1313
the medium as a tool of education and scholarship, but
also as a creative medium in its own right. (His enthusi-
asm for photography led him practise it as an amateur in
1856.) On 22 January 1856 Cole and Thompson visited
An Exhibition of Photographs and Daguerreotypes, the
third annual exhibition of the Photographic Society of
London. Cole bought 22 photographs from the exhibi-
tion, thus founding the earliest collection of the art
of photography in the world. His selection included
examples of the principal subjects of fi ne art, such as
the nude (an “Academic Study” by John Watson), still
life (“Christmas Fare” by V.A. Prout and William Lake
Price’s “The First of September”) and landscape (most
notably views taken in the Valley of the Mole by Robert
Howlett). Cole’s fourth initiative was to host a photo-
graphic exhibition—the fi rst in any museum—in 1858.
This was a combined show involving the Photographic
Society of London and its Parisian counterpart, the
Societé Française de Photographie. There were almost
1000 exhibits, including contributions from some of the
greatest practitioners of the time, such as—on the Brit-
ish side—C.L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), Roger Fenton,
J.D. Llewelyn, Oscar Gustave Rejlander and Benjamin
Brecknell Turner and—from France—Edouard Baldus,
Gustave Le Gray, Nadar and Charles Nègre. Queen Vic-
toria and Prince Albert, both keen collectors of the art
of photography, attended the private view of the exhibi-
tion held on 12 February 1858. The installation of the
exhibition was admired by critics and was recorded in
a photograph by Thompson. Unfortunately, none of the
exhibits were acquired by the museum. However, Cole
was to make a signifi cant acquisition in 1865 when he
bought 80 photographs from Julia Margaret Cameron
(1815–79). He sat for her at Little Holland House on
19 May 1865. Cameron produced a striking portrait of
Cole, resembling a Renaissance grandee (a print is in the
Royal Society of Arts), and gave the museum 34 more of
her photographs. Cole showed a selection of Cameron’s
works at the museum in autumn 1865. He also provided
her with studio space for her portraiture practice at the
museum—this was (his fi fth innovation) a precursor of
the idea of the artist-in-residence. Her marvellous let-
ters to Cole are in the National Art Library at the South
Kensington Museum’s successor, the Victoria and Albert
Museum (which it was renamed by Queen Victoria in
1899, now popularly called the V&A). Cole’s sixth in-
novation was to send Cameron’s photographs to regional
centres as part of the museum’s circulating exhibitions
programme. He was the fi rst, and unfortunately the only,
museum director to buy and exhibit Cameron’s work
in her lifetime. The works she gave Cole and his wife
personally were given to the museum by their son, Alan
S. Cole, in 1913. Thanks to the various photographic
initiatives introduced by Cole at South Kensington,
his colleagues were suffi ciently sensitized to the art of
photography to accept the photographic element when
the Chauncy Hare Townshend Bequest was offered in- The photographs were kept alongside other kinds
of prints in the Art Library—perhaps the earliest ‘mu-
seum without walls.’ The museum’s scientifi c experts
also arranged important exhibitions which presented
photography from a technical point of view, notably
The S.T. Davenport Collection (1869) and the Special
Loans Exhibition (1876). These exhibitions displayed an
impressive range of photographic processes, print types
and equipment such as lenses. Items from the1876 exhi-
bition became part of the Science Museum collections
when the South Kensington Museum was divided and
renamed in 1899 and are now in the National Museum
of Photography, Film and Television.
Mark Haworth-Booth
See also: Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry
of All Nations, Crystal Palace, Hyde Park (1851);
Du Camp, Maxime; Thompson, Charles Thurston;
Bedford, Francis; Royal Engineers; Societé Française
de Photographie; Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge;
Fenton, Roger; Llewelyn, John Dillwyn; Rejlander,
Oscar Gustav; Turner, Benjamin Brecknell; Baldus,
Édouard; Le Gray, Gustave; Nadar; Nègre, Charles;
Victoria, Queen and Albert, Prince Consort; Cameron,
Julia Margaret; and Cole, Sir Henry.
Further Reading
The Victoria & Albert Museum, National Art Library Public
Access Catalogue
Burton, Anthony (et al.).Vision & Accident: The Story of the Victo-
ria and Albert Museum London: V&A Publications, 1999.
Conforti, Michael, Haworth-Booth, Mark, and McCauley, Anne,
The Museum and the Photograph. Williamstown, MA: Ster-
ling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1998.
Hamber, Anthony, A higher branch of the art”: photographing
the fi ne arts in England, 1839–1880. Amsterdam: Gordon
and Breach, 1996
Haworth-Booth, Mark. Photography, an independent art: pho-
tographs from the Victoria and Albert Museum 1839–1996,
London: V&A Publications, 1997.
Physick, John, Photography and the South Kensington Museum.
London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1975.
——, The Victoria and Albert Museum, the history of its building.
London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982.
Thomas, David. The Science Museum photography collection.
London: H.M.S.O., 1969.SOUTH-EAST ASIA: MALAYA,
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