154
BEYER, KAROL ADOLF (1818–1877)
Karol Adolf Beyer is one of the most important Polish
photographers of the 19th century, and is best remem-
bered for his famous photo-panorama of the city of
Warsaw. Born on February 10, 1818, in Warsaw, Poland,
Beyer was a publisher, numismatist and political activ-
ist, and also played a signifi cant role in introducing new
technological developments in photography into Poland
and popularizing the medium. In 1844 Beyer opened
one of the fi rst daguerreotype studios in Warsaw, hav-
ing become familiar with the daguerreotype process
during a trip in 1842 to Paris and parts of Germany. He
introduced the collodion negative process to Warsaw in
1851, which he had learned during a trip to London that
same year. Additionally, Beyer published a number of
photographic albums on a wide range of themes, and
created photographic reproductions of important Polish
national treasures and artworks. Around this time he
also produced an important ethnographic photographic
series, for which he photographed Polish peasants in
their national and local costume.
In 1857 Beyer produced a photo-panorama of the
city of Warsaw. Shooting from the cupola of Warsaw’s
St. Trinity Lutheran Church and using the wet-plate
collodion process, Beyer took twelve sequential photo-
graphs in order to produce a 360-degree view of the city.
Beyer continued to promote and advance photography
in Poland throughout his life, co-founding the illustrated
magazine Tygodnik Ilustrowany (“Illustrated Weekly”)
in 1859 and in 1870 opening the fi rst studio in Warsaw
to produce photographs using the Albertotype process,
which Beyer learned from Joseph Albert while in Mu-
nich some years earlier. Beyer died on November 8,
1877 in Warsaw, Poland.
Maxim Weintraub
BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE DE
FRANCE
Photography is displayed in all departments of the
Bibliotheque Nationale de France, however it is mainly
located in the department, Cartes et Plans (Charts and
Plans), and especially in the department Estampes et de
la Photographie (Prints and Photography).
In 1851, the fi rst image donated to the Bibliotheque
Nationale de France was by Louis-Désiré Blanquart-
Evrard, editor-photographer and was copyrighted,
which at that time was optional because the law did
not impose it on photographers as judiciously as they
did with engravers. At least 100,000 images became
part of the Bibliotheque in this way until 1914. Later
images were purchased or given as gifts to supplement
the donations, which were needed and remain necessary
today as the Bibliotheque Nationale de France depends
on the goodwill of photographers and the photographic
dealers in France for additions to the collectioin held in
the Bibliotheque.
Prior to 1941 the Bibliotheque had no protocol for
handling donations so a service for collecting photo-
graphs was created within the Cabinet of the Prints
at Jean Laran’s request, who was chief of the Cabinet
from 1939 to 1942. Jean Prinet followed until 1954,
and later, Jean Adhémar from1961 to 1977, were the
fi rst people in charge of this new program. This was the
starting point of a policy for voluntary and organized
donations to the Bibliotheque as nearly 500,000 images
had been collected between 1949 and 1961, and useful
and profi table contacts with professionals, and experts
of photography had been established.
In 1949, 50,000 images were acquired from the work-
shop of Felix and Paul Nadar, and in1954, the Reutlinger
studio donated 30,000 images of Léopold taken in 1853.
One of the fi rst private collectoions of nineteenth cen-
truy photography, established by George Sirot, which
contained 75,000 images, were obtained via purchase
in 1955, with the rest donated in 1956. Many images,
letters, and handwritten notebooks of Louis-Alphonse
Poitevin’s, who was considered a major contributor to
photography after Nicéphore Niépce and William Henry
F. Talbot, were donated in 1989.
The fi rst exhibition in France was held at the Bib-
liotheque consisting of portraits du passé (1961), Atget
(1964), Nadar (1965), and Niépce (1967).
In 1976, the Cabinet of the Prints became the Depart-
ment of the Prints and Photography. In the prestigious
Mansart Fallery of the Bibliotheque, expositions became
“an invention of the 19th century, expression and tech-
nique of photography,” which paid full homage to the
Société française de Photographie. 346 pieces of work
were donated (1854). These events, which were accom-
panied by a catalogue that reproduced all the images,
inspired the Bibliotheque to hold exhibits and rotate out
images with other to allow the public and historians ac-
cess to various different images to study them.
This initiative with the support of Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 1980, became the year of the “Regards
sur la photographie en France au XIXe siècle” (Paris,
Petit Palate and New York, with 192 images and 102
photographers). In 1983, it introduced “George Sirot
1898–1977” (Paris, bibl. nat., approximately 170
parts), however, unfortunately, the show was without
a catalogue. Then “Le corps et son image” was shown
in 1986 (Paris, palate of Tokyo, 89 photographers, 171
numbers). The fi rst two exhibitions increased the an-
thology of work. More modest achievements although,
which were just as instructive and appreciated as other
major works, were held in the Galerie de Photographie
at the national Bibliotheque, which opened its doors in- This space accomodated and was devoted to more
than 120 exposures, the majority of which belonged