Category Archives: Medium

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Photographydatabase

1879 Hall, Princeton University

Andrew Eskind recently posted information on the former George Eastman House photography database we all like to use. I repost here in case you missed it.

1. photographydatabase.org is alive and well. It extends work Greg Drake and I did at Eastman House, but no longer has any relationship with GEH (now GEM). I had permission to export the data–much of it grant supported–and to extend it beyond its status at the time of my departure in 2003.

2. Yes, it continues to be maintained and web served via Filemaker which favors Safari and Chrome web browsers, and has issues with Firefox (and perhaps other) browsers. The issues are mostly cosmetic, but no guarantees.

3. We edit offline on a daily basis, but only refresh the online copy one per month–usually mid-month. The current version still says “March” but will change to “April” probably sometime next week.

4. The relationship to pic.nypl.org is simply as one source among many they use. However, PIC in no way supercedes photographydatabase.org. In fact, I believe their snapshot is based on the 1998 print edition of the final G.K. Hall print edition. There is no formal relationship and they don’t track additions, deletions, corrections (yes, we catch mistakes on occasion)–I think photographydatabase includes nearly twice as many photographer records as PIC lists as sourced from us.

More importantly, photographydatabase collates public photography collections worldwide-now over 1000. It also collates museum exhibitions (not gallery exhibs)-now nearly 9500 – both historic and current. To a lesser extent we track galleries–not their exhibs, just the photographers they represent or whose work they have in inventory. The world is far too dynamic to keep everything up-to-date-some museums provide Annual Reports of their new photography acquisitions, most do not. Some are easy to monitor via their websites-many don’t provide such information online. We’re currently in the process of sorting out which part of the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s photography collection has been distributed to the National Gallery, and which has gone to GW. Same issue with Time, Inc. as well as a couple of smaller collections.

5. For an historic overview of the long-term evolution, see these postings graciously mentored by A.D. Coleman a few years ago-still basically current:

http://www.teachingphoto.com/2011/04/24/hello-world/
http://www.teachingphoto.com/2014/03/26/the-making-of-photographydatabase-org-2/

As always, Greg and I are happy to hear from users with suggestions, corrections, or just in need of navigational support. Regards, Andrew Eskind, Rochester, NY

Histoire de Mr. Jobard and others

 

Studies of modern comics often begin with Rodolphe Töpffer (1799-1846), although many artists (Gillray in particular) were drawing linear narratives much earlier. Princeton holds 17 volumes attributed to Töpffer, beginning with a facsimile of La bibliotheque de mon oncle (Geneve, Imprimerie de la Bibliothèque universelle, 1832). Rare Books (Ex) PQ2542.T2 xB5 1832

French artists were publishing similar books in the 1830s through the print shop La maison Aubert. In her wonderful new study, Another World, Patricia Mainardi writes, “Each of the twelve comic books published by Aubert in the “Collection of Jabots” has the same size and format, identical with those of Töpffer and no doubt dictated by the publisher. Seven were written by the caricaturist Cham, who wrote his first two, The Story of Mr. Lajaunisse and Mr. Lamélasse, in 1839, when he was twenty-one years old.

An admirer of Töpffer, Cham later redrew the illustrations for Töpffer’s Mr.. Cryptogame when it was published in the journal L’Illustration in 1845 in wood-engraved format. While it is beyond question the Töpffer influenced these French artists, it is also possible that the French artists influenced Töpffer as well.” — Another World: Nineteenth-Century Illustrated Print Culture (2017)

Aubert’s 1846 catalogue lists seven lithographed books by Cham (pseudonym of Camles Amedee of Noah, 1819-1879) and the Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have recently acquire five of these earliest books, including:

Mr. Lamélasse ([Paris]: Aubert, [1839?]). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2017- in process.

Un génie incompris: [Histoire de la vie de M. Barnabé Gogo] ([Paris]: Aubert & Cie, [1839?]). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2917- in process

Histoire de Mr. Lajaunisse ([Paris]: Chez Aubert, [1839]). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2017- in process. Note, Mr Lajaunisse has been digitized in full by Yale University’s Beinecke Library: http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3584197


Histoire de Mr. de Vertpré et de sa ménagère aussi (Paris: Aubert, 1840). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2017- in process

Histoire de Mr. Jobard ([Paris]: Chez Aubert & Cie., [1840?]). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2017- in process

 

Thanks to the British Museum, we known La maison Aubert specialized in popular prints and satires. “Founded in 1829 by Charles Philipon (who was always the brains of the enterprise) and his brother-in-law Gabriel Aubert (who ran the shop), a notary who had bankrupted himself. First established as the Magasin des Caricatures in the Passage Véro-Dodat in 1829 (which moved to the Place de la Bourse in 1841) and a second shop in the Galerie Colbert in 1835.”

About the same time Aubert (who died in 1847) established his own lithographic printing press under the imprint Aubert et Cie, publishing books by Cham and many others. See James Cuno, “The business and politics of caricature-Charles Philipon and the Maison Aubert,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts CVI (1985): 95-112.

 

Un genie incompris tells the story of a young draftsman of dubious talent who is rejected by the Academy of Fine Arts and eventually, is forced to become a caricaturist!

 

Here are a few of Cham’s delightful other plates.

 


 

 

 

1844 Plain Directions for Obtaining Photographic Pictures

Thanks to Sara Stevenson for discovering the following new information.

In the November 1844 issue of The Art-Union, Thomas Willats placed the following advertisement:

“Photography . . . Energiatype, photogenic and iodized paper, and every apparatus or chemical preparation required in Photography may be obtained, upon the most moderate terms, of Thomas Willats, Optician, 98, Cheapside, for many years with E. Palmer, Newgate-street, who has retired from the business. Lists of prices forwarded gratis, and full instruction given to purchasers. ‘We have examined some of the pictures executed by means of Mr. Willats’s improved camera, and find them most perfect, even to the minutest detail. The camera is of superior value, as it can be adjusted with greet facility and certainty, and obviates the trouble in the old instrument.’”

Horne, Thornthwaite, and Wood became the successors to Palmer’s shop and Thomas Willats set up at a fashionable Cheapside address where he not only sold equipment but also began publishing a series of scientific manuals, the first in 1844 titled Plain Directions for Obtaining Photographic Pictures by the Calotype, Energiatype, and other processes on paper… . By 1845, his brother Richard Willats had joined the firm, now known as “T. & R. Willats”. New editions and revisions of the first manual were issued in 1845, 1846, 1847, 1850, 1851, 1852, 1853, 1855, and 1860.

A copy of the first edition of Thomas Willats’s publication was collected by Robert Ormes Dougan (1904-1999) and came to Princeton University Library when a small portion of his collection was acquired by Peter Bunnell. (See catalogue: The Robert O. Dougan Collection of historical photographs and photographic literature at Princeton by Peter C. Bunnell, 1983). Princeton, Oxford, and Cambridge hold the only three institutional copies of this important early document.

Since it is so rare, here is a copy:



 

 

Plain directions for obtaining photographic pictures by the calotype and energiatype processes (London: T. Willats, 1844). Provenance: Robert O. Dougan Collection of Historical Photographs and Photographic Literature at Princeton. Marquand Library (SAX): Rare Books XB87.0057

 

 

**In 1897, daguerreotypes of Thomas Willats and Richard Willats were exhibited in London. If anyone knows the present location of these, please let us know.

 

A parody of Victor Hugo’s “Légende des Siècles”

Le Sire de Chambley (Edmond Haraucourt 1856-1941), La Légende des sexes. Poëmes hystériques. 1st edition (Bruxelles: pour l’auteur, 1882 [Nevers, 1883]). Binding by Carayon. Copy 22 of 212. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

Fabulous endpapers.

 

The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired a first edition of Edmond Haraucourt’s first book, published when he was twenty-six years old at his own expense, to parody Victor Hugo’s Légende des Siècles (Legend of the Centuries). He called his book, La Légende des sexes.

 

Our copy has a particularly fine Japonism style binding by the French artisan known only as Carayon. The endpapers are beautiful color woodcuts depicting the Japanese folktale, Shita-kiri Suzume (Tongue-Cut Sparrow).

 

A member of the whimsical literary circles of Hydropathes and the Chat Noir, Haraucourt published the volume under the pseudonym Le Sire de Chambley and under his own fictitious imprint. Even so, he was not accepted into the Académie Française because of the book, which was promoted as “l’épopée du bas-ventre” (genteelly translated as an epic of the lower abdomen).

Haraucourt knew Victor Hugo (1802-1885) a few months before Hugo’s death and was one of the ten poets to accompany his coffin at his funeral. In accord with Hugo’s will he was carried in the hearse of the poor but followed by chariots loaded with flowers. Haraucourt went on to serve as President of the Victor Hugo Foundation from 1928 to his death in 1941.

See also Victor Hugo (1802-1885), La légende des siècles (Paris: Hetzel, [188-?]) Recap PQ2285 .L15 1880

Jack Ziegler

Noted by Richard Sandomirmarch in the New York Times, “Jack Ziegler, whose satirical, silly and observational style enlivened more than 1,600 cartoons at The New Yorker beginning in the mid-1970s, died on Wednesday in a hospital in Kansas City, Kan. He was 74.”

We hold only one drawing by Ziegler, which could have been drawn yesterday:
Jack Ziegler (1942-2017), “You realize, of course, Jacobi, that should anything go wrong, the General and I will have to deny any knowledge of this,” May 13, 1974. Pen and wash drawing. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2009.00382. Gift of Henry Martin, Class of 1948.

The drawing is inscribed and dedicated to his friend and fellow New Yorker cartoonist Henry Martin (born 1925, Class of 1948): “For Henry with unending admiration from the new kid on the block, Jack Ziegler.”

More comments can be found at http://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/bob-mankoff/in-memoriam-jack-ziegler

See also Jack Prelutsky, There’ll Be a Slight Delay, and Other Poems for Grown-Ups. Illustrations by Jack Ziegler (New York: W. Morrow, 1991). Firestone PS3566.R36 T47 1991

Chocolate Tinted Egg Shell Plate

When Edward Livingston Wilson (1838–1903) started his first magazine, The Philadelphia Photographer, in 1864, his partner in this venture was Michael F. Benerman, foreman at the Caxton Press of Sherman & Company, a large book and job printing firm at the corner Seventh and Cherry Streets. They met through the various print jobs Benerman did for the photography studio of Frederick Gutekunst (1831–1917), where Wilson was an assistant.

Benerman was an experienced bookman. In 1863, he would have been working on a series for Josiah Whitney’s Geological Survey of California, with maps, lithographic plates, and letterpress text. The firm’s edition of Thomas L. McKenney’s History of the Indian Tribes of North America, begun in 1865, remains one of the most important color plate books produced in America. Wilson was in good hands.

Although Benerman soon stepped back from the day to day operation of the magazine, he continued to print this and other publications for Wilson, under the corporate name Benerman and Wilson.

When ferrotypes (also called tintypes) were developed, Wilson was one of the first to published the formula, along with several small manuals complete with an actual tintype as a frontispiece.

 

 


Note the process of this one is specified as a “Chocolate Tinted Egg Shell Plate.”

In 1872, the editor of The Photographic Times (distributed inside The Philadelphia Photographer) wrote,

“The publishers have kindly supplied us with some advance sheets of Mr. Trask’s Practical Manual on Ferrotyping, so that we need not wait until its issue to know how complete it is. The reason why so many bad ferrotypes have been made, and why so comparatively few good ones are made, is because no first-class practical ferro’.yper, such as Mr. Trask pre-eminently is, has thought to give us a complete manual of instructions on the subject. As our readers mostly know, we have for two or three years been in the habit of appending to our catalogues some brief instructions in ferrotype making written by Mr. Trask. They were necessarily brief, however, for want of space.

In the forthcoming manual, however, we think everything will be given that will not only enable the careful operator to make the best of work, but it will help him out of trouble should any occur. Mr. Trask very evidently knows his business. We know him to be a most skilful operator, and one who is constantly studying up improvements, taking advantage of everything that will secure the best results. We know of no one more capable of teaching others than he, and he writes just like the practical man that he is. An idea of his book may be had from his Introduction or Preface, from which we extract, viz:”

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired both the first Philadelphia edition of Trask’s Practical Ferrotyper and the London issue, both 1872. Each has an original tintype frontispiece finished with the “chocolate egg shell” treatment.

Albion K. P. Trask, Trask’s Practical Ferrotyper (Philadelphia: Benerman & Wilson, 1872). One tintype frontispiece. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

Albion K. P. Trask, Trask’s Practical Ferrotyper. First London issue. (Philadelphia: Benerman & Wilson, 1872). One tintype frontispiece. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process.

Sorting Out John William Orr and Nathaniel Orr, Part Two

Already an established engraver, Nathaniel Orr (1822-1908) moved to New York City around 1843, to begin working on The Illuminated Bible, embellished with sixteen hundred historical engravings… (Harper & Brothers, 1846. GAX Hamilton 198Q).

He is sometimes listed as Orr Jr. and worked at 75 Nassau Street, in the shop of his brother John William Orr (1815-1887).

https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2016/02/11/sorting-out-john-william-orr-and-nathaniel-orr/

75 Nassau Street in 2017.

 

In 1850, Nathaniel Orr took an office of his own around the corner at 151 Fulton Street but within a year, moved to 52 John Street where he stayed until his retirement in 1888. It is a large building and Nathaniel has a reputation for offering his fellow artists rooms to work whenever they were in need.

52 John Street is part of the central building.
Alfred Tallis (active 1860), Tallis’s New York Street Views (New York: Tallis and Company, 1863)

 


Orr’s business was two doors away from the Methodist Episcopal Church at 44 John Street, first built in 1768, then rebuilt in 1817 and 1841. One of Orr’s early prints (left) is an image of the first Church building, which has recently been painted onto the wall of the memorial park east of the current Church. This Church is famous for including both black and white members equally in their congregation:

“At the birth of Methodism in this country its handful of votaries were so simple and honest, and so free from any thought of race distinctions in the divine presence, that no special notice was taken of the fact that there were colored people present to their disparagement. When Captain Webb and his associates met in a sail loft in 1765, on what was then known as the Battery, at the south end of New York city, they thought not of the complexion of the attendants, but rather of the salvation of their souls. And four years later, when John Street Church was built to accommodate the congregation of that first formed Methodist Church in America, there were no Negro pews nor back seats nor gallery especially provided for the dark-skinned members. They were welcomed in common with other members to all the privileges of God’s house and worship.” –One Hundred Years of The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Chapter I, Early Race Distinctions.

Painted mural in the memorial park, 48 John Street, next to the Methodist Episcopal Church

Nathaniel Orr was involved in many anti-slavery publications. In January 1853, he accepted a commission to engrave Frederick M. Coffin’s illustrations for Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup. The project was finished in less than six months, published August 1853.

Later that year, Coffin and Orr partnered with John McLenan (1827-1865) to illustrate the sensationalist bestseller Hot Corn: Life Scenes in New York Illustrated by Solon Robinson (1854). So great is Nathaniel’s popularity by now, that of the three artists only Orr, the wood engraver, is mentioned on the title page. https://blogs.princeton.edu/graphicarts/2009/10/hot_corn.html

 

For some of Nathaniel Orr’s earliest work, see:
John Gadsby Chapman (1808-1889), Bible illustrations ([New York? 1846?]). Manuscript note on title page of vol. 1: “These proofs, from the original cuts, were taken by hand by the Engravers thereof, in course of execution for Harpers Family Bible-New York 1843.-44. 45- and are, so far as I know, the only complete set existing. Presented by me to my Daughter. Rome October 5. 1879. John G. Chapman.” The engravers whose works are mentioned are Roberts, Childs, Minot, Howland, Gordon, Butler, Morse, Nathaniel Orr, Hall, Hart, Henry Kinnersley, Augustus F. Kinnersley, Pekham, Bookhout, Holland, Weeks and Adams. (GAX) Oversize Hamilton 199q

Gillett G. Griffin Memorial Lecture

The Gillett G. Griffin Memorial Lecture Series is being established in honor of our former colleague Gillett Good Griffin (1942-2016), who served as graphic arts curator within Rare Books and Special Collections from 1952 to 1966. Although officially the collection’s second curator, he was the first to establish a place for the graphic arts collection inside Firestone Library, along with galleries and study rooms where students were regularly and warmly welcomed. Gillett’s passion for collecting began almost 70 years ago while he was a student at Yale University School of Art. His personal collection of Japanese prints, for instance, was begun as an undergraduate and later, when Gillett generously donated them to Princeton University Library, formed the basis for the department’s collection.

When we received the sad news of Gillett’s passing in June 2016, we wanted to find a way to not only commemorate the man but also his passion for bringing objects in the collection directly to the public and the public to the collection. To that end, we decided to select one of the great treasures acquired by Gillett for an in-depth investigation presented in a public memorial lecture.

In 2017, the inaugural lecture will be delivered by Dr. Sara Stevenson, former chief curator at the National Galleries of Scotland. For 36 years, Dr. Stevenson was responsible for building and developing the Scottish National Photography Collection and she continues to publish, her most recent publication entitled: Scottish Photography: The First Thirty Years. Her lecture, “The London Circle: Early Explorations of Photography,” will highlight the Richard Willats album of early paper photography purchased for the graphic arts collection by Gillett.

The lecture will be held on Sunday, April 2, 2017, at 3:00 in the Friends Center followed by a reception. The event is free and open to the public.

 

Spirit Photography on Trial

 

La revue spirite, the leading journal of 19th-century French spiritualism, was founded in 1858 by Allan Kardec (pseudonym of Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail 1804-1869) and after his death, Pierre-Gaetan Leymarie (1817-1901) took over as editor. Leymarie was not only a fake medium but also active in the bogus practice of spirit photography, using the respected journal to advertise and promote it.

Leymarie formed a partnership with the photographer Édouard Isidore Buguet (1840-1901) along with an American medium Alfred-Henri Firman. They sold their manipulated prints through La revue spirite, where Leymarie printed glowing reviews. This lasted for several years until the French police caught on to their scheme.

 

In April 1875, an undercover officer went to Buguet’s studio on the pretense of having his photograph taken. During the session, props and other tricks were discovered and Buguet was arrested. Leymarie and Firman were also charged with fraud.

A sensational trial followed, in which many respected men and women testified on the men’s behalf. Eventually, Buguet confessed and was sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of 500 francs but escaped before he served any time. Leymarie was sentenced to one year and Firman six months, after which both returned to successful careers in the spiritualism business. La revue spirite continues to be published.

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a rare first edition of Proces des Spirites, Edite par Madame P.G. Laymarie, which is the account of the 1875 trial, complete with the passionate testimony of the Parisian elite compiled by Leymarie’s wife Marina. La photographie spirite et l’analyse spectrale comparées (1875) has also been acquired, offering a contemporary account by L. Legas, the president of the Belgian spiritualist group La Vérité.

 

Various photographs by Buguet found on google image.

Procès des spirites. Edité par Mme P.G. Leymarie (Paris: Librarie Spirite, 1875). Graphic Arts Collection 2017-in process

L. Legas, La photographie spirite et l’analyse spectrale compares (Paris; Legas, 1875). Graphic Arts Collection 2017-in process

See also: Henri Sausse, Biographie d’Allan Kardec (Paris: Pygmalion, 1993). (F) BF1283.K228 S287 1993

“Democracy,” designed and executed by one who has neither place nor pension.

Attributed to William Charles (1776-1820), Democracy against the Unnatural Union. Trial Octr. 14t 1817. Designed and executed by one who has neither place nor pension, 1817. Etching. Graphic Arts collection GAX 2017- in process

Two hundred years ago, candidate William Findlay (1768-1846) and Joseph Hiester (1752-1832) ran against each other for the Democratic-Republican (later called Jacksonian) nomination for Governor of Pennsylvania. Findlay won the nomination and the Governorship in 1817 but Hiester won when they ran again in 1820.

This satirical print is on Findlay’s side, who floats up to the governor’s chair while commenting “How easy do I [ascend].” Hiester stands on a shaky foundation at the right, labeled “federalism” and “old schoolism.” Below are bundles of the U.S. Gazette and Aurora newspapers. The paper Hiester has in his hand says “Serious Reflections.” One member of the crowd says, “I am thinking to myself how foolish we shall look if we do not Succeed.”

Scottish-born William Charles did have a place. He set up a printshop on South 3rd Street in Philadelphia. This is a view by William Birch around 1800 across the street:


The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. (1800). South East corner of Third, and Market Streets. Philadelphia. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-7e61-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99