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del Arte. La fotografía en España. De los orígenes al siglo
XXI [Summa Artis. General History of Art. Photography of
Spain. From its Origins through the XXI Century], Madrid:
Espasa-Calpe, 2001.
Sougez, Marie-Loup, Historia de la fotografía [History of Pho-
tography], Madrid: Cátedra, 1981.
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Spain], Madrid: Editorial Espasa-Calpe, 1999.
Vega, Carmelo, La voz del fotógrafo. Textos y documentos para
la historia de la fotografía en Canarias (1839–1939) [The
Photographer’s Voice. Texts and Documents for the History
of Photography in the Canary Islands (1839–1939)], Santa
Cruz de Tenerife: Gobierno de Canarias, Viceconsejería de
Cultura y Deportes, 2000.
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Sevilla [General History of Photography in Seville], Seville:
Ed. Nicolás Monardes & SHFE, 1998.
SPARLING, MARCUS (1826–1860)
Irish photographer
Marcus Fitzell Sparling was born in Ireland, and at age
20, enlisted in the 4th Light Dragoon Guards on March
17th 1846. After fi ve years of service he was awarded a
‘Good Conduct Chevron.’ He was discharged from the
army on September 6, 1853, and left with the honorary
rank of corporal.
By then he was already a member of the recently
formed Photographic Society of London, participating
in the Society’s second meeting, where he introduced a
variation on Major Halkett’s folding fi eld camera. Re-
ports of the meeting by Sir William Newton referred to
him as ‘Corporal Spalding,’ to which he took exception,
fearing that the attribution of a rank to which he was not
entitled would earn him the disrespect of his regimental
colleagues. His protest was published in the Society’s
Journal as being from M. N. Sparling.
Also present at the meeting was Roger Fenton with
whom Sparling developed a lasting professional rela-
tionship. Indeed, he was living at Fenton’s address by
the end of 1853, giving his occupation as ‘chemist,’ and
presumably already employed as his assistant.
He accompanied Fenton on his autumn photographic
journey to Yorkshire, and in 1855 he worked as his as-
sistant in the Crimea.
In 1856 he published his manual Theory and Practice
of the Photographic Art, ‘drawn from the author’s daily
practice,’ this time identifying himself as ‘W. Sparling,
assistant to Mr Fenton in the Crimea.’
He was just 34 years old when he died in Liverpool
on August 19, 1860, of hepatitis.
John Hannavy
SPENCER, WALTER BALDWIN
(1860–1929)
British-born Professor of Biology at the University of
Melbourne, he is better remembered as an anthropolo-
gist. Following formative work amongst the Arrernte
people during the 1894 Horn Expedition to central
Australia, he made other fi eld trips to remote areas
of central and northern Australia. With his collabora-
tor, Frank Gillen (d. 1912), he made many hundreds
of photographs and also pioneered the use of fi lm in
anthropological fi eldwork. Their collaboration was so
close that it is not always possible to attribute authorship
to individual images. They developed and printed much
of their own work and wrote to each other constantly on
matters photographic. Spencer was also friendly with
the distinguished Australian photographer J.W. Lindt
who advised him on occasion. Whilst the photographs
were made with scientifi c intent, many are both cultur-
ally engaged and aesthetically aware. The photographs
were broadly disseminated. Not only were many of them
published in Spencer’s ethnographic monographs, such
as The Native Tribes of Central Australia (1899), but
he gave popular lantern lectures on aboriginal culture
to packed halls throughout his career. His photographs
are now in Museum Victoria, Melbourne, where they
are curated with careful attention to the needs of the
descendants of the indigenous communities with whom
Spencer worked.
Elizabeth EdwardsSPILLER, JOHN (1833–1921)
Chemist
Spiller was born on 20 June 1833, the son of an archi-
tect, and attended the City of London School where he
showed a particular aptitude for science. He continued
his studies at the private Royal College of Chemistry,
(RCC), joining in 1849. The RCC had been founded by
public subscription in 1845 with the purpose of training
chemists to help the economic growth of the country.
The training was practical and laboratory based. After
two years the best students could become research as-
sistants. Spiller was following this route until the RCC
ran into fi nancial diffi culties and in 1853 merged with
the Royal School of Mines, (RSM), whose Head was Dr
Percy, a distinguished metallurgist and a photographer.
Spiller transferred to the RSM, where, under Dr Percy’s
tutelage, he and two colleagues completed an important
and comprehensive series of chemical analyses of Brit-
ish iron ores.
The state of photography at the time was such that
although many basic principles had been established,
there were real problems with the reliability of processes