588
internship in Australia at the start of World War II, the
Gernsheims were reunited in London in 1942 where
Helmut went to work for the Warburg Institute until
- A meeting and continuing friendship with Beau-
mont Newhall led to their beginning to collect original
photographic art and apparatus in that year. By 1947
their Gernsheim Collection was growing to such an
extent that they abandoned their previous careers and
became full-time collectors, historians, researchers,
advocates, lecturers, teachers and authors. In the course
of 18 years, from 1945 to 1963, they built one of the
greatest photohistorical collections in history, special-
izing in nineteenth century British photography. During
this extremely creative interval they also authored some
200 scholarly and popular articles and nearly two dozen
books on the subject, as well as instituting a series of
major international traveling exhibitions from the col-
lection. In 1963 they sold their collection and archive to
The University of Texas at Austin and retired to Lugano,
Switzerland. They continued to write, edit and travel
until Alison’s death on March 27, 1969. Remarrying in
the following year, Helmut continued to research, write,
teach and lecture for another quarter century. He also
began collecting contemporary photographs up until the
time of his death on July 20, 1995. His later collection
and archive are now housed at the Reiss-Engelhorn
Museum in Mannheim, Germany.
See also: Hill, David Octavius, and Robert Adamson;
Cameron, Julia Margaret; Fenton, Roger; Robinson,
Henry Peach; Emerson, Peter Henry; Martin, Paul
Augustus; Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge (Carroll,
Lewis); Coburn, Alvin Langdon; Niépce, Joseph
Nicéphore; and Victoria, Queen and Prince Albert
Consort.
Further Reading
Auer, Anna, and Alistair Crawford, eds., Helmut Gernsheim Re-
considered: The Proceedings of the Mannheim Symposium,
Passau, Germany: Dietmar Klingeer Verlag (2004).
Cohen, Morton N., Refl ections in a Looking Glass: A Centennnial
Celebration of Lewis Carroll, Photographer [after words by
Roy Flukinger & postscript by Mark Haworth-Booth], New
York: Aperture, 1998.
Flukinger, Roy, The Formative Decades: Photography in Great
Britain 1839-1920, Austin: The University of Texas Press
1985.
Flukinger, Roy, Windows of Light: A Bibliography of he Serials
Literature Within the Gernsheim & Photography Collections
of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Austin:
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University
of Texas at Austin, 1994.
Flukinger, Roy, and Julianne Newton (eds.), Photography: The
First 150 Years, From the Photography Collection, Harry
Ransom Humanities Research Center, Austin: Texas Photo-
graphic Society, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center,
Laguna Gloria Art Museum, 1991.
The Gernsheim Collection (introduction: John W. Meaney),
Austin: The University of Texas at Austin, 1965.
Haynes, David Polk, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Filmic Items
in the Gernsheim Collection, Master’s Thesis, Austin: The
University of Texas at Austin 1969.
Hill, Paul, and Thomas Cooper, Dialogue with Photography, New
York and Toronto: Farar, Straus, Giroux, 1979.
Knight, Cynthia, Photographic Resources in the Gernsheim
Collection for Six Nineteenth Century Wars, Master’s Thesis,
Austin The University of Texas at Austin, 1971.
Lagercrantz, Bo, Fotografi ca ’67, [“Begegnungen mit Helmut
and Alison Gersnehim”], Stockholm 1966.
Oliphant, Dave, and Thomas Zigal, eds., Perspectives on Photog-
raphy: Essays on the Work of Du Camp, Dancer, Robinson,
Stieglitz, Strand, & Smithers at the Humanities Research
Center, Austin: Humanities Research Center, The University
of Texas at Austin, 1982.
Sager, Peter, Die Besessenen—Begegnungen mit Kunstsammlern
zwischen Aachen und Tokio, Cologne: 1992.
Sui, Claude W. (comp. & ed.), Helmut Gernsheim: Pioneer
of Photo History, Mannheim: Reiss-Engelhorn Museum,
2003.
Taylor, Robert N. (comp.), Roy Flukinger, John O. Kirkpatrick &
Cinda Ann May, Lewis Carroll at Texas: the Warren Weaver
Collection and Related Dodgson Materials at the Harry
Ransom Humanities Research Center, Austin: Harry Ransom
Humanities Research Center, 1985.
Victoria’s World: An Exhibition from the Gernsheim Collection,
(texts by Standish Meachan, Oscar Maurer, Marian Davis
& Charles Irby), Austin: The University of Texas at Austin,
Humanities Research Center, 1968.
Victoria’s World: An Exhibition from the Gernsheim Collection
[2d ed.] (texts by Standish Meachan, Oscar Maurer, Marian
Davis & Charles Irby), Austin: The University of Texas at
Austin, Humanities Research Center, 1970.
Victoria’s World: An Exhibition from the Gernsheim Collection
[3d ed.] (text: Roy Flukinger), Austin: The University of Texas
at Austin, Humanities Research Center, 1980.GHÉMAR, LOUIS (1819–1873)
Belgian photographer, lithographer, and painter
Louis Joseph Ghémar was born in Lannoy, northern
France, on 8 January 1819, the fi rst child of aspirational
parents of modest means. His father, Ange Ghémar, was
an instituteur [primary school teacher] and his mother,
Catherine Horlait, the daughter of a brewer of Belgian
origin. After the death of her husband in 1830, Cath-
erine moved back to Belgium and remarried Toussaint
Ouverleaux, professeur [high school teacher] and future
principal of the Collège royal d’Ath. Ghémar studied
there and had lessons at the art academy in Ath.
Ghémar moved to Brussels aged 17 in order to train
and earn his living as a draughtsman. He became a pupil
of the painter Paul Lauters (1806–1875). Ghémar ini-
tially came to prominence as a caricaturist, his portraits
appearing in the Belgian edition of the French satirical
magazine Charivari from April 1839 onwards. In the
1840s, Ghémar gained a reputation as a prolifi c lithog-
rapher, supplying views in the Romantic tradition for