794
The major holding of his work—predominantly
Waxed Paper negatives—is the Hurd Bequest in Edin-
burgh Central Library.
John Hannavy
Biography
Thomas Keith was born in St. Cyrus, Aberdeenshire,
Scotland, in May 1827, one of seven sons of the Rev-
erend Alexander Keith. He studied art in Aberdeen,
before becoming one of the last medical apprentices
in Edinburgh, and subsequently serving as a junior
member of Sir James Young Simpson’s team work-
ing on anaesthetics—his brother George Skene Keith
was Simpson’s assistant. After qualifi cation, and a
residency at Edinburgh Infi rmary, he moved to Turin
as House Surgeon in the British Embassy, returning to
Edinburgh in 1851. By the time he took up photography,
he was in general practice with his brother George. He
later pioneered several important procedures in ovar-
ian surgery, and his hobby always took second place
to his career as a doctor, surgeon and gynaecologist.
His close and lasting friendship with Joseph Lister
was sustained by a shared belief in the importance on
cleanliness in the operating theatre, and he was one of
the fi rst to introduce Lister’s antiseptic techniques in his
work. In his obituary, celebrating an eminent career in
medicine, the only reference to photography concerned
his knowledge of glass—ironic for a master of the paper
negative! He died in 1895 as a result of health problems
exacerbated by sustained exposure to large quantities
of early antiseptics.
See also: Waxed Paper Negative Processes.
Further Reading
Hannavy, John, Thomas Keith’s Scotland—the work of a Victorian
Amateur Photographer., Edinburgh: Canongate, 1981.
Minto, C. S., Thomas Keith, 1827–1895, Surgeon and Photogra-
pher, the Hurd Bequest, Edinburgh: Edinburgh Corporation
Libraries and Museums Committee, 1966.
Minto, C. S., John Forbes White, Miller, Collector, Photographer
1831 – 1904, Edinburgh: Edinburgh Corporation Libraries and
Museums Committee, 1970.
Schaaf, Larry J., Sun Pictures Catalogue Six: Dr. Thomas Keith
and John Forbes White, New York: Kraus, 1993.
Keith, Thomas, “Dr. Keith’s Paper on the Waxed Paper Process”
in Photographic Notes vol. 1 no. 8, 1856, 101–104.
Hannavy, John, “Thomas Keith at Iona” in History of Photogra-
phy, vol. 2, 1, 29–33. London: Taylor & Francis, 1978.
KERN, EDWARD MEYER (1823–863)
The youngest of three Philadelphia-born, artistically-
minded brothers who all took part in important ven-
tures of American exploration in the mid-19th century,
Edward Meyer Kern was probably the boldest, and,
although primarily a draughtsman, the only one to
practice photography—in the form of daguerreotypes.
Indeed, he used a daguerreotype apparatus on several
important American naval expeditions to the Far East
and thereby helped introduce the process in a number
of locations in Asia and the Pacifi c area.
Though his actual photographic output was still large-
ly unknown or unidentifi ed, and though most holdings
of his work consisted exclusively of sketches, drawings
and maps of the American West, Edward “Ned” Kern
was a signifi cant fi gure in the development of photog-
raphy, for at least two reasons. First, he was part of an
important cultural and professional transition, which
saw the novelty of photography gradually penetrate the
tradition of scientifi c drawing in American exploration,
albeit only timidly at fi rst. Second, after 1853 Kern was
a pioneer spreading photography to the Far East and,
as such, a representative of the process of technological
modernization, which in many parts of the world was
associated with the advent of photography.
Kern’s involvement in photography, however, had
been slow in developing. As was the case with most of
the artists, draughtsmen and scientists who took part
in the ambitious U.S. government program of explora-
tion of the American West before 1860, Kern did not at
fi rst seem interested in the daguerreotype process as an
adjunct to scientifi c exploration. From 1845 to 1851,
instead, he worked exclusively as a pencil artist and
topographer on several surveys of the American West,
notably under the leadership of John Charles Frémont,
and often in company with his brothers Benjamin and
Richard Kern, the latter being regarded as the most
gifted artist of the trio.
Frémont, it is true, had experimented with the
daguerreotype as early as 1842, and he did hire a
daguerreotypist on his 1853 expedition, but this was
rather an exception in the U.S.; at any rate, claims that
Edward Kern was once employed as daguerreotypist
by Frémont are not substantiated by survey records or
private archives. Although his sketching style might be
regarded as theatrical and almost naive, Kern was in fact
a prime example of the American explorers’ typically
Romantic and highly productive commitment to the
hand and the eye; along with the prolonged dominance
of the impractical daguerreotype process, this explains
why until 1860 photography remained largely alien to
the practice of U.S. military engineers, who instead
favored tried-and-true methods closely associating
topography and draughtsmanship.
After breaking his connection to Frémont on account
of the latter’s brash methods, Kern indeed continued to
work with brush and pencil on various Western surveys
until 1851-52, reaching a degree of fame in Philadelphia
with several exhibitions of Western sketches and illustra-
tions of botany and Indian subjects. Without a doubt,