1495
New York, and in 1853 his crystalotypes of the moon
were awarded a silver medal at the Crystal Palace exhibi-
tion in New York. Whipple was generous in encouraging
the use of the crystalotype and sold the rights to the
process for $50; training was also provided for $50. The
photographer Josiah Johnson Hawes and William James
Stillman, a landscape painter, are said to have learned
from Black, who was the principal instructor.
For unknown reasons Whipple and Black dissolved
their partnership in 1859. Whipple kept the studio at
96 Washington Street and in 1865 moved to 297 Wash-
ington Street, establishing himself in rooms in three
buildings with every modern convenience, including the
largest skylight in the country according to one visitor.
During this period he created a group portrait of the
National Congregational Church Council at Plymouth
Rock, a contact print measuring approximately 15 ×
19 inches and containing over 1,000 fi gures. Whipple
later photographed the aftermath of the Great Boston
Fire of 1872.
Whipple retired from photography on June 1, 1874,
after a family problem forced him into debt. Until his
death from pneumonia on April 10, 1891, he was a
bookseller and publisher of religious books. Whipple’s
photographs can be found in the following collections:
Boston Athenaeum, Boston Public Library, Massachu-
setts Historical Society, Society for the Preservation
of New England Antiquities, Harvard Observatory,
International Museum of Photography, George East-
man House.
Michelle Lamuniere
Biography
Whipple was born on 10 September 1822 in Graf-
ton, Massachusetts. Interested in chemistry as a boy,
after moving to Boston in 1840 he began producing
chemicals for daguerreotypists before beginning to
take photographs himself. Whipple was instrumental
in the development of the glass negative/paper positive
process in America. He became known for his por-
traits, as well as views of the moon, buildings and
ceremonial events in Boston. Whipple was married to
a Boston-born woman named Elizabeth who bore a
son William in 1861. By the time of his death, he had
fi ve children. Whipple exhibited frequently at exhibi-
tions held by the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic
Association beginning in 1841 through the late 1860s,
often receiving awards, and assisted in the formation
of the National Photographic Association in 1868.
After retiring from photography in 1874 he became a
bookseller and publisher of religious books. Whipple
died in Boston on 10 April 1891.
See also: Black, James Wallace; and Southworth,
Albert Sands, and Josiah Johnson Hawes.
Further Reading
Ehrmann, Charles, “Whipple’s Crystallotypes [sic]—The First
Negatives Made on Glass in America.” Photographic Times
and American Photographer (April 1885): 216–217.
Grant, M., “John A. Whipple and the Daguerrean Art.” Photo-
graphic Art Journal, (August 1851): 94.
“Obituary: John A. Whipple.” Photographic Times (April 1891):
182–183.
Pierce, Sally, “Whipple’s Dissolving Views.” Daguerreian Annual
for 2002–2003, the Daguerreian Society, 2004.
——, (with a chronological annotated bibliography by William
S. Johnson) Whipple and Black: Commercial Photographers
in Boston, Boston: The Boston Athenaeum, 1987.
Robinson, William F., A Certain Slant of Light: The First Hun-
dred Years of New England Photography, Boston: New York
Graphic Society, 1980.WHITE, CLARENCE HUDSON
(1871–1925)
American photographer
Born in Ohio, Clarence White was renowned both as a
pictorialist photographer and as an inspirational teacher
of photography. He is best known for his soft-focus
photographs, often depicting women and children in
domestic or natural settings.
After leaving school, White worked a book-keeper
for a wholesale grocery business, taking up photography
as a hobby in about 1893. Self-taught, he was a founder
member of the Newark Camera Club in 1898. He met
prominent fi gures in the photographic world, such as
Fred Holland Day, who became a lifelong friend, and
his work began to be shown at national and international
exhibitions. He became a member of the Linked Ring
in 1900 and was also a founding member of the Photo-
Secession, having his work reproduced in Camera Work
in 1905.
Increasingly involved in photography, he decided
to give up his job and support his family through com-
mercial photography and teaching. In 1906 he opened
a studio on Fifth Avenue, New York and from 1907
until his death he lectured on photography at Columbia
University Teachers College. In 1914 he founded the
Clarence White School of Photography in New York,
and his students included Dorothea Lange, Margaret
Bourke White and Paul Outerbridge. He died suddenly,
from a heart attack, in 1925, during a trip to Mexico
with a group of students.
Colin HardingWHITE, HENRY (1819–1903)
Henry White was born in 1819, the son of Richard
Samuel White. He became a lawyer and went into
practice with his father as White and Son. He took
up photography and began exhibiting albumen prints