xxxixxxxixINTRODUCTION
misremembered photographers, and clarify enduring
confusion over names. For example there were three
photographers operating under the name William Bell,
all of whom were in the forefront of nineteenth century
American photography. Our contributors have clearly
identifi ed all three and separated their achievements.
Similar diligence has been applied all the entries to en-
sure the histories included herein are thoughtful, useful,
and clear, and that they establish an accurate nineteenth
century photographic history.
Photography’s fi rst century is one of invention and
innovation, intense debate and the development of an in-
creasingly sophisticated visual language. The academic
study of photographic history is a surprisingly young
subject, despite the fact that over a century and a half has
passed since its fi rst published history. It is one of photo-
graphic history’s failings that some of the misinterpreta-
tions that are bound to be present in any early attempt
to document a history have remained unchallenged for
so long. That many such misunderstandings have been
replicated from one book to another, and are now re-
peated on countless websites, underlines the importance
of a publication as exhaustive as the Encyclopedia of
Nineteenth-Century Photography. This text contains
explorations and discussions by leading theorists, his-
torians, and critics of the innovations, and the debates
and implications of photography in the nineteenth cen-
tury. These contributors have painstakingly researched
these topics to simplify and delineate these issues for
our readers. The commissioning of leading experts to
research and compile this encyclopedia, with many of
them offering fresh and often challenging readings of
the subject, has made this text essential reading.
As mentioned earlier, one of the strengths of this en-
cyclopedia is the inclusion of many fi gures whose con-
tribution to the development of the medium have been
unacknowledged, but yet another is the commitment of
the writers to return to primary source material and re-
view many of the assumptions and misconceptions in the
history of the subject. Because of this return to primary
material several of the ‘facts’ published in many past
works have been revealed as misunderstandings based
on only partial information. An example is the discovery
of hand-written patents in the Scottish and Irish Patents
Offi ces, negating the widely published assertion that
Richard Beard did not patent the daguerreotype in either
country, which scholars have often cited as an explana-
tion for why there were in the 1840s more daguerreotyp-
ists in Scotland than in England. That he patented the
process throughout Great Britain, but apparently did not
enforce his patent rights except in England and Wales,
opened up new understanding and interpretation of his
career included in his entry in this text.
Furthermore, the encylopedia’s scope encompassesmore than just American, Great Britain, and France
to include countries not often thoroughly discussed
in photo-historical texts. The history of photography
contained in this encyclopedia is the product of a photo-
instead of Anglo- or Euro-centric approach, and one that
encompasses extended accounts of the emergence of
photography in many areas of the world including Rus-
sia, China, Japan, Central and South America, Africa,
and the Ottoman Empire and also offers biographies of
leading fi gures in each of these areas. These countries
and regions have been covered in depth to establish a
history of photography’s expansive infl uence upon, and
importance in, cultures throughout the world. Research-
ers using this text will read entries by authorities based in
the countries about which they are writing, introducing
them to many photographers whose work will now be
recognized to be as important as some of the image-
makers whose place in the pantheon of photographic
history is already established.
Although photography existed in its own right world-
wide, photography’s inventors were predominantly from
France, Britain, and America, and as such, these nations
were primarily responsible for the dissemination of
the medium. British and French travellers and military
personnel played a pivotal role in taking photography
to Asia, Africa, and the Antipodes, with American
photographers taking the medium to South America
and the Pacifi c.
These travellers introduced photography to the fi rst
generation of indigenous practitioners in each country,
many of whose achievements are published within this
text for the fi rst time. As local photographers matured
in their understanding of the medium, and developed
their own locally relevant aesthetic—often drawn from
national trends and styles in painting the exhibitions they
organised, and the societies and groups they established,
developed their own national momentum. Essays map-
ping the emergence of these exhibitions, institutions,
and organisations are crucial in establishing the con-
texts within which the fi rst and second generations of
photographers operated.
The diversity of perspectives provided for readers
includes the exploration of the role played by major
and minor fi gures in the emergence of historical and
critical writing on photography, from Henry Snelling to
Helmut Gernsheim. Documented as well are accounts
of pioneering advocates of the medium who understood
the importance of the photograph as historical artefact.
Key amongst those advocates are the early collectors,
whose understanding of the importance of collecting
visual material then ensured that the available evidence
of photography’s history would be as rich as it is today.
Thus readers will fi nd entries for those who established
the collection at the South Kensington Museum, nowHannavy_RT72353_C000b.indd xxxix 6/24/2007 2:00:17 PM