215
a quarterly containing all the best articles featured in
the Journal. With the increased popularity of lantern
slide lectures, from October 1892 onwards the Journal
publishe d a monthly supplement The Lantern Record,
which added considerably to the already substantial
bulk of information.
During the able editorships of Taylor and Bolton
the Journal grew in importance and pages. A volume
in the 1880s and 1890s typically contained over 800
quarto pages and these pages were frequently used to
announce the progress of photography. The important
developments in the gelatine dry plate as well as other
processes were fi rst published in its pages. Since 1860
The British Journal of Photography has retained the
enviable position of being one of the most infl uential
photographic journals in the world.
Michael Hallett
BRITISH JOURNAL PHOTOGRAPHIC
ALMANAC, THE
The British Journal Photographic Almanac is the oldest
photographic yearbook in the world and was fi rst pub-
lished as a wall calendar for the year 1860, and given
away as a supplement to the 15 December 1859 issue
of The British Journal of Photography. It was issued
free of charge to subscribers of the Journal and could
be bought by non-subscibers for 3d. The Almanac for
1861 was a small pocket-book, 16mo (4 × 2 ½ inch) size,
containing in addition to the calendar a miscellany of
photographic information including meetings of societ-
ies, formulae and tables. With a subtitle Photographer’s
Daily Companion, it was edited by Samuel Highley. The
1886 issue was produced in Crown 8vo format, 4½ × 7
in., and sold as a separate publication with 118 pages
of text and 44 of advertising, priced 6d.
The editorial chair most frequently mirrored that held
by the Journal. Highley was editor for 1861 and 1862.
He was succeeded by James Martin in 1863 and by
Emerson J. Reynolds in 1864. J. Trail Taylor was editor
between 1865 and 1879 and again between 1887 and
1896, while W. B. Bolton was editor in the in-between
period of 1880 and 1886. Thomas Bedding was in the
chair from 1897 to 1905.
Introductory remarks made by Taylor in the 1871 edi-
tion of the Almanac typifi es the attitudes of the period.
“... the fi rst feeling is that something has been done,
although not very much; but this is almost immediately
followed by the rather ludicrous thought that almost ever
since photography was practically introduced the same
has been said year after year. And, looking back from
this point of view, at the close of 1870 we were rather
gratifi ed to discover that in no previous year had any
startling discovery been made, no great advances been
effected.” Articles in the Almanac refl ect the progress
of the period and demonstrate the high regard with
which the publication was held and still is held as a
point of reference. They includes M. Carey Lea on the
development of the chlorobromide process, modifi ca-
tions of the collodio-bromide process by Bolton and
Sayce and Walter Woodbury’s perfected system of
photo-engraving.
By 1891 Taylor had returned to England and was
again in the editorial chair. The Almanac had 1,144
pages of which 327 were editorial and boasted a fron-
tispiece of “Conway Castle,” “an example of an aver-
age print on bromide paper.” Alfred Watkins considers
the “Standards for factors affecting exposures” while
F.T. Bennett offers a specialist formula for “Portraiture
and hydroquinone.” There is “Hints for Retouchers,”
a discussion about “Artistic Landscape Photography”
and a tale of “A trip of 25,000 miles with the Cam-
era.” Additionally there is an eclectic collection of
short articles that make up the ‘epitome of progress’
with ‘notes of passing events, original and selected.
In this particular year it includes ‘copying glass posi-
tives,’ ‘pin-hole photography’ and more reference
to the ‘composition of pictures.’ A continuing list of
patents, formulary, tables and equations complete this
increasingly essential compendium of reference in the
nineteenth century.
Michael Hallett
See Also: Lea, Matthew Carey; Sayce, B. J.; and
Woodbury, Walter Bentley.Further Reading
(various editors), The British Journal Photographic Almanac,
annually from 1860 onwards.BRITISH LIBRARY
The British Library was formed in 1973, bringing to-
gether the collections of the British Museum Library,
the National Central Library, and the National Lend-
ing Library for Science and Technology. The British
Museum Library, established in 1753 as the Museum’s
Department of Printed Books, itself amalgamated
several signifi cant collections. Formed from the library
and natural history collection of Sir Hans Sloane, the
manuscript collection of Robert and Edward Harley,
the fi rst and second Earls of Oxford, and Sir Robert
Cotton’s collection of manuscripts and antiquities, the
British Museum Library specialized in printed books,
manuscripts, and papers of historic and scientifi c im-
portance.
The public announcement of Louis Jacques Mandé
Daguerre’s and William Henry Fox Talbot’s photographic