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In England each society held an annual conference
at which a ‘temporary museum’ would be set up.
Members regularly exhibited photographs from their
collections.
The historiography of collections is of key signifi -
cance in the evaluation of the long-term infl uence of
19th century photographic collections. The pathway
from private collections to institutional collections
began comparatively early. On his death Chauncey
Hare Townsend (1798–1868) bequeathed his collec-
tion of photographs to the South Kensington Museum
and these now form some of the most important works
held at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Lord Martin
Conway (1856–1937) and Sir Robert Witt (1872–1952)
both started their respective collections of photographs
in the late 19th century. While Conway’s interests were
primarily in architecture and sculpture, Witt specialized
in the art of the Italian Renaissance and through dona-
tion, in 1932 and 1952 respectively; their photo archives
became the core of one of the largest photographic
collections of art and architecture held at the Courtauld
Institute of Art of the University of London.
The 19th century saw the foundation of very signifi -
cant numbers of professional bodies societies together
with ‘scholarly’ societies and related organizations.
Some professionals were involved in the vast construc-
tion campaigns undertaken during the period; archi-
tecture, civil engineering, railways and shipbuilding.
Conversely, the fascination of the past spawned large
numbers of societies dedicated to the understanding
and preservation of the past. Architectural, archaeo-
logical and local history societies proliferated. All of
these groups were to form collections of photographs
to achieve their aims and objectives.
The study of ethnography and anthropology de-
veloped rapidly from the middle of the 19th century.
In Great Britain the Royal Anthropological Institute
(founded in 1871 from the merger between Ethnologi-
cal Society of London and the Anthropological Society)
began its collection of photographs that remains one of
the pre-eminent example.
Another ethnographic photographic collection, that
of the Smithsonian Institution, encompasses a number
of aspects of photographic collecting. In 1867 the
English fi nancier William Blackmore (1827–1878)
loaned his personal collection of photographs of “North
American Indians” to Joseph Henry (1797–1878), the
Director of the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., and
hired the artist and photographer Antonio Zeno Shindler
to make copies of them to help prepare the catalogue
for an exhibition—Photographic Portraits of North
American Indians in the Gallery of the Smithsonian
Institution—that was mounted in 1869. This was the
Smithsonian’s fi rst photographic exhibit and the cop-
ies of Blackmore’s collection helped form the basis of
the institution’s own collection of ethnographic photo-
graphs. In 1872 the Smithsonian established a relation-
ship with Blackmore to assist his project of building a
photographic archive.
From the early 1860s Blackmore had formed a col-
lection of some 2,000 photographs of North American
Indians that dated from 1850–1875. This included his
commissioning photographers. Blackmore had built
a museum in his hometown of Salisbury to house his
extensive collection of early archaeological artefacts
and intended to place his photographic archive there.
In addition, Blackmore planned to publish a series of
photographs from his collections. His untimely death
in 1878 scuppered these projects.
The British Empire provided fertile ground for
photographic campaigns aimed at building associated
collections. From 1868 onwards the British Museum
Library and the India Offi ce Library (the successor
to the East India Company Library) both enjoyed the
privilege of legal deposit of printed books, periodicals
and newspapers from undivided India. Photography
was extensively used by the ‘Archaeological Survey of
India,’ established in 1861. Many of these photographs
are now held in the India Offi ce Collections of the Brit-
ish Library.
In London, the Royal Geographical Society was
fortunate to have John Thompson (1837–1921), as in-
structor of photography, and both fellows and members
were encouraged to take pictures, and give the Society
any photographs they had taken or collected. Certainly
in the 1860’s and 70’s a large number of photographs
were donated which form the basis of the Society’s
extensive collection today.
Societies related to geographical and historical study
included the Palestine Exploration Fund, founded in- The Fund extensively exploited photography to
document biblical and post-biblical archaeological sites.
It formed a relationship with the British Royal Engineers
whose photographers created numerous views, some
published by the Palestine Exploration Fund.
Medical photography was well-established by the
1880s and some hospitals were creating albums of
clinical photographs. By this time most hospitals in
France had photographic departments though in Eng-
land and the USA medical photography remained in the
hands of individual photographers. By the mid 1890s
X-ray photography was in use in German hospitals for
orthopaedic surgery. Lantern slides created for teach-
ing formed another aspect of such medical collections.
Many such collections survived well into the 20th
century but were eventually displaced by the 35mm
transparency format.
By the 1860s many commercial manufacturers were
using photography as a core business tool and form-
ing photographic records of their productions. By the