69
early 1860s photos replaced drawings in the china
manufacturer Minton company pattern books. Railway
companies soon began to employ photographers to
capture images of their newly completed locomotives,
and some companies, such as British Beyer Peacock,
gave them to their salesmen to show their potential
customers.
Collections of photographs evolved during the 19th
century to cover all aspects of human endeavour and
were to have a signifi cant effect on progress in perhaps
the most dynamic phase of the ‘industrial revolution.’
However, the scale, scope and impact of such collections
is largely an untold story that awaits to be told.
Anthony Hamber
See also: Royal Geographical Society; and South
Kensington Museum.
Further Reading
Conforti, Michael, Haworth-Booth, Mark, and McCauley, Anne.
The Museum and the Photograph. Williamstown, Mass.:
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1998.
Hamber, Anthony. A Higher Branch of the Art”: Photographing
the Fine Arts in England, 1839–1880. Amsterdam: Gordon
and Breach, 1996.
Thomas, David. The Science Museum Photography Collection.
London: H.M.S.O., 1969.
ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC
As a result of being in partial or complete darkness for
a signifi cant period of the year. Polar regions present
a shorter window of opportunity for the successful ap-
plication of photography. Due to the expansive areas
of snow and ice, there are challenges in lighting during
periods of full or partial daylight which give rise to poor
contrast and loss of detail due to overexposure.
The fi rst objective interpretation of the, often roman-
tically depicted, harsh and unusual polar landscape was
undertaken by staff of scientifi c and exploring expedi-
tions as an aside to primary duties. It would be more
than twenty years after the introduction of photography,
in the early 1840s, that a dedicated photographer would
be appointed to an expedition to ensure that a new and
fi ckle medium would become a reliable means of record-
ing the opposite ends of the world.
Constraints in storage space made smaller glass plates
a logical choice but potentially compromising quality
of reproductions while shortage of water restricted
processing and printing usually waited till return to
civilisation.
Details of the technical challenges of photography,
such as “keeping excited collodion plates sensitive” and
“a remedy for cracking in negatives,” are well recorded
at the time in journals such as the British Journal of
Photography. Similar discussion on the unique chal-
lenges relating to capturing images in the Polar Regions
was limited and often left to others observing the pro-
cess. Veteran Arctic explorer Dr. Isaac Hayes on board
William Bradford’s 1869 cruise to western Greenland
recounted one such event observing that the “insects got
into the instrument and ruined the plates.”
Away from the ship photography was severely limited
on account of low light and harsh, sub-zero conditions,
as low as –30 ̊F, and technical diffi culties posed by the
wet plate process. Sledging journeys were gruelling and
only essential equipment was carried and photographic
equipment would account for about 5% of the load.
Preservation of images was a signifi cant challenge and
they were often lost prior to return to civilisation.
Daguerreotype apparatus was uncommon but it was
taken on the 1853–54 United States Franklin Search
expedition, led by Elisha Kent Kane. Reportedly the
apparatus was used but all images were lost on an ice
fl oe.
Some of the earliest surviving images were from
the collotype process, used by Surgeon of HMS Reso-
lute William Thomas Domville while on Sir Edward
Belcher’s Franklin search expedition of 1852–54.
Commander E. A. Inglefi eld used Glass plates while
participating in a Franklin search expedition in 1852–53.
Both groups of images are held by the National Mari-
time Museum, Greenwich. Until the advent of the dry
plate process and its commercial patient in 1881 the
wet plate process was most commonly used on polar
expeditions.
George Simpson McTavish in the 1860s and Edward
W. Nelson in 1877 were just two of the land-based ex-
peditions who also used photography in the Arctic.
The Challenger expedition of 1872–1876 utilised
photography and images from this expedition are the
earliest known of Antarctic icebergs and sub-Antarctic
islands. George Strong Nares was commander of Chal-
lenger and would later command of the British Arctic
Expedition of 1875–1876. This expedition equipped and
trained, through the Royal Engineers, Thomas Mitchell
and George White in photographic processes. Their ef-
forts gave rise to the 108 images produced as a boxed
set and were also used as illustrations in accounts of
the expedition.
In the 1880s scientifi c enquiry became increasingly
coordinated on an international level giving rise to in-
creased opportunities for photography. One example of
this was the fi rst International Polar Year in 1882–1883,
which involved twelve countries with activities in both
Polar Regions. Science and exploration were not alone
in attempts to utilise photography to document human
endeavour in a harsh, remote, unexplored region of the
globe.
Pleasure voyages to the Arctic fi nanced by indepen-
dently wealthy individuals also provided a platform for