271
pany (see Scovill and Adams), and Hanfstaengl, which,
as Hanfstaengl-McGraw, continues to produce carbon,
carbro and photomechanical materials.
Carbon prints were made to look very like silver
photographs; the tissues were made in brown and purple
pigments to mimic the hues of albumen prints. In the late
1880s and 1890s, when silver prints were increasingly
neutral black in colour, tissues were available in ‘engrav-
ing black.’ The process produces a fi ne, continuous tone
image without a grain structure, for the tonal gradations
are produced by the varying thickness of the pigmented
gelatin layer, visible as a slight surface relief. Prints usu-
ally have a satin fi nish, although those made by single-
transfer show a glossier appearance (especially in the
shadows) than do double-transfer versions. The smooth
surface more successfully reproduced image detail, but
an increasing preference for a matt fi nish encouraged
the adoption of Artigue carbon paper, although the crude
half-tones limited its use until the 1890s, when rough-
ness of image defi nition was more appreciated.
By 1875, selective development was being proposed
for modifying half-tones. Because the ‘development’
of a carbon print consisted of soaking it in warm water
to dissolve the unexposed areas of pigmented gelatin,
longer soaking and local manipulation would remove
some of the areas of tone and detail. In the 1890s, picto-
rial photographers used this method to produce a more
‘painterly’ effect.
Permanent, non-silver photographs were advanta-
geous at a time when albumen silver photographs were
notorious for their instability. As a pigment, rather than
chemical, imaging process, the colour and density of the
carbon print were highly predictable and not dependent
on vagaries of exposure, development, toning, etc..
Carbon was a superior process for reproduction, as it
transcribed images without intrusive grain. However, it
was time-consuming and labour-intensive, being only
practical in commercial production when economies of
scale could be realised, as at Adolphe Braun’s pigment
printing works, which were the largest in Europe. Braun
published art reproductions from 1866, and improved
the process, using fi ner pigments in a wider range of
colours to approximate more closely the hue and tonal
range of the original works of art.
Few photographers had the time or space to make their
own carbon prints, but a number of companies printed
to order. In 1867, Mawson & Swan advertised carbon
prints of photographs by Francis Bedford and Valentine
Blanchard, and by 1874, P. & D. Colnaghi were selling
carbon editions of Julia Margaret Cameron’s photographs.
Exceptionally, James Craig Annan produced carbon prints
of his own photographs (exhibited 1896), an endeavour
facilitated by his family’s printing works (his father,
Thomas Annan, established T. and R. Annan).
Hope Kingsley
Biography
In 1832, Suckow, reaction of organic colloids to alkaline
chromates; 1839, Ponton identifi ed photo-sensitivity of
potassium dichromate; 1840, Becquerel, insolubility of
organic colloids sensitised with potassium dichromate;
1855, Poitevin, pigmented gelatin photographs; 1860,
Fargier, double-transfer process; 1864, Swan; improved
transfer process; 1868, Ducos du Hauron, trichrome
carbon process; 1878 and 1893, Artigue, direct print
without transfer.
See Also: Talbot, William Henry Fox; Dry plate
negatives: Gelatine; and Braun, Adolphe.Further Reading
Crawford, William, The Keepers of Light: A History and Working
Guide to Early Photographic Processes, Dobbs Ferry, NY:
Morgan and Morgan, 1979.
Davison, George, “‘One-Man’ Exhibitions—Mr. Craig Annan’s
Pictures,” Photography, Vol. 8, no. 425 (1896): 846.
Eder, Josef Maria, History of Photography, trans. Edward Eps-
tean, New York: Columbia University, 1945.
Glafkidès, Pierre, Photographic Chemistry, trans. Keith Hornsby,
Vol. 2, London: Fountain Press, 1960.
James, G.H., “Carbon Printing in its Artistic Aspects,” Journal
of the Camera Club, Vol. 9, no. 107 (1895): 52–3.
Maskell, Alfred, “Carbon Printing Without Transfer,” Amateur
Photographer, Vol. 20, no. 528 (1894): 336.
Mitchell, K.J.M., The Rising Sun: The First 100 Years of the Au-
totype Company, London: Science Museum Library, 1987.
Nadeau, Luis, History and Practice of Carbon Processes, Fred-
ericton, NB, Canada: Atelier Luis Nadeau, 1982.
Rosenblum, Naomi, “Adolphe Braun: Art in the Age of Me-
chanical Reproduction,” Shadow and Substance, Essays on
the History of Photography, ed. Kathleen Collins, Bloomfi eld
Hills, MI: Amorphous Institute, 1990.
Spencer, J., Sawyer, J., Bird, W., The Autotype Process; being a
Practical Manual of Instruction in the art of Printing in Car-
bon, or other Permanent Pigment, with a notice of the Autotype
Mechanical Printing Process, London: Autotype, 1875.CARBUTT, JOHN (1832–1905)
American photographer and manufacturer
John Carbutt, landscape photographer and Philadelphia
photographic manufacturer, was born to mason Robert
Carbutt and wife Ann on 2 December 1832 in Sheffi eld,
England. Pioneer photographer of the American West,
inventor, and innovative manufacturer of dry plate and
X-ray technology, Carbutt began his trade as a fi eld
photographer for the Grand Trunk Railway in Canada
during the mid 1850s. From 1861 to 1868 he operated
a photographic studio in Chicago where he issued
stereographs of the frontier and newly constructed rail-
road infrastructure between the Mississippi River and
the Rocky Mountains. In the 1860s he experimented
with magnesium light, the portable dark tent, the solar
camera, and woodburytypes, which he manufactured