes
The decades following photography's experimental beginnings in the 1820s and the public availability of a
practical photographic process from 1839 were characterised by the introduction of a bewildering proliferation of
photographic processes. Daguerre's silvered metal plate, which created a unique photographic image, was swiftly
challenged by the negative-positive processes on paper, developed and championed by William Henry Fox Talbot
and others. In the 1850s paper gave way to glass as the preferred negative support and the salted paper print of
the 1840s was superseded by albumen and other papers. This evolution was driven by a complex
interrelationship of artistic, technical and commercial needs. If individual photographers defended the superior
expressive potential of particular processes and techniques, scientific attention, aware of the fugitive silver
image's proneness to fading, was being directed towards printing processes using more permanent compounds,
such as carbon. The many different processes that were introduced during photography's first half-century
possessed both technical and artistic merits and disadvantages, and each contributed to the remarkable variety of
nineteenth-century photography. The following selection illustrates only a few of the most significant of these, but
each highlights the remarkable variety of aesthetic and technical ingenuity devoted to photography in its formative
years.

Daguerreotype

Announced in Paris in 1839, the daguerreotype was the first publicly available photographic
process. The daguerreotype image was created on a silvered metal plate exposed to iodine
fumes, forming a light-sensitive surface of silver iodide. Development was achieved by exposing
the plate to fumes of heated mercury and the image fixed in a salt solution. The daguerreotype
produced an image of remarkable sharpness, but unlike competing processes, each
daguerreotype was unique. This proved to be the major factor in its demise, compared to the
negative-positive processes, from which unlimited copies could be made. J. W. Newland, the
photographer of this portrait, had practised as a daguerreotypist in North and South America, the
Pacific and Australia, before establishing a studio in Calcutta in about 1850. Although his studio
remained successful throughout the 1850s, Newland himself died in 1857, one of the early
victims of the Indian Mutiny.

Cyanotype

One of the oldest and longest surviving photographic processes, the cyanotype or blue-print was invented by Sir
John Herschel in 1840, using a mixture of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide to produce a light
sensitive paper. As a relatively simple process to prepare and manipulate - it required no development or fixing
other than washing - it was popular among amateurs throughout the nineteenth century and has also been widely
used by engineers and architects for reproducing technical drawings ('blueprints'). This image is one of a large
collection produced by Anna Atkins between 1843 and 1853 entitled Photographs of British algae: Cyanotype
Impressions. These photographic impressions were made without the use of the camera, by placing specimens
directly onto the sensitised paper and exposing them to sunlight.

Waxed Calotype Negative

William Henry Fox Talbot's calotype process, the first practical negative-positive photographic
process, was patented by him in 1841. A sheet of good quality paper was first treated with lightsensitive silver compounds before exposure in the camera. The 'latent' image thus produced was
then developed in gallo-nitrate of silver and fixed. This concept of negative-positive photography,
allowing the production of an unlimited number of prints from a single negative, has formed the
basis of photographic practice up to the present day, and is only now being challenged by digital
imagery. The calotype negative was the subject of many refinements in the 1840s and 50s and it
was common practice for photographers to apply heated wax to the developed negative in order
to increase printing transparency and lessen the visibility of the paper fibres (the French
photographer Gustave Le Gray also introduced a waxed-paper process in which the wax was
applied before the sensitising and exposing of the photograph). In India, Dr John Murray of the
Bengal Medical Service was one of the most skilful practitioners of the calotype process in the
1850s and early 1860s. Concentrating on the Mughal architecture of northern India, he produced
an extensive series of large format views, using paper negatives of up to 20 x 16 inches in size.

Salted Paper Print

C.128.k.10 (18)
David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, Portrait of Dr James Julius Wood, 22 October 1843
Once a paper negative had been secured, any number of positive prints could be created by contact printing.
Preparation involved soaking good quality paper in a sodium chloride solution (table salt) and then brushing it with
a solution of silver nitrate to produce light-sensitive silver chloride. Exposure of the sensitised paper to sunlight, in
contact with a negative held in a frame, resulted in the emergence of a visible image without subsequent
development. This 'printed-out' image was then fixed and toned. Salt prints, unless subsequently coated, have a
characteristically matt appearance, with the image embedded in the paper. Although lacking the sharpness of
detail associated with the daguerreotype, salt prints from calotype negatives exhibit an expressive softness of
tone much prized by early photographers. This portrait of the Rev. Julius Wood is one of a large series taken by
Hill and Adamson to serve as references for a group portrait of the founders of the Free Church of Scotland that
Hill had been commissioned to paint. These portraits, with other scenes and views, were later issued in a small
'edition' of 12 known copies, entitled One Hundred Calotype Sketches.
Wet collodion negative

Photo 1000 (ON 2975)

Edmund David Lyon, Interior of the Tuncum, Madurai, India 1868
Frederick Scott Archer's wet collodion process, announced in 1851, became the standard photographic negative
process for both amateurs and professionals from the mid-1850s until the early 1880s. The glass negative, with
its structureless film, fine grain and clear whites proved immediately popular and within a decade had superseded
both the daguerreotype and the calotype processes. To prepare the negative for exposure, a sheet of glass was
coated with a solution of iodised collodion (a syrupy liquid composed of soluble gun-cotton, ether and alcohol) and
then made light-sensitive by immersion in a bath of silver nitrate. Known as a wet process because the glass
negative required sensitising, exposing and processing while the chemicals were still damp, it required
considerable manipulative skill, but produced a negative of unsurpassed sharpness and a broad tonal range. This
view, on a 10 x 12 inch glass plate, is one of a large collection of photographs of architectural subjects
commissioned from Lyon by the Madras and Bombay Governments in the late 1860s.

Albumen Print

1704.a.15
Jane Clifford, Helmet and visor from the Royal Armoury, Madrid, c. 1866
The albumen print, announced by the French photographer and publisher Louis-Dsir Blanquard-vrard in 1850,
was the most widespread print medium in use between the mid-1850s and the 1890s. While the printing process
was chemically similar to the salt print, the albumen print is generally distinguishable by the glossy sheen
imparted by a preliminary sizing of the paper with albumen (egg white) and salt. This sealing of the paper created
a surface layer on which the silver image was formed, and made possible much greater density, contrast and
sharpness in the final image than had been possible with the plain salted paper print. After the albumen coating
had been applied, the paper was made light sensitive by the addition of silver nitrate, and printed in contact with
the negative. The fixed print could then be toned to create a wide variety of colours, ranging from purple-black to
a rich chocolate brown. Although it continued to be used well into the twentieth century, its popularity declined
after the mid-1890s, in favour of a variety of manufactured papers. This print is one of a series of studies of
objects in the Royal Armoury at Madrid made around 1866 and is notable for its finely-controlled lighting and rich
toning. The blacking-out of the background in this image isolates and increases the dramatic impact of the
objects.
Carbon Print

P.P.1931.peg.vol.3
Etienne Carjat, Portrait of Charles Baudelaire, 1860s
The Jerwood Photography Project at the British Library Photographic Processes Etienne Carjat, Portrait of
Charles Baudelaire, 1860s P.P.1931.peg.vol.3 Carbon print The inherent propensity to fading of the silver-based
photographic of the image was a source of concern from the earliest days of photography and considerable
research was carried out in the attempt to produce permanent images. Perhaps the most successful of these was
the carbon process. First patented by A. L. Poitevin in 1855, the process utilised the fact that gelatin mixed with
an alkaline bichromate becomes insoluble when exposed to light. When printing from a negative, those parts of
the image representing shadow tones were hardened by the exposure to light, while light areas, protected from
exposure, remain unhardened and can be subsequently washed away. Carbon and other pigments could be used
as colouring agents to obtain an almost unlimited range of tones in the final image. Because the process does not
employ silver salts, the resulting image is resistant to fading and was widely used in book illustration in the 1870s
and 1880s. This photograph of the poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was published in the Galerie
Contemporaine (Paris, 1878), one of many compilations of photographic portraits of contemporary celebrities
produced on both sides of the Channel in this period.

Photogravure

1818.c.4
Joseph Maria Eder and Eduard Valenta, X-ray study of two goldfish and a saltwater fish, 1896
Photogravure is a photo-mechanical rather than a true photographic printing process. Still in use for high quality
monochrome reproduction, the process involved transferring a photographic image onto a grained copper plate,
which was then etched to depths corresponding to the shadows and highlights of the original. The resulting image
could then be used as a printing plate in the normal way. Photogravure dates back to the early days of
photography, when William Henry Fox Talbot devised a printing system which would produce photographic
reproductions in ink. Talbot's process, which he termed 'photoglyphic engraving,' saw little commercial application
until Karl Klic perfected the process in the 1870s, using carbon tissue as the etching resist. This image is one of
fifteen x-ray photographs published in Eder and Valenta's Versuche ber Photographie mittlest der Rntgenschen
Strahlen (1896). While the work itself is primarily a documentation of the technical aspects of x-ray photography,
these finely printed photographs are elegantly beautiful images of both man-made and natural objects
The World in Focus
Photography's ability to provide accurate images of far-off lands was swiftly appreciated as one of its greatest
assets: within months of the public announcement of the daguerreotype process in 1839, French photographers
were active as far afield as Greece, Russia and Egypt, providing images later to be reproduced as lithographs
and engravings in published works. With the growth of photography on paper, multiple copies of an image could
be produced with ease, encouraging the publication of photographically-illustrated books, with original prints
pasted in alongside the text. Whether intended as contributions to scholarly research or for a more general market
of armchair travellers, such works were often lavishly produced, generally in small and consequently expensive
editions. The emergence of a broader market for photography in the 1860s, however, heralded the heyday of
large commercial studios whose output was primarily directed towards the demands of an expanding tourist
industry. Responding to the increasing mobility of the European middle classes, photographers such as Francis
Frith in England, Adolphe Braun in France and Alinari Fratelli in Italy operated large photographic concerns
geared to the bulk production of scenic views. Further afield, the camera was soon enlisted to document the littleknown landscapes and peoples of newly-acquired territories in an era of unprecedented colonial expansion. This
photographic record of the nineteenth-century world, created with varied motives and for differing markets,
survives as a historical record of unique documentary and artistic value.
Maxime Du Camp in Egypt, 1849

1261.d.30
Maxime du Camp, Second Pylon of the Great Temple of Isis at Philae, 1849
Salted paper print from a paper negative
A young man of independent means, Du Camp took up photography in 1849 in preparation for his second journey
to North Africa. With official backing from the French Government, and travelling in the company of the novelist
Gustave Flaubert, Du Camp returned with over 200 paper negatives of the antiquities of Egypt and the Near East.
125 of these were published in his gypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie. Dessins photographiques recueillis pendant
les annes 1849, 1850 et 1851 (Paris, 1852). The illustrations were produced at the photographic printing works
of Louis-Dsir Blanquard-vrard at Lille and their distinctive cool neutral tones are due to the prints being
chemically developed rather than merely printed-out in sunlight. Distinguished as it was, Du Camp's photographic
career was short-lived. After the completion of his magisterial survey of the antiquities of the Near East, he
abandoned photography entirely in favour of literary pursuits.
Francis Frith in Egypt, 1857.

647.c.6 vol. 1
Francis Frith, View of Girgeh, Upper Egypt, 1857
Albumen print
Another photographer attracted to the antiquities of Egypt was Francis Frith, who between 1857 and 1860 made
three trips to the Near East. The results of these travels were published in a series of books illustrated with
original photographs, ranging from small stereoscopic views to mammoth prints measuring 20 x 16 inches. This
view appears in his Egypt and Palestine Photographed and Described (2 vols., London, 1858-9). Following the
success of these publications, Frith went on to publish numerous works illustrated with topographical views of
England and Europe. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries his studio became one of the largest
photographic businesses in England.
Adolphe Braun in Switzerland, 1860s

Maps 184.s.1 (7)

Adolphe Braun, The Gabelhorn with the Schwarz-See, near Zermatt, 1860s
Albumen print
After an early career as a textile designer, Braun became a widely praised amateur photographer in the mid1850s. By the end of that decade he had become an established commercial producer of European landscape
views, concentrating on popular tourist routes and destinations, especially in Switzerland. His studio at Dornach in

Alsace employed a large team of photographers and by the end of the 1860s the firm was among the most
successful suppliers of European topographical photographs, with a catalogue listing several thousand views,
ranging from the stereoscopic to large format panoramas. The firm also specialised in photographic reproductions
of artworks from European museums
Charles Clifford in Spain, c.1861.

1785.c.1 (87)
Charles Clifford, View of the Castello de Montjuix, Barcelona, c. 1861
Albumen print
Although a British subject, Charles Clifford is considered among the finest photographers in nineteenth-century
Spain, where he spent most of his career. Settling in Madrid in the early 1850s, Clifford became court
photographer to Isabella II and accompanied the Queen on a number of royal tours within the country. Clifford
specialised in the photography of architectural subjects and industrial projects and his work is particularly notable
for his technical mastery of the large format view, using both paper and glass negatives. His wife Jane was also a
skilled photographer.
Henry Moulton in Peru, c.1863

1784.a.14 (10)
Henry Moulton, The Municipality Building, Lima, Peru c. 1863
Albumen print
This view is one of 70 original photographs pasted into the published work, Rays of sunlight from South America,
published in Washington in about 1865. Although the famous Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner is
credited in the title, he appears to have been responsible only for the printing, the actual photographs being the
work of Henry Moulton, about whom little is known. As well as an extensive series of architectural views of Lima,
there are numerous photographs of the Chincha Islands, famous for the production of guano, greatly in demand
as fertiliser at this period. The preponderance of this subject is clearly linked to contemporary interest in the
islands after their seizure by the Spanish in 1864, an occupation that led to the so-called 'Guano War' of 1865-66
between Spain and Peru and Chile.
John Thomson in Cambodia, 1866.

Photo 983 (24)

John Thomson, The Bayon Temple, Angkor Thom, 1866
Albumen print
The Edinburgh-born photographer John Thomson first set up a commercial studio in Singapore in 1862 and in the
following years travelled extensively in the Malayan peninsula. In 1866 he made an arduous four-month trip from
Thailand to Cambodia, finally reaching the great temple complex of Angkor, where he took the first recorded
photographs of the site. On his return to England, Thomson published 16 of these photographs as original prints
pasted into his account of the temples, The Antiquities of Cambodia (Edinburgh, 1867). Returning once more to
the Far East, Thomson embarked on a series of journeys through China and consolidated his reputation both as a
traveller and photographer with the publication of his four-volume work, Illustrations of China and its people
(London, 1874).
Wilhelm Burger in Japan, 1869.

Maps 8.d.24 (19)

Wilhelm Burger, Fort Susaki at Yedo [Tokyo], 1869
Albumen print
Burger was a teacher of photography at Vienna University when he was appointed official photographer to the
Austrian East Asian Expedition of 1868-70, which set out to strengthen diplomatic and commercial links between
the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the countries of the Far East. This view is part of the important photographic
record made during the mission, illustrating the scenery, peoples and architecture of Thailand, Japan and China.
Burger later worked as official photographer on further expeditions to the Arctic (1872), Samothrace (1876) and
Asia Minor (1881).

Alinari Fratelli in Italy, c.1880.

Add. MS 74791 f.49

Alinari Brothers, The Old Market, Florence, 1880s Albumen print
In Italy, the most successful commercial studio in the second half of the nineteenth century was
established in Florence in 1854 by the brothers Giuseppe and Leopoldo Alinari. Like the Braun
studio in France, Alinari produced topographical and architectural views as well as reproductions
of works of art, catering to the expanding tourist market of the late nineteenth century. In 1871, a
branch of the studio was opened in Rome and by 1912 the Alinari catalogue ran to 463 pages.
While the majority of this historical archive no longer exists in the form of the original negatives,
the studio survives to the present day.
Exploration and Archaeology
The superior accuracy of the photograph in comparison to artists' impressions was swiftly appreciated by the
scholarly and scientific communities, and from the mid-1840s numerous attempts were made to document
archaeological sites and explorations by means of the camera. Many of these early trials met with indifferent
success, but by the late 1850s, when more reliable paper and glass negative processes were commonplace, the
use of photography in the field became established.
Photography was used as the preferred tool of record by the Archaeological Survey of India from the mid-1850s,
and when shortly afterwards the British Museum sent an expedition to the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (modernday Bodrum) in Asia Minor, two photographers from the Royal Engineers were attached to produce a detailed
record of its progress. The Royal Engineers also supplied the photographer attached to survey work in Jerusalem
and Sinai in the 1860s, while individual explorers increasingly took their own photographs in the course of their
travels. Whether produced as a scientific record, or for subsequent sale or the illustration of published narratives,
photography in the 19th century provided an invaluable tool for travellers and scholars.
Linnaeus Tripe, Burma, 1855

Photo 66/1 (15)

Linnaeus Tripe The Thapinyu Pagoda, Pagan, Burma, 1855.
Albumen print from a waxed paper negative
In 1855, following the conclusion of the Anglo-Burmese War of 1852, a diplomatic mission was sent by the Indian
Government to the Burmese court at Ava. The expedition offered rare access to the little known territories of
Upper Burma, and was accompanied by officers instructed to gather information on all aspects of Burmese life.
Included in the contingent as official photographer was the Madras Army officer Linnaeus Tripe, who, in the

course of the journey up the Irrawaddy River, took over 200 photographs on large paper negatives. 120 of these
prints, which are among the earliest surviving photographs of Burma, were later issued in portfolio form by the
Madras Government. This view is one of an extensive series of architectural studies taken at the ancient royal
capital of Pagan.
Corporal J. McCartney, 1858

Add. MS 31980 f.196

Corporal J. McCartney, Raising the colossal lion at Cnidus, June 1858
Salted paper print
In 1857 Charles Thomas Newton received official authorisation to make archaeological investigations and
excavations at the site of the great Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (Bodrum, now in present-day Turkey). In addition
to artists and craftsmen, his team included a party of sappers, two of whom, Corporals J. McCartney and B. L.
Spackmann, had been trained in photography at the South Kensington Museum. The pair made an important
photographic record of the course of the excavations and of finds at the site, many of which were reproduced as
lithographs in Newton's published account. In addition to the work at Bodrum, excavations were also undertaken
at Cnidus, where the colossal lion sculpture, now in the Great Court of the British Museum, is here seen being
raised. Newton himself is posed at the lion's head, with a sapper on the left.
Desir Charnay , 1860

14000.k.4 (11)
Desir Charnay, The Great Palace at Mitla, interior of the Court, 1860
Albumen print
Sponsored by the French Ministry of Public Instruction, Charnay travelled in Mexico between 1857 and 1860,
exploring and photographing archaeological sites in Central America, often under the most arduous conditions.
On his return to France, forty-nine of the original photographs were published in his Cits et Ruines amricaines
(2 vols., Paris, 1862-3), a work which provided European scholars with the first accurate visual record of the great
Mayan and Zapotec remains of Yucatan. Charnay's later photographic travels took him as far afield as
Madagascar, Java and Australia.
James McDonald, Jerusalem, 1864

AdF72/27947 (27b)
James McDonald, West entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, 1864
Albumen print
In 1864, in response to the inadequate and unhealthy state of the water supply in Jerusalem, a team of Royal
Engineers under the leadership of Captain (later Sir) Charles Wilson, was sent to make a survey of the city.
Among its members was Sergeant James McDonald, who in spare moments from his surveying duties, took an
important series of architectural studies of the city. Although photography was not considered an essential part of
the survey, the quality of McDonald's work was such that 87 of his photographs were included in the official
published report. Hidden away in this technical account, McDonald's photographs never received the attention
they deserve, nor the public acclaim of commercial contemporaries like Francis Frith. A few years later, in 186869, McDonald once again visited the Near East in a similar role, producing an equally distinguished and more
extensive body of photographs for the Ordnance Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai.
Ordanance Survey Photographer , 1867

Maps 10351.i.2
Ordnance Survey Photographer, Stonehenge. Trilithons (B and C) from the south-west, 1867
Albumen print
Much of the credit for the employment of Royal Engineers in photographic work is due to Colonel Sir Henry
James, who was keen to see photography employed as an integral part of their duties in survey and mapping
work. This photograph is one of eight original prints pasted into his Plans and Photographs of Stonehenge, and of
Turusachan in the Island of Lewis (Southampton, 1867). In the preface James, who was Director-General of the
Ordnance Survey, wrote that he had compiled the work 'for the information of the officers on the Ordnance
Survey, in the hope that it may stimulate them to make plans and sketches, and to give descriptive remarks of
such objects of antiquity as they may meet with during the progress of the survey of the kingdom.'
Emil Salingr, 1869

Maps 15.d.21 (3)

Emil Salingr, Miss Tinne and her followers during her visit to Gerhard Rohlfs' camp near Tripoli,
1869
Albumen print
Alexandrine Pieternella Franoise Tinne (1835-1869) came from a wealthy Dutch family and made several selffinanced voyages of exploration in Africa, accompanied by members of her family. Shortly after this group
photograph was taken, she was killed by her guides at the start of an expedition across the Sahara. The

photograph comes from a series of 40 views and portraits taken by Salingr during Gerhard Rohlfs' expedition to
the classical sites of the Libyan littoral in 1869. These photographs were later made commercially available in a
published portfolio entitled Gerhard Rohlfs Afrika-Reise 1869 (Berlin, 1870).
Thomas Mitchell , Greenland, 1875

Maps 20.c.12 (8)

Thomas Mitchell, Hans Henri, Esquimaulx dog-driver, with his son and daughter, Proven,
Greenland, 1875.
Albumen print
The role of the Royal Engineers in the development of the use of photography as a tool for explorers and
surveyors is again seen in the photographs taken during the 1875 expedition of the ships Alert and Discovery.
Commanded by Sir George Strong Nares, the vessels were sent to investigate reports, subsequently proved
erroneous, of the existence of an open sea route to the North Pole. In order to provide a photographic record, two
members of the expedition, Thomas Mitchell and George White, were given tuition in photography by the Royal
Engineers. In the course of the expedition the pair took a series of 107 views that were later marketed by the
London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company. A number of these photographs were also used to illustrate
Nares' own account of the journey, Narrative of a voyage to the Polar Sea (2 vols., London, 1878).
Sir Marc Aurel Stein, China, 1913

Add. MS 74791 f.49

Sir Marc Aurel Stein, Excavated house at Niya, Xinjiang, China, 17 December 1913
Printing-out paper
By the early 20th century simpler and more portable cameras had become widely available, allowing travellers to
create their own photographic record. In the course of three major expeditions to Chinese Central Asia between
1900 and 1916, the Hungarian-born explorer and archaeologist Sir Aurel Stein took many thousands of
photographs recording the landscapes, peoples and sites of the ancient Silk Road. Stein had taken up
photography in the 1890s and used it throughout his career, both as a tool of archaeological record and to
illustrate his more popular published accounts of his travels. This photograph shows his excavations of the buried
oasis settlement near Niya, on the southern arm of the Silk Road.
The Image of War
Documenting the chaos and unpredictability of conflict posed almost insuperable challenges to the early
photographer. Bulky equipment, complex chemical manipulations and, critically, the length of exposures generally
required in the early years of photography, delayed its effective use in the recording of fast-moving and unposable
events. It was to be several decades before instantaneous records of actual conflict would become a practical

possibility, but despite these limitations, the battlefield exercised a continuing fascination on photographers
anxious to memorialise history in the making. And if Roger Fenton's Crimean photographs, with their gentlemanly
and relaxed portraits, failed to capture - and indeed distorted - the true experience of the battlefield, many of these
sombre images convey a powerfully graphic evocation of the aftermath of desolation and destruction brought in its
train. The posing and arrangement of subjects for photographic effect were not unique to the nineteenth century
and while their value as historical records needs to be assessed in the context of the technical limitations of
photography at the time, they remain a compelling witness to the most traumatic catalyst of social change.
Roger Fenton, 1855

Add. MS 47218A f.147

Roger Fenton, Fanny Duberly, Camp before Sebastopol, 15 April 1855
Albumen print
This portrait of Frances Isabella Duberly, with her husband Captain Henry Duberly of the 8th Royal Irish Hussars,
was sent to her sister Selina, in April 1855. In her letter she comments: 'I send you a photograph of Bobs. In his
picture he has only 3 legs - which is a libel on the old ruffian, for he has four, but he was taken unbeknown, and
we were none of us prepared. I was obliged to be taken on his back, to hide the mange spots about the saddle
with my habit skirt. There have been an incredible number of copies struck off and sold, as I hear, at least every
man I meet seems to have one, and Fenton would not charge us anything for it, I being the only lady. If it appears
at Ackermans [who marketed Fenton's photographs in London], I hope he will send mother prints, shewing that
old villain's other foreleg...Henry's beard too will astonish you, the old brute knew he was going to have his picture
taken and stood all no how on purpose to spite me...'
Felice Beato, 1860

Photo 353 (8)

Felice Beato, Interior of the North Taku Fort, immediately after its capture, 21 August 1860
Albumen print
Felice Beato's photographic career spans the whole of the second half of the nineteenth century, during which he
established an enduring reputation as a photographer of conflict. After working in the Middle East, he travelled to
India in 1858 to photograph the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny, moving on from there to China, where he
produced a graphic record of the Second Anglo-Chinese War. He later worked as a photographer in Japan,
Korea, and the Sudan, before finally settling in Burma for the last part of his career. In common with many
photographers, Beato is known on at least one instance to have re-arranged a scene for dramatic effect, and on
the occasion of this photograph a witness noted that 'Signor Beato was there in great excitement, characterising
the group as 'beautiful' and begging that it might not be interfered with until perpetuated by his photographic
apparatus.'

Unknown photographer, 1870-71

Maps 184.p.1 (62)

Unknown photographer, The Gallery of Louis XIII at Versailles, used as a hospital, winter of 187071
Albumen print
Elaborately mounted within decorative borders extolling Prussian military prowess, this is one of a large series of
prints made by an unidentified German photographer recording the progress of the Franco-Prussian War, from
the battlefields of Alsace to the German occupation of Versailles. The first 'modern' European war was also the
first to be extensively photographed, at least in its aftermath, by both German and French photographers, and
surviving images paint a graphic picture of the devastating swiftness of the German campaign. In this series, a
detailed record is also given of the Palace of Versailles, where, on 18 January 1871, the German Empire was
proclaimed.
Timothy H O'Sullivan, 1863

1784.a.13 (54)
Timothy H O'Sullivan, Wagon park, Brandy Station, 1863
Albumen print
The massive photographic documentation that survives from the American Civil War was largely the result of
Matthew Brady's determination to produce a comprehensive record of the conflict from the Union side. For this
project, Brady hired a large team of photographers, who in four years produced over 8000 photographs; although
technology was insufficiently advanced to record scenes of battle, his photographers' images of battlefield
carnage were sufficiently shocking for the New York Times to report that 'Mr Brady has done something to bring
home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war.' This view is one of the one hundred photographs
published in 1866 in Alexander Gardner's two-volume Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War.

John Burke, 1879

Photo 430/3 (4)

John Burke, The Upper Bala Hissar from the Gate above the Residency, Kabul, 1879
Albumen print
The Afghan acceptance of a Russian embassy in Kabul precipitated the first phase of the Second Afghan War; the
subsequent murder of the British envoy Sir Louis Cavagnari and the destruction of the British Residency in the
capital led to a full-scale invasion, culminating in the British occupation of the Afghan capital in 1879. This view
looks towards the Bala Hissar, or Citadel of Kabul. The commercial photographer John Burke enjoyed a quasiofficial status during the conflict, accompanying the British forces throughout the war and producing a
comprehensive record of the campaign. On his return to India, nearly 400 of his photographs, which also include
portraits of Afghan 'types' and scenic and architectural views, were made available through his catalogues.
Unknown photographer, 1863

Maps 20.c.6 (22)

Unknown photographer, Mr Breton's house in Puebla de los Angeles, Mexico, during the siege of
1863
Albumen print
Puebla de Los Angeles was the headquarters of the Mexican Army at the time of the French invasion of 1861. It
was here that General Ignacio Zaragoza's unexpected defeat of the French in May 1862 led to the renaming of
the city as Heroica Puebla de Zaragoza. A year later, after a two month siege, the city was re-taken by the French
and occupied by them until 1867, when the execution of the Emperor Maximilian signalled the end of French
ambitions in Central America. This photograph comes from a scarce portfolio of 22 views recording the condition
of the city during the siege of 1863. The collection is prefaced by a map of the city prepared by the engineer Jos
Joaquin Arriaga, who may also have been the photographer.
Making the Modern World
Photography, itself a product of a technical age, was seen as a medium ideally suited to record a period of
material expansion and massive industrialisation. The nineteenth-century revolution in transport saw the creation
of a worldwide network of roads, railways, canals and shipping and all were subject to intense scrutiny by the
camera. An early and accomplished example of the use of photography to record the progress of construction
projects is to be seen in Philip Delamotte's record of the construction of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham from
1853-55; but it was in France in particular that photography was used most extensively by the civil engineer and
collections of prints were made recording the achievements of the Public Works Department in harbour
construction, public architecture and communications. Indeed, for a number of studios, such as that of Hippolyte
Collard, this branch of work became a speciality. Such photographs served not only as prosaic progress records,
but expressed a potent visual declaration of national pride in material progress.

Philip Henry Delamotte , c.1853

Tab.442.a.5
Philip Henry Delamotte, the open colonnade of the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, garden front, c.
1853
Albumen print
After the closure of the 1851 Great Exhibition, the Crystal Palace which had housed it was dismantled and
transferred to Sydenham in South London. Philip Henry Delamotte's photographic record of its reconstruction on
the new site is an early example of the use of photography to create a detailed record of the progress of a civil
engineering project. This elegant architectural vista is one of a hundred photographs by Delamotte recording the
construction of the Crystal Palace and published as Photographic Views of the progress of the Crystal Palace,
Sydenham (London, 1855). Opened by Queen Victoria in 1854, the building survived until 1936, when it was
destroyed by fire.
Justin Kozlowski , c.1860

Maps 24.d.30.(19.)
Justin Kozlowski, Dredgers at work in the Suez Canal, 1860s
Albumen print
Little is known of the career of Justin Kozlowski, apart from the fact that he had originally come to France as a
Polish refugee in the 1830s. This photograph, from an album of views recording construction work on the Suez
Canal, appears to be his only known photographic work and documents the building of the canal from its early
stages up to the opening ceremony on 18 November 1869.
Hippolyte Auguste Collard, c.1864

Maps 148.d.15 (15)

Hippolyte Auguste Collard, Perspective du passage des pitons sous la Viaduc, Pont-du-Jour,
Paris, c. 1864
Albumen print
The physical transformation of Paris in the middle years of the nineteenth century was a major stimulus for
photographers, both in recording the old before it was destroyed and in documenting the progress of great new
projects. A number of photographers at this period specialised in such work, among them Hippolyte Collard, who
styled himself 'Photographer of Bridges and Highways.' Collard was officially employed to photograph the
progress of a number of major construction projects in Paris between 1857 and 1870, among them this series of
views showing the building of the road and rail bridge across the Seine at Point-du-Jour (now Pont de Garigliano)
between 1863 and 1866.
Unknown Photographer, 1870

Add. MS 59505 f.75

Unknown photographer, Building the Mont Cenis Tunnel, 1870
Albumen print
The eight-mile long Mont Cenis Tunnel (also known as the Frejus Tunnel) connects the towns of Mondane in
France and Bardonecchia in Italy. Completed in 1871, it was the first rock tunnel of its sort and pioneered several
new engineering techniques. This view, showing one of the boring machines known as 'perforatrices', was clearly
taken outside the tunnel rather than at the rock face: it has been heavily retouched to obscure the background
and to suggest that it was taken inside the tunnel. The photograph formed the basis for a number of reproductions
in contemporary newspapers.
Unknown Photographer , 1898

Photo 1132/1 (7)

Unknown photographer, Construction work on the Central Line of the London Underground, 1898
Gelatin silver print
Increasing congestion in Central London in the mid-nineteenth century led to the creation of the world's first
underground system. The Metropolitan Line, running from Paddington to Farringdon, was opened in 1863 and the
following decades saw a swift development of the network. In 1891 the Central London Railway was formed to
build a line connecting the City to the growing western suburbs of London. The line connecting Shepherd's Bush
to Bank was opened in 1900 and proved an immediate success. This is one of a rare series of views showing
work in progress on the tunnel in 1898.

D.S. George, c.1900

Photo 430/64 (9)

D. S. George, Construction of the Aswan Dam: masonry and sluices in the western channel, c.
1900.
Platinum print
Built between 1899 and 1902, the Aswan Dam was an attempt to harness and regulate the water supply of the
Nile for agricultural production and to generate hydro-electric power for industrial development. Despite the
ambitiousness of the project, in practice the dam was unable to supply an adequate storage reservoir and was
further heightened in 1907-12 and 1929-34. Finally the 'high' dam was constructed in the 1960s. Little is known
about D. S. George, a local commercial photographer, although he appears to have been commissioned to
document the construction of the original dam from its earliest stages through to completion.
In the Public Eye
In the early years of photography, to sit for one's portrait was for most an expensive and uncomfortable
experience, but by the 1860s it had become cheaply available to all levels of society, particularly in the popular
formats of the carte de visite and later the cabinet portrait. If the poet Charles Baudelaire could only find disgust in
the increasing democratisation of a 'loathsome society' which 'rushed, Narcissus-like, to contemplate its trivial
image on a metallic plate,' he was largely alone: the market for portrait photography by this time formed the
commercial foundation of the medium and would continue to do so well into the twentieth century. In the age
before widespread amateur photography, the commercial photographer supplied not only personal and family
portraits, but also satisfied the demand for portraits of celebrities from the worlds of politics, fashionable society
and the arts. This selection is taken from the British Library's Department of Manuscripts, which holds an
extensive collection of photographic portraits of some of the most important cultural figures of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries.
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, 1860s

Add. MS 54085B f.14

Lady Alice Kerr, Portrait of Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, 1860s Albumen print
This intense study of the traveller, poet and diplomat Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840-1922) is one of a
number of studies, many in the style of Julia Margaret Cameron, credited to Lady Alice Kerr, in a
small album of portraits relating to the Blunt family. Some of these images also occur, however,
in other collections, where they have in the past been credited to Ronald Leslie Melville, 13th Earl
of Leven, who was a noted amateur photographer in the 1860s.

Leo Tolstoy, 1880s

Add. MS 52772 f.120

Scherer and Nabholz, Portrait of Leo Tolstoy, 1880s
Albumen print
Tolstoy's fame, both in his native Russia and abroad, was such that portraits of the novelist found ready
commercial sale. This cabinet portrait of the writer, taken by the Moscow photographic publishers Scherer and
Nabholz, continued to be sold as a printed postcard well into the twentieth century.
Anne Jemima Clough, 1890

Add. MS 72824B f.6

Eveleen Myers, Portrait of Anne Jemima Clough, 1890
Platinum print
Although she had originally taken up photography as an amateur in 1881 for the purpose of photographing her
children, by the end of that decade Eveleen Myers had established a considerable reputation as a portraitist of
figures in politics and the arts. This portrait shows Anne Jemima Clough (1820-1892), a pioneer in the field of
women's education and the founder and first principal of Newnham College, Cambridge.

George Bernard Shaw, 1900s

Add. MS 50582 f.16

Frederick Henry Evans, Portrait of George Bernard Shaw, 1900s
Platinum print
George Bernard Shaw's keen interest in photography - which he wrote about extensively and practised as an
enthusiastic amateur - is evidenced in his own papers, which contain an extensive series of portraits of the
dramatist by some of the most celebrated photographers of the day. This study is one of a series made by F. H.
Evans, best known for his mastery of the subtly toned platinum process.
W. B. Yeats, c.1910

Add. MS 50585 f.93

Lena Connell, Portrait of W. B. Yeats, c. 1910
Sepia toned gelatin silver print
Most noted as a member and photographer of the Suffragette Movement, Lena Connell also maintained a
successful London portrait studio, and numbered many literary figures among her subjects. This portrait of William
Butler Yeats is one of a series she made of the Irish poet and dramatist.
James Joyce, 1925

Add. MS 57365B f4
Henri Martinie, Portrait of James Joyce, Paris, 1925 .
Toned gelatin silver print
The photographer Henri Martinie was active in the French avant-garde in the 1920s and 1930s and specialised in
the portraiture of writers and artists. This portrait of the novelist James Joyce is characteristic of his photographic
style, taken close to his subject and using a short depth of focus to emphasize the facial features.