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BRIGMAN, ANNE (1869–1950)
American author, photographer, and studio owner
Anne Brigman was born Anne Wardrope Nott on De-
cember 3, 1869 in Honolulu, Hawaii to Samuel and
Mary Ellen Nott. She moved with her family to Northern
California as a teenager, and was married in 1894 to
Martin Brigman, a sea captain. She took up photography
in 1901 and began working in the Pictorialist style. She
became an associate member of the Photo-Secession
in 1903 and was elected a fellow of the group in 1906.
After separating from her husband in 1910, she spent
eight months in New York City where she participated
in Clarence H. White’s fi rst summer photography class.
She took many of her photographs during yearly camp-
ing trips to the Sierra Nevada mountains of Northern
California between 1904 and 1927, and would later
rework and print the negatives in her studio.
She is best known for her photographs of nude
women in the landscape, such as “The Soul of the
Blasted Pine” (1908) and “The Bubble” (1910). In 1929,
she moved to Southern California and began producing
abstract studies of landscape. In 1949, she published a
book of her poems and photographs entitled Songs of
a Pagan. She died on February 18, 1950 in Southern
California.
Andrea Korda
THE BRITANNIA WORKS COMPANY
British materials manufacturer, established 1879
The Britannia Works Company, which later became
Ilford Limited, grew out of the decision by Alfred Hugh
Harman (1841–1913) to turn his back on a successful
photographic service business—he was one of the fi rst
to offer printing and enlarging services to professional
studio photographers—and devote his energies instead
to the manufacture of dry plates.
In 1879, he moved from Peckham, London, to Ilford,
Essex—because of the clean and dust-free atmosphere
there—and established his new business in a converted
house. With a fi ve employees, Britannia Works—as the
operation became known—produced all its plates by
hand, eschewing early coating machines and instead
opting for hand-poured emulsion from large teapots!
The fi rst successful formulation for the gelatin dry
plate had been published in 1871 by Richard Leach
Maddox, and subsequently improved and refi ned by
others, signifi cantly Frederick Wratten, John Mawson,
Joseph Swan and Hermann Vogel.
By 1879 several companies in Britain were making
dry plates, most signifi cantly Wratten & Wainwright,
Mawson & Swan and the Liverpool Dry Plate Company.
Undaunted by established competition, Harman quickly
built up a successful business, mixing the emulsion
himself to ensure the secrecy of his formula. Initially
supplying his products direct to professional photog-
raphers, within little more than a year, Harman had
appointed Marion & Company as his exclusive agents
for the distribution of his “Britannia Dry Plates.” Marion
subsequently registered “Britannia” as a brand name, the
ownership of which later became a source of contention
when Harman fell out with them in 1885.
Harman was determined that only the highest quality
plates left his works, and consistent quality control with
early coating machines was not guaranteed. Coating
plates individually by hand may have been labour-inten-
sive but, followed by individual inspection, the required
quality was assured. Using the large teapot for delivering
the liquid emulsion because a teapot spout pours from
the bottom, he ensured that a bubble-free emulsion
reached the plate. Any froth fl oated on the surface of the
liquid in the pot and stayed there. As was normal practice
at the time, whole plate or oversize whole plate sheets
of glass were coated, and once dried were cut down to
half or quarter plate. Until 1894, cutting was also done
by hand. Harman’s original team of six—two men, three
boys and himself—could produce several thousand
plates per day with these primitive techniques.
The success of the “Britannia” dry plate was rapid
and considerable, and in little over a year he had out-
grown his original property and bought a nearby cottage
where coating could take place. Further premises were
added until, in 1883 a factory was built on the site of
one of his houses, and the entire production process
moved under one roof.
Two years later, after the rift with Marion & Company
and an acrimonious court case in which he eventually
lost the right to the “Britannia” title, the company was
renamed the “Britannia Works Company,” and the plate
renamed the “Ilford Dry Plate.” The introduction of a
new logo on all plate boxes—a paddle-steamer with
an “Ilford” fl ag streaming from its forward mast—pro-
vided a new identity for the company and its products.
Competitive price-cutting—reducing the cost of a box
of one dozen quarter plates from two shillings to one
shilling—gave photographers a powerful incentive to
try the newly branded plates.
Marions continued to market “Britannia” plates,
but from 1887 their formulation was changed, and
they were manufactured at Marion’s new factory in
Southgate.
From 1879 the Britannia Works Company produced
only one type of plate until a second “Rapid” plate,
only slightly more sensitive than the “Ordinary,” was
added in 1886.
1888 saw the introduction of two new emulsions,
“Ilford Red Label” at twice the sensitivity of the ordinary