155
to young contemporary authors, until it permanently
closed in 1996.
The year 1989 marked the celebration of the 250th
anniversary of photography and included fi ve major
expostions in Paris. The national Bibliotheque hosted
two of them, one in conjunction with the Musée d’Orsay
which displayed a wide selction of 19th century im-
ages under the title, “L’invention d’un regard” (Paris,
Museum of Orsay, 281 images belonged to a majority
of these institutions).
Other exposures followed which depicted personali-
ties, and subjects of a current period, revealing impor-
tant dimensions to the donated material. Included were
“L’Art du nu au XIXe siècle” (Paris, bibl. nat. of France)
in 1997, “Les frères Bisson photographes” (Paris, bibl.
nat. of France) and “Degas photographe” (in conjunction
with the Metropolitan Museum of New York and the
J. Paul Getty Museum, presented in Paris, bibl. nat. of
France, New York, Los Angeles) in 1999, and “Voyage
en Orient, photographies 1840–1880” (Paris, bibl. nat.
of France) in 2001.
The national Bibliotheque participated in raising
awareness of photography to the extent of establishing it
as having culturally recognized value. The Bibliotheque
also supported the movement through frequently lending
their collections to other French or foreign institutions
like “Nadar, les années créatrices 1854–1860” which
was organized in 1994 by the Musée d’Orsay and
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and “Eugène
Atget, le pionnier” which was put together in 2000 for
the photographic Inheritance (Paris, Hôtel of Sully).
All the great names of photography are represented
at the Bibliotheque like: Antoine Samuel Adam-Solo-
mon; Olympe Aguado; Eugene Atget, of whom’s work
3,600 images were purchased between 1900 and 1927;
Edouard Baldus; Louis Auguste et Auguste Rosalie Bis-
son; Adolphe Braun; Etienne Carjat; Hippolyte Auguste
Collard; Louis Emile Durandelle; A. A. Eugène Disdéri;
Gustave Le Gray; Henri Le Secq; Charles Marville;
Félix Nadar; Charles Nègre; Pierre Petit; and Victor
Regnault. The images of the following photographers
however are unfortunately rare or completely absent in
the collections of the other French or foreign institu-
tions: Charles Aubry; Bruno Braquehais; Adalbert and
Eugene Cuvelier; Constant Famin; Jacques Antoine
Moulin; Camille of Olivier; Achilles Quinet; Adrien
Tournachon; Julien Vallou of Villeneuve are all under-
represented internationally.
Albums though, of voyages and early reports are
located at the Bibliotheque such as Edouard Deles-
sert’s Italy, Gustave de Beaucorps’ Spain, Ambroise
Richebourg’s Russia, and Maxime Du Camp’s Egypt.
Auguste Salzmann’s images of l’Orient, along with
accounts from Louis De Clercq, Felix Bonfi ls, James
Roberson are available for viewing also.
Examples of pictorialism can also be located at the
Bibliotheque, with many images from Alfred-Louis
Begoz, Maurice Bucquet, Jean Ferdinand Coste, Robert
Demachy, Etienne Descargues, René Lédard, Constant
Puyo and famous publications such as the L’Epreuve
photographique, L’Art photographique, Camera Work.
Further documents included in the collections are nearly
1,800 single documents of nature in ambrotypes, fer-
rotypes, autochrome plates, daguerreotypes (plates by
Louis Fizeau, Leon Foucault, Joseph Philibert Girault
de Prangey, of the baron Large Jean-Baptist-Louis...),
calotypes, plates with collodion, fl exible supports by
George Balagny, and various other formats.
The technical progress of photography was advanced
by the hard work of pioneers such as Louis Ducos du
Hauron who researched and developed the three-colour
processes, Abel Niépce de Saint-Victor who worked
with photogravures, Joseph Lemercier’s work on litho-
photographies, Alphonse Poitevin’s exploration with
photolithographies and coals, and fi nally Etienne Jules
Marey’s motion-analyses. Their advances and other
made to standardized production in 1855, contributed
to the popularization of the photographic image. The
collection at the Bibliotheque includes portrait-cartes
or carte-de-visites, 50,000 images of which, not count-
ing the 18,000 images from Disdéri’s workshop, were
purchased in 1995, as well as carte albums totaling
18,000 images, and 20,000 stereoscopes on paper.
These artifacts of photography have become invaluable
testimony to amateur practices, starting with the begin-
ning of photography where the images were of sitters
in long-held poses to years later when the images and
position of the sitter gave the impression of an instanta-
neous photograph. These are priceless documents for the
historian as these images capture people in their familiar
and private environments throughout time.
Although tracking and maintaining whole collections
is a main priority for the Bibliotheque, some collections
are donated in many separate donations, or are donated
unlabeled. The dislocated collections however that are
then reunited, happen largely because of the people that
research them or because they are required by occupa-
tion to know about this information. This data of 19th
century photographers is kept organized in a methodical
table ordered by subject to facilitate the location of any
image searched for. The Bibliotheque has gone to great
lengths to organize the catalogues and monographs on
the authors and the history of photography, both old and
recent. This documentation has been exhaustive for the
French publications, and the department’s new site (Bib-
liotheque François Mitterand) supplements this. There
are numerous fi les and, in particular, an abundance of
correspondence including what survived the closing of
the Nadar and Poitevin’s workshops.
The department conducted the examination of