935
many of the same monuments Baldus had recorded, with
publication of a de luxe album in view. That same year
Le Secq began returning to the great Cathedral towns of
Chartres, Amiens, Reims, and Strasbourg. His motiva-
tions seem personal, but some of his views found their
way into the albums of Louis-Desiré Blanquart- Evrard,
which were marketed to a broad art-world milieu.
Baldus’ mission launched his commercial career: he
went on to photograph old and new monuments for the
government, the railroad companies, and for his own
trade in views. His work, and that of Charles Marville
a bit later, continued to fi ll the archives of city and state.
But both photographers retained their negatives, a les-
son they had perhaps learned from the fate of this fi rst
photographic mission.
Peter Barberie
See also: Marville, Charles; Blanquart-Evrard,
Louis-Désiré; Nègre, Charles; Société française
de photographie; Wey, Francis; Niépce de Saint-
Victor, Claude Félix Abel; Mestral, Auguste; Le
Gray, Gustave; Bayard, Hippolyte; Baldus, Édouard;
Société héliographique; and Le Secq, Henri.
Further Reading
Daniel, Malcolm, The Photography of Edouard Baldus, New
York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994.
Gautrand, Jean-Claude, Hippolyte Bayard: naissance de l’image
photographique, Paris: Trois Cailloux, 1986.
Jammes, André and Eugenia Parry Janis, The Art of French Calo-
type, with a Critical Dictionary of Photographers, 1845–1870,
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.
Janis, Eugenia Parry, and Josianne Sartre, Henri Le Secq, Photo-
graphe de 1850 à 1860, Catalogue raisonné de la Collection
de la Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, Paris: Musée
des Arts Décoratifs, 1986.
Janis, Eugenia Parry, The Photography of Gustave Le Gray,
Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago and The University of
Chicago Press, 1987.
La Mission héliographique, photographies de 1851, Paris: Ins-
pection générale des Musées classés et contrôlés, 1980.
Mondenard, Anne de, La Mission héliographique: cinq photo-
graphes parcourent la France en 1851, Paris: Éditions du
Patrimoine, 2002.
——, “La Mission héliographique: mythe et histoire.” In Études
photographiques, 2, (May 1997) : 60–81.
Un Voyage héliographique à faire, The Mission of 1851: The First
Photographic Survey of Historical Monuments in France,
Flushing, New York: Godwin-Ternbach Museum at Queens
College, 1981.
MOFFAT, JOHN (1819–1894)
One of the most widely reproduced portraits of William
Henry Fox Talbot was taken in 1864 by the Edinburgh
photographer John Moffat. That same year he gave the
fi rst public demonstration in Scotland of photography
by the light of burning magnesium wire.
Born in Aberdeen on 26 August 1819, the son of
a successful bookbinder, John Moffat moved to Ed-
inburgh with his parents in 1827. Trained as an artist
and engraver, he owned his own engraving business
in Edinburgh by 1848. As an amateur photographer,
examples of his work were shown at the 1851 Great
Exhibition in London, and opened his fi rst portrait studio
in Edinburgh’s Nicholson Square in 1853. In 1857 he
opened the fi rst of fi ve studios on Princes Street. The
studio occupied premises at 125/126 Princes Street
until 1962. Throughout his professional career, Moffat
combined his interests in art and photography, operat-
ing an art gallery on the fi rst fl oor of his Princes Street
premises, selling oils and watercolours by the leading
artists of the day.
He was a leading fi gure in the Photographic Society
of Scotland from its inception in 1856 until it ceased to
function in 1873, and in the Edinburgh Photographic
Society from 1863 until his death, serving as its Presi-
dent for many years.
Moffat’s obituary was carried by the British Journal
of Photography.
John HannavyMOIGNO, ABBÉ FRANÇOIS (1804–1884)
French religious teacher, author, nicknamed “the
Apostle of Projection”
Born in 1804, Moigno entered the Society of Jesus in
1822, leaving in 1844 to become a high school chaplain.
In 1850 he introduced David Brewster to Duboscq, who
then constructed Brewster-pattern stereoscopes. Moigno
established ‘Le Cosmos,’ a popular science magazine,
in 1852. His visit to the Royal Polytechnic in London in
1854 fueled a lifelong enthusiasm for image projection.
Moigno’s initial attempts to present lectures illustrated
by slide projection were forbidden by the authorities,
but he persevered. In 1864 he gave presentations of
photographic slides in temporary venues, and after a
diffi cult start, his more permanent Salle de Progrès,
set up in Paris in 1872, was a success. Moigno’s 1872
book ‘L’Art des Projections’ was the fi rst French magic
lantern manual. His 1882 catalogue of photographic
slides—many by professional photographer Armand
Billon—comprised over 4,000 items featuring Geog-
raphy, History, Biology, and other topics. Photography
itself was one subject, with microscopic photographs,
portraits of Niépce and Daguerre, and photographs of
equipment. Moigno’s later claim to have originated
educational teaching by slide projection was overstated,
but he was certainly a major proponent of the method
for decades. He died in 1884.
Stephen Herbert