1069
regular coverage to the burgeoning amateur movement
and camera club outings as well as discussed half-tone
printing, highlighting the tensions that remained at the
end of the decade between artistic and scientifi c interests
in photography.
Wilson also published The Magic Lantern (1874–
1885) and the annual digest Photographic Mosaics.
He also wrote and published a number of books, The
Philadelphia Photographer absorbed Photographic
World in January 1873 and Photographer’s Friend in
- The journal was continued as Wilson’s Photo-
graphic Magazine and published monthly in New York
from 1889–1914.
Alongside the technological information profi led
in its pages, social and cultural historians have looked
to the journal to trace attitudes toward and responses
to 19th-century photography, among them Sara Gre-
enough, Peter Bacon Hales, Mary Panzer, Barbara Mc-
Candless, and Alan Trachtenberg.
Andrea L. Volpe
See also: Wilson, Edward Livingston; Lea, Matthew
Carey; and Robinson, Henry Peach.
Further Reading
Greenough, Sara, “‘Of Charming Glens, Graceful Glades and
Frowning Cliffs’: The Economic Incentives, Social Induce-
ments and Aesthetic Issues of American Pictorial Photography,
1880–1902.” In Photography in 19th-century America, edited
by Martha A. Sandweiss, Fort Worth, Texas and New York:
The Amon Carter Museum and Harry N. Abrams, 1991.
Johnson, William S., Nineteenth-century Photography: an An-
notated Bibliography, 1839–1879, Boston: G.K. Hall and
Co., 1990.
McCandless, Barbara, “The Portrait Studio and the Celebrity.”
In Photography in 19th-century America, edited by Martha
A. Sandweiss, Fort Worth, Texas and New York: The Amon
Carter Museum and Harry N. Abrams, 1991.
Panzer, Mary. “Romantic Origins of American Realism: Pho-
tography, Arts, Letters in Philadelphia, 1850–1875,” PhD
dissertation, Boston University, 1990.
Taft, Robert, Photography and the American Scene, 1938 reprint,
1964, New York: Dover.
Trachtenberg, Alan. “Photography: the Emergence of a Key Word.
In Photography in 19th-century America, edited by Martha
A. Sandweiss. Fort Worth, Texas and New York: The Amon
Carter Museum and Harry N. Abrams, 1991.
PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENTS
The term “philosophical instrument,” despite being in
popular use, was never clearly defi ned but was in general
use during the eighteenth century through to the mid-
nineteenth century. From the 1850s the term gradually
fell out of favour and was not replaced. Philosophical
instruments were generally used to explore and dem-
onstrate in either an academic or popular way the basic
principles of natural philosophy, or science.
Scientifi c instruments played an increasing role in
scholarly study and working life from the middle ages.
Accurate measurement and calculation was essential
for navigation, manufacturing and construction, and
trade and commerce and through the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries this need lead to the develop-
ment and refi nement of instruments such as back-staff,
octant and sextant for navigation; compasses, levels
and theodolites for surveying; and scales, weights
and rules for commerce. These were developed out of
practical need and represented the everyday trade of
instrument makers.
From the mid-seventeenth century experimentalism
had superseded theories about the natural world based
on Greek thought and grand hypotheses. Francis Bacon
had shown that experimentation, observation and careful
records could be used to make scientifi c deductions and
this new methodology was taken up by the Royal Society
in London. The major centres of scientifi c learning in
Europe began teaching experimental philosophy using
practical apparatus. Popular demonstrations and lectures
rapidly spread across Europe and America. Their effect
was to stimulate the demand for the commercial manu-
facture of philosophical instruments for demonstration
and teaching purposes. The basic design of most instru-
ments varied little into the twentieth century.
Although many of the instruments were used for dem-
onstration and teaching purposes many, such as telescope
and other optical devices also had a practical aspect to
them and were sold by instrument makers to a wider
public and for practical commercial and business use.
During the later eighteenth and early nineteenth century,
many makers described themselves as ‘optical and philo-
sophical instrument makers’ rather than mathematical in-
strument makers, chemical manufacturers or specialised
makers of, for example, spectacles or scales. A number
of fi rms associated with early photography used this
description of their business. Philosophical instruments
were produced in a range of qualities as, for example,
simple brass ‘student’ microscopes through to elabo-
rately-decorated gilt and silver fi nished microscopes for
use by royalty, confi rming their dual use as instruments
for scholarly use and as home entertainment.
Although the defi nition varied slightly philosophical
instruments were originally understood to demonstrate
mechanics, magnetism, pneumatics, hydrostatics and
hydraulics, electricity, heat, sound and light. Meteoro-
logical instruments were also included.
Mechanical models were used to demonstrate vari-
ous mechanical effects including gravity, forces, inertia,
momentum, inertia and levers and pulleys. Steam mod-
els were produced from the early nineteenth century of
different types of engine and engineering tools such as
cranes and mills.
Magnetism and the compass were essential for safe