Books: Historic Photography

Historic Photography:

The Magic Lantern
"The Encyclopaedia of the Magic Lantern. An A-Z of projected images and a wide-ranging reference source to the history, technology, uses and aesthetics of the optical lantern, or stereopticon, in its various forms. The ultimate treasure-house of magic lantern knowledge, written by some of the world's most experienced researchers and collectors in the field. Published by The Magic Lantern Society, to coincide with the Society's 25th Anniversary. The essential guide for anyone seriously interested in the subject.255mm x 290mm tall approx. 360pp with 400 illustrations, Index and Bibliography. Original black boards/white titles. "

The Art of Projecting: A Manual of Experimentation in Physics, Chemistry and Natural History with the Porte Lumiere and Magic Lantern
(1877)

Victorian Britain Through the Magic Lantern

William CHRISTENBERRY: Southern Photographs

Original: A Photograph Album of Mounted Topographical Albumen Photographs (New Orleans, Mobile, Florida)
From the seller: "Description: [New Orleans, etc: circa 1878]. Oblong folio. (10 1/2 x 14 1/4 inches). 27 albumen photographs (12 full-page ranging in size from 7 3/4 x 9 1/2 to 10 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches (the majority are of the larger size; and 14 half-page ranging in size from 5 x 8 to 7 x 9 inches, mounted recto only of 20 leaves, each with penciled titles, one with photographer's credit in the negative: 'J. S. McClure'. (Some fading to margins). Recent half-green morocco to style, incorporating 19th century boards, spine simply gilt in six compartments. A wonderful photographic album depicting the American South. The album can be dated from one photograph of the copy of the catafalque of King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, indicating a date of circa 1878. The places visited include New Orleans (6 large scale images), the Natchez steamboat (1 large image), Mobile, Alabama (6 large images), Pensacola (5 small images), the Escambia River, Florida (2 small images)."

The Way It Was: 1850 to 1930 Photographs of Montgomery & Her Central Alabama Neighbors

Equal Before the Lens: Jno. Trlica's Photographs of Granger, Texas

Craig's Daguerreian Registry: Volume 1, the Overview; Volume 2, Pioneers and Progress, Abbott to Lytle: Volume 3, Pioneers and Progress, Macdonald to Zuky

Born Free and Equal: Photographs of the Loyal Japanese-Americans at Manzanar Relocation Center, Inyo County, California

An American Postal Portrait: A Photographic Legacy

Old Brooklyn in Early Photographs, 1865-1929: 157 Prints from the Collection of the Long Island Historical Society

Forty Etchings, From Sketches Made With the Camera Lucida, in North America in 1827 and 1828
(1830)

Reflected Light: A Century of Photography in Chester County

The Streets of Melbourne: From Early Photographs

Edwardian Melbourne in Picture Postcards

Under the Big Lamp: Historic Photographs of the County and Town of Carrickfergus

Sun Pictures in Kalamazoo: A History of Daguerreotype Photography in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, 1839-1860

E. J. Bellocq: Storyville Portraits-Photographs From the New Orleans Red-Light District, Circa 1912

Photography in New Orleans: the Early Years, 1840-1865

Shreveport, a Photographic Remembrance, 1873-1949

Brady's Civil War

As the Century Turned: Photographic Glimpses of Danvers, Massachusetts, 1880-1910

The Silver Canvas: Daguerreotype Masterpieces From the J. Paul Getty Museum

A Window Back: Photography in a Whaling Port

The Dog Album: Studio Portraits of Dogs and Their People

Picture Gallery Pioneers 1850 to 1875

Reminiscences of the Veterans of the Sea-a Series of Photographs Illustrative of the British Navy of By-Gone Times From the Professional Works of J.C. Schetky Marine Painter in Ordinary to Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen
(1867)

Victorian and Edwardian Yorkshire From Old Photographs

Old Queens, N.Y., in Early Photographs: 261 Prints

Victorian and Edwardian Nottinghamshire From Old Photographs

The World as It Was 1865-1921: a Photographic Portrait From the Keystone-Mast Collection

Images of an Age: Panama and the Building of the Canal

Maine Life at the Turn of the Century Through the Photographs of Nettie Cummings Maxim

A Directory of Women in California Photography, Before 1901

The Photographers of the Humboldt Bay Region

San Francisco: 1906 Earthquake and Fire Photographs From the Keystone-Mast Stereograph Collection

Holsinger's Charlottesville: A Collection of Photographs

Ohio River Images: Cincinnati to Louisville in the Packet Boat Era

The Oregon Trail: A Photographic Journey

Photographing Montana 1894-1928: The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron

William Henry Jackson: Framing the Frontier

Views on the Mississippi: The Photographs of Henry Peter Bosse

Pittsburgh Revealed: Photographs Since 1850

A Maritime Album: 100 Photographs and Their Stories

Face of Time-Leland Lewis Duncan 1862-1923 Photos Leitrim

Victorian and Edwardian Perth Through Old Photographs

A Day's Work: A Sampler of Historic Maine Photographs, 1860--1920, Part II
"These extraordinary collections of photographs and narrative captions have wide appeal to anyone interested in Maine's past. Spend an afternoon with either volume of A Day's Work, and you'll make discoveries that will change how you look at Maine's passing scene. Bunting has a knack for spotting the unusual in a photograph, or some minor detail that, in fact, tells a major story about the how and why. From granite quarry operations to an itinerant cobbler in a sailing scow to hootchie-cootchie dancers at the state fair to deepwater ships, his page-long captions place these images in social and economic context—but this is not dry history. His research has uncovered a wealth of fascinating, often quirky detail (did you know that mummy wrappings were imported from Egypt for Maine papermaking?), and he makes frequent forays into the Maine storytelling tradition."

Portraits of Community: African American Photography in Texas

Comanches in the New West, 1895-1908: Historic Photographs (The Jack and Doris Smothers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture, No. 1)

Historic Interiors of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland: A Photographic Tour

Amateurs, Photography, and the Mid-Victorian Imagination

American Victorian Costume in Early Photographs

British Masters of the Albumen Print: A Selection of Mid-Nineteenth Century Victorian Photography/Microfiche

Victorian London Street Life in Historic Photographs

Benjamin Brecknell Turner: Rural England Through a Victorian Lens
"Filled with lovely scenes of 19th-century England, this beautiful book is a nostalgic glimpse of a vanished world through the lens of Benjamin Brecknell Turner (1815-1894), who was one of the first, and remains one of the greatest, of all British amateur photographers.

"A tranquil stillness pervades Turner's evocative images of churches, cottages, old farm buildings, and ancient ruins. In stark contrast are his shots of the radically modern, long-gone Crystal Palace in London's Hyde Park. Also here are his subtly toned portrait photographs, and his 1857 pictures of Amsterdam that are among the earliest known photographs of that city. This first monograph on Turner's work accompanies an exhibition in early 2002 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York."

Lady Hawarden: Clementina, Lady Hawarden: Studies from Life 1857-1864

Victorian London Street Life in Historic Photographs

Views on the Mississippi: the Photographs of Henry Peter Bosse
"As mapmaker and photographer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Henry Peter Bosse (1844-1903) took more than three hundred photographs of the Upper Mississippi River from 1883 to 1893, a time of unprecedented environmental and social change. Now recognized as the leading photographer of his time of the Mississippi, his work was almost unknown until five separate volumes of his photographs were discovered during the past few years. Since then, Bosse's work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian and other national museums and sold by leading auction houses to private collectors around the world.

"Views on the Mississippi brings together for the first time almost one hundred of Bosse's most stunning images. These photographs-tracing the river from Minneapolis to St. Louis-capture the Mississippi as it was being transformed from an untamed natural wonder to a modern commercial highway. Presenting the wagon and railroad bridges, the towns and villages along the banks, and the steamboats that served them, Bosse's images depict the river at the fulcrum between the nostalgic era recorded by Mark Twain and the coming century of industrial development and environmental change, including the alterations wrought by the navigation projects of the Army Corps.

"Bosse used the cyanotype process, which produced large-format photographs in crisp, vivid blue tones. This volume offers high quality reproduction with new captions providing the location and significance of each image, as well as historical context. Also included here is a detailed reproduction of Bosse's rare landmark map of the river, first published in 1887-88, giving the reader with a fascinating guide to the historic Upper Mississippi.

"Views on the Mississippi is certain to delight and surprise those interested in nineteenth-century America, life on the Mississippi River, the environment, and fine photography everywhere. "

Important Basics for Your Genealogy Library:

Dressed for the Photographer: Ordinary Americans and Fashion 1840-1900 I have this book, and I love it! The author has done exhaustive research in 19th century clothing and hair styles. She gives many fine examples of using these clues to date old photographs to within a very few years of their creation. We can be thankful that most American women, now matter how far they might be out on the frontier, wanted to keep up with the fashions of their day. This gives us an opportunity to examine details of clothing and accessory details to determine when a photo had been originally made.

I consider this to be one of the most useful books on my shelves.

Uncovering Your Ancestry Through Family Photographs
"Everyone keeps old family photographs, whether in frames, albums or shoe boxes. These photos house a treasury of genealogical information, revealing unique details about our ancestors' lives, personalities and everyday realities. Following this guide's step-by-step instruction, anyone can learn how to identify different types of family photographs to determine their date, location, and in some instances, their photographer. Case studies of actual photographs illustrate how other details, such as poses, props, dress and setting can lead to several new genealogical discoveries. Even if a reader's collection of images is limited, this guide provides methods for locating additional photos through libraries, relatives and archives. Once these photos are collected and analyzed, readers will also learn how to preserve their family collection for generations to come."

Photographing Your Heritage
Another book from my own bookshelves, this one is a very useful how-to book for folks who want to photograph tombstones, heirlooms, buildings, documents or even copy old photos with their cameras. "Your camera can help add to your written family legacy. Photographing documents in a library, reading gravestones in a cemetery, copying photographs, and many other useful techniques are fully explained by the author. This informative book was written to address the needs of the novice and the avid shutterbug alike. It offers a complete description of how to use photography in your hobby, including how to buy a camera, tripods, filters, and film types. Use your camera to add a new dimension to your family history."

Collector's Guide to Early Photographs
"This updated one-of-a-kind reference guide provides invaluable information on identifying, cataloging, and valuing cased images to help readers succeed in the hot hobby of collecting and preserving 19th-century photographs. This new edition gives updated prices for hundreds of photographs, and includes the latest improvements and trends in restoration, conservation, and pricing. "

Dating Old Photographs 1840-1929

Unlocking the Secrets in Old Photographs
"Learn how to find those key clues in your ancestors' photographs with Unlocking the Secrets in Old Photographs! You've looked at photos before, but have you ever actually "seen" the photos? Author Karen Frisch-Ripley will guide you through the detailed process of analyzing historical photographs as she teaches you to "see!" Ripley's clear and expressive writing will teach you such skills as:
- The care and restoration of photographs
-Recognizing photo types
-Finding public sources of information
-Dating photographs and much more!
You'll quickly see how easy it is to identify the family in your photos! Get Unlocking the Secrets in Old Photographs and discover those hidden genealogical gems in your family photographs!"