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March 1840. He was able to reduce exposure times by
using an ingeniously designed camera, in which a con-
cave mirror replaced the usual lens. Although this novel
optical system restricted the plate size and the quality of
the daguerreotype images left much to be desired, they
were received with enormous enthusiasm. Wolcott’s
system was taken to London by his partner’s father,
William S.Johnson, who entered into a partnership with
Richard Beard, a coal merchant and patent speculator.
Beard was a licensee for Daguerre’s English patent for
the Daguerreotype process and in June 1840 he also took
out an English patent for Wolcott’s camera design. The
system was further improved by incorporating Goddard’s
bromine accelerating process. In March 1841, Beard
opened Europe’s fi rst daguerreotype portrait studio at the
Royal Polytechnic Institute in London’s Regent Street. In
what was then the richest city in the world, such a novelty
meant that success was almost certainly assured. A review
in The Spectator noted “if the charge be moderate...thou-
sands will fl ock to the Polytechnic portrait room and the
patentee, Mr Beard, will make a fortune.” Thousands did
fl ock and Beard did indeed make a fortune. Three months
after Beard’s opening, Antoine Claudet opened a rival
daguerreotype studio on the roof of the Adelaide Gallery
in London. Other studios followed and within a few years
almost every major town in Britain had its daguerreotype
portrait studio. Similar events took place in France, the
home of the daguerreotype. Paris became the world’s
centre of excellence for daguerreotype equipment and
materials. It was the introduction of the Petzval portrait
lens that promoted the establishment of daguerreotype
portrait studios in Austria and Germany, where they were
again received with acclaim. Daguerreotype portraiture
became a world wide phenomenon. By the end of the
decade, studios were operating as far away as India and
Hong Kong.
The American people’s enthusiasm for the minute
detail of the daguerreotype was unrivalled. As in Europe,
many early commercial practitioners saw photography
as a lucrative sideline to a more traditional trade and
the quality of early portraits was often poor. This did
little to dampen enthusiasm and quality improved as
the more skilful operators became established. From
the early 1840s, businesses such as the galleries of John
Plumbe and the partnership of Albert Southworth and
Josiah Hawes began earning reputations for high qual-
ity. One of the most distinguished names in American
photography, Matthew B. Brady, opened a daguerreo-
type studio in New York City in 1844. By the end of
the decade American daguerreotypes were beginning
to be recognised as the fi nest in the world. The calotype
process was never widely practised in America. William
and Frederick Langenheim, who had been operating a
daguerreotype studio in Philadelphia since 1841, pur-
chased rights to the calotype from Talbot in 1849. They
were enthusiastic about its prospects but totally failed
to convince American customers of its merits.
In England, Talbot had harboured hopes that calotype
portrait studios could emulate the popularity of the
daguerreotype studios. In August 1841 he licensed the
fi rst professional calotypist, Henry Collen, a miniature
painter by profession. The fi rst press reviews of Collen’s
portraits in the spring of 1842 were generally favourable.
The Morning Post reported that “ The portraits, those
at least we have seen, are very satisfactory. There is a
rough air of truth about them, which reminds one of the
fi rst, and sometimes the best, sketches of the artist....”
Emphasising the one great advantage the calotype en-
joyed compared to the daguerreotype, the Gentleman’s
Magazine noted, “the likenesses produced by Mr Collen
of Somerset Street, may be multiplied to any extent.”
However, calotype portraiture failed to capture public
imagination. Possibly this was because neither Talbot
nor Collen displayed any fl air for business but even when
the fashionable daguerreotypist, Claudet, was licensed
to take calotypes, there was little interest.
Talbot showed that the calotype process could be a
suitable medium for portraiture by making charming
private portraits of his family and friends but perhaps
the most convincing proof was provided by two Scottish
calotypists, Robert Adamson and David Octavious Hill,
who became partners in 1843. Adamson was responsible
for technical matters, the chemistry and manipulation,
while Hill looked after the artistic side of the business,
posing the sitters, backgrounds and lighting. Until
Adamson’s death in 1848, they produced around 1,500
calotype portraits and groups, which most modern com-
mentators accept are amongst the most masterly images
of the decade. Hill, a painter, was a champion of the ar-
tistic qualities of the calotype process. He had little time
for what he called “ the livid pictures of Daguerre.”
In 1844 Talbot set up a calotype printing establish-
ment at Reading where he produced the world’s fi rst
commercial photographically illustrated book, The
Pencil of Nature. During the next three years, Talbot
used the Reading establishment to produce enormous
numbers of prints from his own negatives and those of
his friends and associates. Amongst the most interesting
are Talbot’s London views, the earliest important pho-
tographic record of a great city. Photography on paper
was most popular amongst Europeans and particularly
the gentleman amateur photographers in Britain. Many
of these early calotypists were part of Talbot’s circle of
family and friends. They included, his Welsh cousin,
Christopher Rise Mansel Talbot, cousin by marriage,
John Dillwyn Llewellyn, the Reverend Calvert Richard
Jones and the Reverend George Bridges. The calotype
process was also widely practised in France, particu-
larly after the introduction of Louise-Desire Blanquart-
Evard’s improved method announced in 1847.HISTORY: 3. PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE 1840s