65
stance, in 1904 the National Portrait Gallery in London
purchased 12 volumes of the day books of the prominent
portrait photographer Camille Silvy (1835–1910). These
contain some 15,000 portraits of many key members of
mid Victorian society.
Commercial photographic archives were also created
during the 19th century, such as the one founded in 1877
by Adolphe Giraudon (1849–1929) that aimed to provide
scholars with access to fi ne art and cultural photographs.
Giraudon was not a photographic publisher in the mould
of Adolphe Braun of Dornach, and his business model
was based on the setting up of the fi rst correspondent
networks, comprising of photographers who were able
to supply Giraudon with photographs taken throughout
Europe and beyond. By 1900, Giraudon offered some
115,000 photographic views and the company archive
still exists and operates commercially.
During the 1840s, photography formed a compara-
tively small amateur or commercial activity though
contemporary commentators were speculating that it
was likely that signifi cant photographic collections
would be formed by both those wishing to exploit the
medium within their profession as well as amateur
collectors. While the scale and scope of this activity
is slowly being exposed, its full extent may never be
known. However, collections of photographs were be-
ing formed through a variety of activities for a range of
purposes from the 1840s.
In order to build a market, some photographers specu-
latively targeted institutions related to the graphic arts.
Thus the British Museum received a number of specula-
tive samples from photographers (or their agents) during
the 1840s. These seem to have been deposited with the
Department of Prints and Drawings though most of these
images were not catalogued into the collection and have
either been misplaced or been lost. In addition, the body
of work undertaken during the 1850s by Roger Fenton
to document the British Museum’s collections—though
highly signifi cant—did not form the foundation of a
clearly defi ned or substantial photography collection
within the institution.
The photographic collections of private individuals
during the 1840s, while comparatively small scale,
provided a template that was extended during the re-
mainder of the century. During the 1840s and 1850s
photography was expensive and commercial outlets
were few and almost entirely based in the major me-
tropolises. This therefore restricted the medium in terms
of it audiences.
Royalty and the nobility form a signifi cant type of
collector during this period and beyond. Prince Albert
(1819–1861), the Prince Consort of Queen Victoria,
seems to have been the primary catalyst in the formation
of the extensive Royal Collection of photographs. Indeed,
royalty are underresearched since their photographic
collections were built through a matrix of commission-
ing, commercial acquisition and donation. In France,
the collection of Emperor Napoléon III (1808–1873),
formed during his reign between 1852 and 1870, refl ects
commercial and artistic photography during the most
dynamic phase of 19th century photography. Across
Europe and beyond, the nobility formed photographic
collections, frequently as adjuncts to their print collec-
tions. However, there has to date been comparatively
little study of these collections and their provenance.
Contemporary artists began to exploit photography
during the 1840s. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
(1780–1867) used the daguerreotype to record his
paintings as early as 1842 and photographs from his
collection, including daguerreotypes, survive. During
the 1840s, John Ruskin accumulated a large collection of
over 100 daguerreotypes some of which he used to help
create illustrations for his book publications. These have
survived as has the collection of 159 daguerreotypes
of architecture in Italy assembled in 1840 and 1841 by
Dr Alexander John Ellis (1814–1890) while travelling
around the country. In both these instances the collec-
tor bought commercially available images and took, or
commissioned, their own photographs. Ruskin exploited
his daguerreotypes by using them as the basis for il-
lustrations to his publications. Ellis had also intended
to publish engraving after his daguerreotypes but the
project never materialised.
Private art collectors began photographically docu-
menting their collections during the 1840s. The Antwerp
publisher Joseph-Ernest Buschmann (1814–1853)
published his personal experiments on daguerreotyp-
ing his own art collection in 1847. The collecting of
photographic portraits also began during the 1840s and
the album of Salt prints assembled by the author and
historian Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) forms a promi-
nent example the latter part of the decade.
Leading architects such as George Gilbert Scott
(1811–1878) and Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc
(1814–1879) formed their own collections of pho-
tographs and the collections of photographs within
architects’ offi ces became integral parts of professional
practice. Photographic publishers targeted this market
produced an increasingly wide range of ‘reference’
photographs. In 1851 Gilbert Scott became one of the
founders of Royal Architectural Museum that soon after
began to collect photographs. By 1853 the Museum
was publicising its intention ‘to collect photographs of
objects too large to be moulded.’
From the early 1850s the South Kensington Museum
formed a large collection of architectural photographs.
The professional institutions involved in architecture
also collected photography. The Royal Institute of
British Architects began to form its own collection
and published at catalogue to its collection in 1871. In