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ters, traveling across all of Germany and central Europe
and spending 1823 to 1826 in Italy. Around 1834, at the
age of 75, Enslen retired for the second time, moving
his residence to Dresden. Again taking up astronomy
and physical experiments, he published two monographs
on the nature of light in 1834 and 1841 and began to
experiment with photography in early 1839. Working
on paper printing methods he devised his own fi xing
solution and began producing photogenic drawings in
March, 1839, becoming the fi rst practicing photographic
pioneer in Germany at the age of 80. His last work was
a large copper engraving of a café garden in Dresden;
he died on 10 December 1848.
See also: Wedgwood, Thomas.Further Reading
Oettermann, Stephan, “Johann Carl Enslen (1759–1848) ... und
zuletzt auch noch Photographie-Pionier” [Johann Carl Enslen
(1759–1848) ... and fi nally also a pioneer of Photography],
in: Bodo von Dewitz and Reinhard Matz, (Hrsgs.), Silber und
Salz. Zur Früheit der Photographie im deutschen Sprachraum
1839 – 1860 [Silver and Salt. On Early Photography in Ger-
man-language Cultures 1839–1860] Cologne and Heidelberg:
Agfa Foto-Historama/Edition Braus, 1989.
Oettermann, Stephan, “Die fl iegenden Plastiken des Johann Karl
Enslen / Johann Karl Enslen’s Flying Sculptures,” in: Daidalos
37 (15 September 1990), 44–53.EPSTEAN, EDWARD (1868–1945)
Photoengraver, book collector, and translator
Edward Epstean occupies an unconventional position
in the historiography of early photography. Neither
a collector of images nor academic, nevertheless his
elevated linguistic skills and decades-long professional
experience as a photoengraver enabled him to become a
foremost scholar and disseminator in the interwar years.
His translations of key French and German works into
English meant that Epstean’s infl uence stretched far
beyond his professional circles. Furthermore, thanks to
his foresight as a bibliographer and bibliophile, genera-
tions of scholars have benefi ted from Epstean’s research
collection, donated to Columbia University in his native
city of New York.
Edward Epstean began his career in photoengraving
in 1892, and therefore lived through the period which
saw a huge expansion in halftone printing. His schol-
arly bent gave him the impetus to constitute a personal
library in the fi eld: “It was the need for a thorough
theoretical understanding of the reproductive processes
by photography, in which I have been engaged for some
forty-fi ve years, which led me to bring together these
books” (Foreword, A Catalogue of the Epstean Col-
lection, New York: Columbia University Press, 1937).
However, a cursory glance at the subject matter of hiscollection makes plain that it had long outgrown the
requirements of a working library to encompass the full
scope of photographic science, history and applications.
In fact the photomechanical processes and colour print-
ing comprise barely a fi fth of the collection.
Epstean’s breadth of vision was matched by the
assiduity with which he set about constructing his col-
lection, in particular literature from the earliest years of
photography. His professional contacts enabled him to
add to his holdings the libraries of Stephen H. Horgan,
William Gamble and Josef Maria Eder. His French
holdings were consolidated with the acquisition of a
private French library, including duplicates from the
collection of Gabriel Cromer (1873–1934) gathered by
Kirkor Gumuchian (1886?–1949), then a bookseller in
Paris but who would move his stock and selling opera-
tion to New York City on the eve of the second world
war. Epstean was ably supported in his endeavours by
John A. Tennant, a New York bookseller and publisher
of The Photo-Miniature from 1899 to 1939. When Eps-
tean decided to place his collection, he was fortunate in
having as a negotiating partner Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt
(1903–1992), an outstanding historian of printing and
rare books curator at Columbia University from 1930
to 1937. Lehmann-Haupt recognised the signifi cance
and value of Epstean’s library for research and oversaw
the integration of The Epstean Collection, as it became
known, into Columbia University library in 1934. A
bibliography of the collection was published in 1937
while Epstean, viewing the collection as a work-in-
progress, continued adding to the holdings and provided
annual funds for further acquisitions. By the time of his
death, the collection numbered some two thousand titles
comprising three thousand volumes.
In parallel to his collecting activities, Epstean under-
took a series of translations, introducing the English-
speaking world to important photohistorical studies
by Victor Fouqué, Georges Potonniée, Erich Stenger
and, most notably, Josef Maria Eder. The impulsion
came on a visit to Eder in Austria in 1932, and by 1934
Epstean had completed a draft translation in longhand
of the fourth edition of Eder’s monumental Geschichte
der Photographie (History of Photography). For copy-
right reasons and “the changed political conditions in
Germany,” the work was not published by Columbia
University Press until 1945. Epstean used the interval to
ensure full revision and technical editing by several lead-
ing photographic scientists, with the result that Eder’s
work, in Epstean’s translation, gained broad acceptance
in the English-speaking world as the standard work in
the fi eld. It had no peer as a single-volume comprehen-
sive survey until Gernsheim’s History, and even sixty
years later has not been fully superseded.
Epstean was conscious of the pitfalls of translat-
ing technical texts, stating that he found it “extremelyEPSTEAN, EDWARD
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