Meet Ernest Edwards, Unsung Pioneer of 19th Century Photo-Mechanical Printing: L: Advertisement in The Publisher’s Circular, Oct. 1871 for The Heliotype Process, an important collotype variant invented by Ernest Edwards in 1869. (web) M: Portrait of Ernest Edwards from the 1896 New York University Violet yearbook. (PhotoSeed Archive) R: Edward’s N.Y. Photo-Gravure Company, located at 137 West 23rd Street, New York City, opened in late 1889. Located next to Proctor’s Theatre, it occupied the top five floors of the six-story building. (web) Born in England, Ernest Edwards (1836-1903) was an important printer, publisher & photographer. He succeeded in commercializing a variant of the collotype printing process he called the Heliotype after inventing & patenting it in 1869. He brought the process to America in 1872 when the rights were purchased by Boston publisher James Osgood. He later went to New York City where he founded the N.Y. Photo-Gravure Co. in 1885. The company in different forms lasted until 1896, succeeded by Edwards as the Photogravure and Color Company. Others took the reins after his 1903 passing, and would continue to print fine art plates into the 1960’s.

I’ve been interested in Englishman Ernest Edwards (1836-1903) from my early years of collecting photography. A printer, publisher, inventor and most certainly a photographer throughout his remarkable life, Edwards and his many printing firms— from England to America—are responsible for elevating the public interest in photography as an art form in the latter 19th Century.

Scenes from a University: Edwards Comes into his own as Photographer: Top: Statuary was one subject Ernest Edwards trained his camera at after matriculating at the University of Cambridge in 1856. This albumen silver stereograph titled: Statue of Silence, was included in The Stereoscopic Magazine, 1859–1862. It also appeared in the 1862 publication “Photographs of Various Views” published for the Amateur Photographic Association. Featuring 109 works by Edwards, the editors commented: “A statue of  Silence,” in the Fitzwilliam Museum, is a charming photograph of a charming piece of sculpture. It is illuminated chiefly by a side light, and in the point of view selected, the camera is directed to the shadowed side of the figure; the attempt is a dangerous one, but the result is very beautiful when it is successful, as it is here. The vignetting is very judiciously managed.” (Getty Museum) Bottom: Elected a member of the London Photographic Society late in 1862, The Photographic News said of this photo, a view of Netley Abbey: “Mr. Ernest Edwards sends some exceedingly fine pictures, of which we may mention one of King’s College Cambridge, and another of Netley Abbey, as especially fine and worthy of attention.” (Getty Museum collection: albumen silver print: “View of Arches and Courtyard”)

But let history speak loudest. After leaving England and relocating to Boston in 1872 to set up and run The Heliotype Printing Company, he would spend the final 31 years of his life in America, and it’s here where he left his biggest legacy. The argument I can make for this are the many thousands of photographs—the majority photo-mechanically printed in ink—which can still be found in books, and the many collections of printed photographs found elsewhere published during this time. The collectors who continue to seek out this material in the present are testament to its continuing historical relevance. 

Edwards, the Alpine Photographer: Original photographs by Edwards illustrated several volumes from the 1860’s, including “The Oberland and its Glaciers: Explored and Illustrated with Ice-Axe and Camera” published in 1866. Alpine scenes of the Bernese Alps in Switzerland.  L: Title page with inset photo: Peaks on a Cloudy Day. Top R: On the Unter Grindelwald Glacier. Bottom R: The Rhone Glacier. (All albumen silver prints: Getty Museum)

But even with this evidence, Edward’s earns only a single mention in Joseph Maria Eder’s landmark 1945 book, the History of Photography, the same volume photographic historian David A. Hanson describes as “the most extensive history of photomechanical printing published”. With this post, I’m hoping to finally give Ernest Edwards the proper credit he’s due in the history of 19th Century photomechanical printing: permanent ink photographs—the majority being gelatine and photogravures— produced by his ground-breaking printing establishments on both sides of the Atlantic.

As it turned out, his last publishing venture, the Photogravure and Color Company, incorporated in 1897 after his New York Photo-Gravure Company went bankrupt in 1896, would outlive Edwards into the sixth decade of the 20th Century. That enterprise, first under the leadership of Karl Arvidson (1859-1922) and then Austrian immigrant Charles Furth, (1872-1942) continued to set higher standards in hand-pulled photogravure and color printing, with the highlight being the plates Furth printed for Paul Strand’s Photographs of Mexico in 1940.

Studio Work: Men & Women of Eminence: After completing his B.A. degree from the University of Cambridge in 1863, Edwards established his first photo studio in London, at 20 Baker Street. In 1867, the studio continued as a partnership with Cyril Mangin Bult (1842-1911)— “Edwards & Bult” until 1869. TL: Bessie Rayner Parkes: 1829-1925, prominent English feminist, campaigner, poet & advocate for women’s rights in the Victorian era. Albumen print published in 1866: published: Portraits of Men of Eminence in Literature, Science, and Art, with Biographical Memoirs, vol. 5. BL: John Edmund Reade, 1800-1870, English poet and novelist, albumen print published in 1867: (same: vol. 6) (both: Rijkmuseum, Amsterdam). Middle: Charles Darwin: 1809-1882, English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. Albumen print by Ernest Edwards, 1865-1866. (National Portrait Gallery, London) R: This hand-colored cdv portrait by Edwards of an unknown gentleman bears his London, Baker St. studio imprint. Could it show the artist himself? Mounted albumen-silver print 8.7 x 5.8 cm on 10.4 x 6.2 cm card, blindstamp in lr image area. (PhotoSeed Archive)

Carbon & Heliotype Masterpieces: In 1868 Edwards & others established the Autotype Printing and Publishing Co. in London after purchasing the patent to this permanent carbon transfer process from Joseph W. Swan. Edward’s later refinements to autotype brought about his own patent: a variation of collotype he called the Heliotype, in late 1869. Left: Carbon print by Edwards & Kidd titled “Head of a Woman” credited to Raphael (1483-1520) from a set of photographs from the University Galleries at Oxford, 1870. (V&A Museum, London) Right: Heliotype plate, February, 1872: From: Art, Pictorial and Industrial, Vol. II: “A Study From Life“, Julia Margaret Cameron, published by The Heliotype Company, Limited, London. (David A. Hanson Collection of the History of Photomechanical Reproduction | Clark Art Institute)

A Working Collotype Atelier: Top: On June 7, 1869, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle carried this small notice that Edwards had “discovered a process by which he prints his pictures permanently in colors.” Subsequently named the Heliotype, the notice most likely originated for Edwards U.S. patent on May 25, 1869 for: Improvement in Photographic Printing. (see timeline) Bottom: Vintage photographs showing working spaces (ateliers) for photo-mechanical processes are rare. This example shows some of the same equipment that might have been found in his London printing firm, the Heliotype Company. (1870-2) Title: ALBERT-TYPE, A New Photo-Mechanical Printing Process: this example of Herr Albert’s new process, showing the interior of his printing establishment, is presented to the readers of the Photographic News, June 24, 1870. (Hanson Collection Catalog)

With this archive’s focus on artistic photography, I will be concentrating on those so-called works “from life” & “from nature”—largely 19th Century terms— captured by photographers in the field and elsewhere. The reality for Edwards however was these types of photomechanically printed photographs were only a small portion of his business. Photographs of artwork and paintings meanwhile, economically printed in various processes but also in his company’s namesake process of hand-pulled photogravure, were a larger part of his business, in addition to the job printing which paid most of the bills. An 1894 house advertisement in Sun & Shade, Edward’s lavish magazine subtitled by the firm as an Artistic Periodical, called attention to these as SPECIALTIES published by the New York Photogravure Co.: Menus, Souvenirs, Calendars, Works of Art, Book Illustrations, High Class Catalogues. (1.)

Heliotype Expressions: For the 1872 volume The Expressions of Emotions in Man and Animals, by Charles Darwin, Heliotype was used for the printing of 30 photographs gathered as composite page spreads. Victorian photographer Oscar Gustave Rejlander (1813-1875) contributed 19 of these photographs, including six self portraits: three of which are seen in this spread at middle and right. (2. 3. 4.) This landmark work has been described by American psychologist Paul Ekman (1934-2025) as “the first pioneering study of emotion and in my view should be considered the book that began the science of psychology.” When the first edition of 7000 copies appeared in late 1872, the great success of the volume gave credibility to the Heliotype process for book publishers. (credit: web)

Edwards First Heliotype Publication Printed in America: Ernest Edwards and wife Charlotte immigrated to America from England, arriving in Boston on October 16, 1872. Boston publisher James R. Osgood had purchased the rights to Heliotype for America, with the understanding Edwards would set up a print shop for him and work the process. Although the Osgood firm would escape the flames, the largest fire in the history of Boston struck three weeks later, on November 9. Edwards, writing in 1876: “notwithstanding the interruptions to business caused by the great fire and subsequently by the panic”, had set up the new Heliotype Company “in one room, with one press” at 124 Tremont street. His first publication later that year being a bound collection of plates priced at 50 cents titled: HELIOTYPE PICTURES of the GREAT FIRE IN BOSTON, Giving Views of the Burnt District. Left: Title Page. Middle: “The Transcript Office and the Old South, From Hawley Street.” (Heliotype plate by unknown photographer-possibly Edwards) (Credit: Gardner Museum, Boston)

To succeed in business, Edwards was foremost a shrewd marketer who advertised extensively in the trades and was not hesitant in defending his interests in court. These were particularly good attributes to have in order to survive the competitive and ever-changing 19th Century publishing industry, although indebtedness combined with the general lack of trade would bankrupt his Photogravure Company by 1896.  A contributing factor was his 1895 lawsuit against English photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge for nearly $5,000 after not receiving contractual payment for work performed in the wake of his famous 1887 Animal Locomotion series.

Poetic Localities of Cambridge, published in 1876 by James R. Osgood And Company in Boston, was edited by William James Stillman, 1828-1901, an American painter, journalist, art critic, and photographer. Stillman’s photographs had first appeared printed in Autotype (carbon) by Edwards in the 1870 folio The Acropolis of Athens. Poetic Localities features 12 Heliotype plates from photographs of Cambridge, MA scenery. Left: “The Oaks, Waverley”, heliotype facing p. 29, 11.8 x 17.0 | 19.5 x 24.5 cm. Middle: The green cloth book cover features an illustration of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Cambridge home embossed in gilt. Today, the home is known as Longfellow House–Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site. Right: “Al Fresco”, heliotype illustrating poem “From “AL FRESCO.” facing p. 39 by James Russell Lowell, 15.0 x 17.9 | 19.5 x 24.5 cm. Depicting Elmwood, built about 1767, it was the home of Lowell, born here in 1819. From: PhotoSeed Archive

A Boston Home for Heliotype: Left: The Cathedral Building, at 220 Devonshire Street in Boston, was described in 1878 as “a large and handsome iron structure on Winthrop Square, occupying the consecrated site of the ancient Cathedral of the Holy Cross,”. The third location for Edward’s Heliotype Company, it occupied the upper floor of the building from 1876 to Dec. 28, 1879, when fire completely destroyed it. The American Bookseller in early 1880 said: “The loss of the Heliotype Printing Company is complete, their valuable negatives, plates, stones, and presses being all destroyed; yet they are ready to receive orders for new work.” (credit: Boston Illustrated, 1875) Middle: Reproduction of artwork in Heliotype was a specialty of the Boston company. This example: Woman with Mirror, is from an original 1837 engraving: “La Maîtresse du Titien”, by François Forster. It derived from Titian’s original oil painting, ca. 1515. Reproduced: The Titian Gallery; A Series of Twenty-Four of the Most Renowned Works of Titian, Reproduced in Heliotype; With a Sketch of the Life and Works of the Artist, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1877. (credit: web) Right: Originally an 1873 albumen print by American photographer Timothy O’Sullivan, (1840-1882) the heliotype RUINS IN THE CAÑON DE CHELLE, NEW MEXICO, (known as the Casa Blanca) was published by the Heliotype Company and appeared as plate XX in Vol. VII of the U.S. Geographical Surveys West of 100th Meridian, published in Washington, D.C. in 1879 by the Government Printing Office. (credit: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection)

Reinvention: The Photo-Gravure Company, New York City: Middle: Showing the Domestic Sewing Machine Building at 853 Broadway ca. 1898, this was the first location for the offices and “art parlors” of The Photo-Gravure Company when first opened in March, 1885. An early 1888 ad stated the parlors could be “easily and quickly reached by elevator from the Broadway entrance of the building. A collection of Photo-Gravures and representations of all the newest and best works of art and current events of interest will be found here in a variety of forms,”…(credit: New York Public Library) Left: This early business solicitation dated May, 1885 for the Photo-Gravure Company appeared in Anthony’s Photographic Bulletin. Interestingly, it calls out “PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE PRINTING PRESS”, language Edwards first used to promote his own invention, the Heliotype process, when introduced in England around 1870: “by which the reproduction of any drawing or object is quickly and cheaply effected in permanent printing ink.” Right: After several years in business, a new ad appeared in Anthony’s and other publications drawing attention to illustrations published in The Photographic Times, Anthony’s Bulletin, the Philadelphia Photographer and others: “In The Opinion of The Best Judges, the PHOTO-GRAVURE PROCESS Worked by The Photo-Gravure Company No 853 Broadway New York Is The Best Method of Photo-Mechanical Printing in Existence”. (ads: Google Books)

Theatrical Souvenir Program by Photo-Gravure Co.: “Adonis, 600th Night, April 15th 1886, H.E. Dixey.” The burlesque musical Adonis celebrated the 600th consecutive performance by Boston’s Henry E. Dixey in the lead role at Bijou Opera House in New York City, a record at the time. Ribbon-tied program, 35.0 x 27.5 cm, 20 pages. Front and rear covers with six stage photographs (on 3 plates) “Photographed by Electric Light”. Additional plates in monochrome—mostly featuring Dixey—credited to W. Carroll. (possibly British artist William Joseph Carroll, 1842-1902) Left: Cover, two-color lithograph with cameo drawing of Dixey at center & Photo-Gravure Co. N.Y. credit at LL margin. Right: Act 1., Scene 3: “Awaiting The Arrival of Adonis“, blue-tinted photo-gelatine print, 13.8 x 20.1 cm: Photographed by Electric Light and Reproduced by Photo-Gravure Co., N.Y.  A stream of “bread & butter” print jobs that paid the bills—including theatrical show cards and playbills—were a mainstay for the Heliotype Printing Company under Edwards. A particularly nice example was a program celebrating the grand opening of the Boston Bijou Theatre, Dec. 11, 1882, now held at the Victoria & Albert Museum. With Edwards’ move to New York City in 1885, his income stream from theatre productions would increase for his Photo-Gravure Co. in the U.S. theatre capitol. His art periodical Sun & Shade later commissioned portraits of prominent American players. Perhaps not surprisingly, Henry Dixey also featured in the role of Lord Chancellor in the 1882 Bijou opening. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Advocate for Photogravure: Ernest Edwards was a keen promoter of the Photogravure process, his New York City namesake printing business, coming on the earlier public demonstrations of his Heliotype process in London and Boston. On June 7, 1887 he gave the lecture “The Art of Making Photo-Gravures” to The Photographic Section of the American Institute in New York City, remarking: “And nothing in the world can beat the special qualities of photo-gravures—qualities which photo-gelatine prints do not possess.” Top Left & Top Right: photographs showing working 19th Century photogravure ateliers during Edwards time are rare. These examples, from 1904, show similar spaces that would have been part of Edwards business. At left, work in a Proving Room; (where gravure proofs are finalized before steel-facing) at right: in the Press Room, workers stand alongside rows of hand presses while printing photogravures. Location: Belmont, MA & Boston ateliers for A.W. Elson & Company. (from: The Making and Printing of a Photogravure, 1904). (Alfred Walter Elson, 1859-1938) (credit: PhotoSeed Archive) LL: This 1888 advertisement for the Art Parlors of the Photo-Gravure Company gave patrons the chance to inspect and purchase fine plates in a gallery setting, described as: “A collection of Photo-Gravures and Representations of all the newest and best Works of Art and Current Events of Interest will be found here in a variety of forms,”…LR: Notice of public lecture to be given by Edwards appeared on front page of the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper, Monday, June 6, 1887. (Brooklyn Public Library)

Indotint Collotypes: Shown are the cover & three of 23 cyan plates from 1886 quarto volume Views of Columbia College, (Library Bureau of Boston) with plates by the Photo-Gravure Company. This collection of architectural views showcase fine examples of “Indotint” collotype printing of interior and exterior views of the former New York City campus of Columbia College. (since demolished) Collotype as a process was continually refined after its 1855 invention by Alphonse Poitevin. Also known as the Autoglyph process, the Indotint is believed to have been patented around 1881 or slightly before by one of Edwards friends, noted Civil War photographer Thomas C. Roche. (c. 1826-1895) From the June, 1892 American Amateur Photographer: “His old friend, Mr. T. C. Roche, made a further improvement by coating a sheet of copper with the sensitive gelatine film instead of glass. Prints made from this were called indotints. The prints are made in a steam-press the same as with the artotype.” (p. 257)  E. & H. T. Anthony & Co. of New York filed for trademark “The word-symbol” Indotint under subject heading for Photographic Prints, #8,974, Dec. 6, 1881. The Inland Printer in October, 1900 further described indotints as “A collotype process in which a sheet of copper roughened by sand-blast is used as a support for the gelatin film.” (p. 77) From: PhotoSeed Archive

Groundbreaking Work Initiated by the Heliotype: Heliotypes printed by Edwards first featured in the 1882 volume “The Horse in Motion“, by J.D.B. Stillman, with photographs by Eadweard Muybridge, and were published in Boston by James R. Osgood and Company. The commission introduced Muybridge to Edwards, which bore fruit five years later in New York City where he printed 781 individual photo-gelatine plates (in collotype-a heliotype variant) making up the monumental series “Animal Locomotion. An Electro-Photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements, 1872-1885“. Shown are three examples from “Animal Locomotion” gathered from online sources: Upper Left: Plate 637 (Volume IX, Horses); Upper Right: Plate 38, “Woman Opening Parasol” (Vol. VII. : Males and Females (draped) and Miscellaneous Subjects); Bottom: Plate 156 (Volume VII, Men and Woman (Draped) Miscellaneous Subjects)

Those 781 plates were printed in collotype by Edward’s New York Photo-Gravure Company, in a process he called photo-gelatine. Years before, when he invented a derivative of the carbon transfer process late in 1869 he called Heliotype, the full-page advertisement for this cost-effective photo-mechanical reproduction process warranted a full page in The Publishers’ Circular in 1871. The chosen headline became a summary of why the invention was significant: “Photographs Printed in Printers’ Ink At A Printing Press”, along with the word PATENT placed underneath even larger type font spelling out the name: THE HELIOTYPE PROCESS. This latter headline meant to catch the reader’s attention was separated by lined rules arranged diagonally across the ad itself.  The copy continued: “These pictures are produced with great rapidity, and independently of light; they are as permanent as engravings; they require no mounting, but come from the press clean, finished, and ready for binding or framing, for the portfolio or album.”

Yet Another Conflagration: Left: Headline and news item from the Brooklyn Eagle, March 21, 1888 reported fire “almost entirely destroyed” a Brooklyn building housing the American Lithograph Company, leased by the Photo-Gravure Co. “Ernest Edwards & Co.’s loss on stock and machinery was $2,000.” Fortunately, insurance covered the loss, and by the end of the following year, Edwards company was on the move again— consolidating all their business offices and printing plant and moving to a new Manhattan building. (Brooklyn Eagle Archives) Right: At the time of the fire, the Photo-Gravure Co. printing plant in Brooklyn was described as a “two story and basement frame house” located at Nos. 484 and 486 Third avenue. This building, seen in period photograph, was earlier reported in the Nov. 5, 1886 Photographic Times & American Photographer: “Part of the building was a private dwelling , other parts formed the winter quarters for a circus-a place now a court between the buildings.” On closer inspection, part of the sloping glass-paned roof for the “printing shed” can be seen to the immediate rear, just to the right of the lower level windows. (Credit: Thomas Yanul)

For the target audience of publishers looking to place orders from Edwards & Kidd, he and partner John William Kidd included some of the technical details of the new process lauded by the Queen’s commissioners for the 1871 International Exhibition. Here, Heliotype is explained in depth: the printed results are achieved through a double inking process treating the highlights and shadow areas of the printing plate using lighter and heavier grades of ink. Left out of the ad copy was more proprietary: the firm was able to print large Heliotype editions fast and economical because instead of traditional glass printing matrixes used in collotype-type processes, (planographic) the firm first created a tougher gelatin matrix by adding alum and then removing these resulting “skin” films which were later attached to pewter plates for placement and printing on a manual Albion-style hand press. 

Photo-Lithographs, with Side of Mystery: An early volume featuring plates by the Photo-Gravure Co. was The Log of the “Ariel” in the Gulf of Maine, published by Cupples, Upham & Co. in Boston in late 1885. This second edition appeared in 1888. It was published in Troy, N.Y. by Nims & Knight, a frequent collaborator on many volumes with Edwards NYC firm. The book, reputedly of the steam launch “Ariel”, chronicled her summer voyage down the Maine coast, featuring lithographic plates by Danish-American artist Ludvig Sandöe Ipsen. (1840-1920) The photographic frontis shows the “Ariel”, although a great mystery exists: a review by The American Bookseller of the first edition on May 1, 1886 noting…”The yacht was that of Ernest Edwards, now of the Photo-Gravure Company, New York.” (In April, 1878, he purchased a 45’ open (steam) yacht he named Puck) Left: Title page for 2nd 1888 Nims & Knight edition, The Log of the “Ariel” in the Gulf of Maine. Middle: cyan Indotint collotype of steam yacht “Ariel”. Right: Scene titled in plate Fort Knox, Bucksport, ME. Sepia Lithograph by L. S. Ipsen. (Credit: web)

The Great American Cataract, in Two Editions: Hanson informs us the volume Niagara was “one of the few works that Edwards signed as photographer after he came to America.” Published in 1890, the first edition (Cover at Upper Left) was described in an advertisement in the August issue of Sun & Shade that year: NIAGARA. | BY ERNEST EDWARDS. | Twelve Photogravure Plates, comprising about Twenty Views. | Bound in Fancy Tinted Board, with Photogravure Design on side. Size, 9½ x 11½. $1.50. | NIMS & KNIGHT. PUBLISHERS, Troy- N. Y. (Hanson Collection) Middle Left: Niagara, red cover, stamped in silver, 2nd edition, 1893, 7¾ x 10½, text by M. F. Sweetser, Joseph Knight Company, Boston. + three plates shown here. (PhotoSeed Archive) Right: SNAP SHOTS at NIAGARA. By Ernest Edwards. Photogravure featuring four views from Niagara: By Permission of Nims & Knight, 27.5 x 34.8 cm, published with Sun & Shade, August, 1890, No. 24. Edwards used his own publication to promote the first edition Niagara volume. From: PhotoSeed Archive

The photographic historian in me could however not do this deep-dive on Ernest Edwards without a proper likeness of the man. This had been a futile journey for the past 15 years or so, mostly dead ends. I came across and purchased a hand-colored cdv featuring a gentleman bearing his London, Baker St. studio imprint about ten years ago, but alas, it did not include the name of the sitter. I’ve gone ahead and included it anyway along with a sampling of the photographer’s mid 1860’s studio work with this post, pairing it next to Charles Darwin, who sat for him several times. As it would turn out, this photo bears an interesting likeness— as a younger version to a definitive portrait of Edwards I later discovered in an unusual place— the 1896 New York University Violet yearbook.

Sun & Shade: A Photographic Record of Events & An Artistic Periodical: In July, 1888, Edwards launched a new folio-sized monthly called Sun & Shade: A Photographic Record of Events. Published with separate letterpress and advertisements, it featured lovely oversized hand-pulled photogravures, plates printed in photogelatine, (collotype) and halftones. Earlier issues might feature as many as 12 plates, with later ones averaging 8 plates. Subject matter included the work of leading amateur and professional photographers, as well as works of art-many then from the holdings of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.  Success was swift. The first issue sold 1000 copies “in a fortnight”.  Within the first year, Sun & Shade quickly increased circulation to 4000 copies a month. With a public demand for reprinting earlier issues, this success lead to a rebranding, and beginning with the September, 1889 issue, the magazine was renamed Sun & Shade: An Artistic Periodical. Ninety-one issues were published over eight years, the final appearing in March, 1896. Shown: Cover Progression for Sun & Shade 1888-1896. Each issue roughly 35.8 x 27.8 cm. Top row, Left-Right: No. 1, July, 1888; Title page, No. 1, July, 1888; No. 16, Christmas issue, December, 1889; No. 24, August, 1890. Bottom row, Left-Right: No. 26, October, 1890 (new cover art incorporates feminine representation of Sun God Phoebus, (Apollo) by American artist George Wharton Edwards (1859-1950); No. 28, Christmas issue, December, 1890; No. 76, Christmas issue, December, 1894 (one-time cover design by American artist John Thomson Willing, 1860-1947; No. 91, March, 1896 (final issue featuring different cover design) All: PhotoSeed Archive

The volume had included a colored photographic portrait “frontis” of the school’s sixth chancellor, Henry Mitchell MacCracken, (1840-1918) printed in the three-color “chrome-gelatine” process by Edward’s New York Photogravure Company. In an article titled The Progress of Photography, in which the achievements of NYU chemistry professor John William Draper (1811-1882) showcased his research on the action of sunlight on various chemical substances, Edwards achievements in color photography were also highlighted:

“The means employed is known as the three color process and its successful application in this country is due largely to the incessant labor and energy of Mr. Ernest Edwards, president of the New York Photogravure Company. Mr. Edwards is not connected with the University, but the editors of the VIOLET take pleasure in here recognizing the good work he has done in advancing photographic methods.”

New Fireproof Building for New York Photo-Gravure Company: In November, 1889, Edward’s firm moved into a new leased building, located at 137 West 23rd Street, New York City, that had been “especially adapted for their use.” Located next to Proctor’s Theatre, they would occupy the top five floors of the six-story building, with the basement and first floor store areas leased out. (building is no longer standing) Right: Building features, in a photograph shown here from the 1893 edition of King’s Handbook of New York City, were outlined by Photographic Times editor Washington Lincoln Adams for the issue of Oct. 25, 1889: “The company will have five stories with windows on three sides, and a roof, which is by no means the least available space for a photographic establishment. On the top floor a commodious operating room is arranged, with a northwestern exposure, and is supplied with four good-sized and well ventilated dark rooms. There are separate rooms for gelatine printing and photogravure work, also for carrying on the various stages of work in both printing methods. On the second floor will be the offices and show rooms.” Inset: Full-page advertisement from Sun & Shade in early 1890, noting the new building…”has been completed and fitted with the best and most perfect appliances for the execution of illustrative and pictorial work of the highest class only, by their PHOTO-GRAVURE and PHOTO-GELATINE PROCESSES.” (photograph: Hathitrust; advertisement: PhotoSeed Archive)

Could this have been a partially paid promotion by him and his last great publishing firm? Either way, a prominent photo of the bearded Edwards sporting a suit and polka-dotted tie feature prominently in the Violet, my search concluded. 

Other than our introductory spread, this post is arranged thematically, with the majority of the illustrations showing the chronological development of Edward’s  different companies. His own photographs are featured, along with examples of these firms published work under his management, supervision and ownership.

Sun & Shade Contents Pages: Left: In the early years of Sun & Shade, Edwards included individual letterpress listing all plates from past issues, giving subscribers the knowledge and opportunity to complete yearly runs, should they be interested. This Contents page lists plates from the first four issues that came out in 1888. Right: Contents page for No. 5, January, 1889 issue of Sun & Shade, with further editorial correspondence: “In compliance with the universally expressed wish of our subscribers, we shall, in this and future numbers, substitute for the four Photo-Lithographic sheets, hitherto published, two sheets by the higher grade processes, either Photo-Gravure or Photo-Gelatine.” | “The next number of ” Sun and Shade,” will contain a description of the processes used in the production of the illustrations, making a single departure from the policy of the magazine in having no letter-press.” (note: his definition of letterpress was fluid, to say the least) | “At the suggestion of a well-wisher, we desire to emphasize the merits of our publication as a means of securing a collection of pictures either for the portfolio or for framing. Our subscribers receive a collection of pictures every month, produced by the best known methods of reproduction, of a wide variety of Art Work which cannot well be duplicated at ten times the price.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

Advertising & Commentary, Sun & Shade: Left & Middle: Examples of typical advertising content from inside cover pages, including subscription info, “A BINDER FOR SUN AND SHADE”, “PHOTOGRAPHIC OUTFITS FOR AMATEURS—Rochester Optical Co.”, etc. (from No. 24, August, 1890) Right: From the back cover late in 1889 one year after it debuted, editorial commentary on where Edwards was planning to venture for the future: “A YEAR ago we commenced the publication of our novel venture in journalism “SUN AND SHADE, A PICTURE PERIODICAL WITHOUT LETTER PRESS” almost as an experiment. | In our rapid growth the wish has been indicated unmistakably for the higher grade of pictures and of the higher class–always for quality rather than quantity. Following rather than leading such a wish we feel that we make no mistake in marking the future career of the Magazine to be rather that of an “Artistic Periodical” than “a Photographic Record of Events.” | Our efforts therefore will be directed in the future to make “SUN AND SHADE” an artistic periodical which shall be not only pleasing but educational in its broadest sense. Some of our plans may be briefly referred to. | We shall reproduce the leading pictures in the great collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. | Within the covers of “SUN AND SHADE” will be found from time to time, reproductions of the works of American artists. | We shall especially endeavor to encourage the artistic side of direct photography in all its phases. | And we shall supplement these special features with examples of Sculpture, Architecture and Industrial Art. | If, in the future, we receive as hearty a response to our efforts as we have received in the past, our task will be indeed pleasant and our road to success a royal one.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

Amateur Photography Competitions: Left: Sponsored by Sun & Shade, this full-page letterpress notice—35.2 x 27.5 cm—appeared in the No. 24, August, 1890 issue advertising a new amateur photography competition: “The object of this competition is to promote the study of the artistic side of photography.”Prize money in various categories were listed. Right: “Amateur Competition“: This composite of prize-winning photos, printed in collotype, appeared in the No. 26, October, 1890 issue. For a time, these amateur plates were a recurring monthly feature of the magazine. Some of the winners were also reproduced as full-page photogravure plates in Sun & Shade, and select examples like #15 (woman with parasol in stern of boat by E.C. McDonald) were reproduced in affiliated publications like The Photographic Times and Camera Sketches from Life and Nature, by Troy, N.Y. publisher Nims & Knight. From: Photoseed Archive

Famous Photographers & Landmark Revisited: Left: “Selections from “Animal Locomotion” by Eadweard Muybridge, featured in this composite plate with artwork of whip, horseshoe and inset photograph “The Horse Race”, by George Barker. (photo-gelatine: plate IX, 26.7 x 21.0 | 35.2 x 27.7 cm,  No. 5, January, 1889 Sun & Shade.) Edward’s firm had produced the collotype plates for the landmark work Animal Locomotion less than two years earlier. Right: “After The Rain”, Alfred Stieglitz, photogravure, 20.0 x 16.7 | 34.7 x 27.4 cm, from No. 41, January, 1892 issue. Taken in 1886 when he was 22 and still living in Germany, the following appeared with the contents page: Mr. Stieglitz writes: “This view is in Mittenwald, in the Bavarian Highlands, and was taken after a three days rain had ceased and the heavy leaden clouds were gradually rising, permitting one to see that the mountains were in the vicinity. The subject was an extremely difficult one to take, as you can see for yourself, inasmuch as I wanted to reproduce without retouching what I really saw in nature. Mittenwald is famous for its violin and cello builders, who constitute nearly the whole village. Steinheil Aplanat 19” lens, Vogel Obernetter Orthochromatic plates, developed with Hydroquinone and Carbonate of Potash. No retouching.” The image was reproduced as a tissue photogravure the following year by Edwards— part of the Nims & Knight volume Bits of Nature: Ten Photogravures of American Scenery. From: PhotoSeed Archive

A prolific public speaker to the end of his life—perhaps the affable clergyman that was never to be still animating the passions he believed in—Ernest Edwards never lost his love for the medium of photography. In 1902, a year before his death in his adopted home town of Brooklyn, he gave a public lecture at the Carleton Club, a social club he belonged to in Park Slope entitled: The Wonders of Photography. The Brooklyn Eagle newspaper dutifully reported on the talk for their edition of February 1, an excerpt:

…”and throughout Mr. Edwards’ discourse, which began at 8.30 o’clock, there was no let-up whatever in attention on the part of any one present, and the speaker’s remarks were listened to with that quiet carefulness which is more of a compliment on the part of an intelligent audience than would be what is commonly termed “uproarious enthusiasm.”

There were a number of photographs of landscape scenes, all of which were very realistic and illustrated what may he done with the camera by a capable artist. There were also marine picture and snow scenes and portraits of individuals, all of which were reproduced with such a degree of truthfulness that the audience was more than pleased.”

Display Worthy “Etchings” by Photo-Gravure Co. for New York Central: Left: In what are believed to be the largest commercially attempted, hand-pulled photogravures published up to that time, Edwards firm contracted with the passenger department of the New York Central Railroad in 1894 to produce gravures for their passenger waiting rooms. Subscribers to Sun & Shade could also order these “etchings” for personal use: the set of five rolled in a tube with mailing for $3.00. This full-page advertisement for “Five Famous Etchings” was included in No. 65, January, 1894. The photographs were by American photographers William Henry Jackson (1843-1942) and Arthur P. Yates, (1841-1924) then the official photographer of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. Right: “Old Spring at West Point” was etching No. 3 from the series, described as: “A romantic scene, recalling memories of summer days at the famous military Academy. The foliage shows magnificently in delicate green tones.” The work, by Jackson with locomotive remarque by Yates, is shown in its’ original frame. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Paintings Reproduced in Photogravure: Left: “A June Morning”, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, France, (1796-1875) photogravure copy printed in light green. From No. 5, January, 1889, Sun & Shade, plate II, 14.9 x 18.9 | 27.3 x 34.9 cm. Original artwork, typically paintings, frequently appeared in the magazine. (PhotoSeed Archive) Right: “Une Tempé à Ville-d’Avray—Un Pêcheur au Bord de L’étang”, (An Idyllic Spot at Ville-d’Avray—A Fisherman on the Banks of the Pond) original oil painting by Corot ca. 1865-70 now held by the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts. Object Number 1935.45, Label Text: “Although Corot’s training began in traditional landscapes, he developed his own style, distinct from the historical and classicizing mode that characterized the genre for the previous generation. Corot’s practice was grounded in sketching en plein air (outdoors). Among the many places Corot painted, including Italy where he traveled several times, was Ville-d’Avray, a village ten miles to the west of Paris, where his family had a country house. Throughout his life, Corot returned there during the warm seasons. In the late 1860s, Corot suffered from gout, a form of arthritis, so it is likely that this painting was executed in his Paris studio. The composition was probably derived from his memories of earlier visits.” (Worcester Art Museum)

Uncredited Masterworks of Catskill Mountain Scenery: Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving, with illustrations by American artist and illustrator Frank T. Merrill (1848-1936) and 24 uncredited photogravure plates by Ernest Edwards. Boston, Joseph Knight Co., 1894, 8vo. Shown: book cover at upper left along with three plates attributed to Edwards. Inspiration for these New York state Catskill views were certainly inspired by Edward’s love of the outdoors first shown in his Alpine views of Switzerland’s Bernese Alps taken nearly 30 years before. Hanson notes a credited view by Edwards from this edition of Rip Van Winkle appears in Sun & Shade, with another appearing in the Photographic Times in 1894. A surviving trade card ca. 1890 from this archive is a detail from the larger Rip Van Winkle plate This Lonely And Unfrequented Place, indicating Edwards most likely made several trips to Catskills years before this edition of Washington Irving’s masterpiece was published. From: PhotoSeed Archive

A Calendar for the Year 1895: The December, 1894 Christmas Number issue of Sun & Shade featured a novel idea for the time: an illustrated calendar for the following year consisting of six portrait and genre photographs of women taken in the studio, each representing two months of the calendar year. These are ornamented within borders illustrated by American artist John Thomson Willing. (1860-1947) The whole, described by the magazine as “A Bevy of Fair Women”, featured the photographic talents of New York’s Fifth Avenue studio of Davis & Sanford, considered one of “the most artistically acclaimed and financially successful studios of the Gilded Age era.” (Charles Henry Davis (1862-1929) & E. Starr Sanford (1861-1917) Left: January & February, 1895: from border: “She is pretty to walk with, Witty to talk with, And pleasant too, to think on.” —Suckling. 21.3 x 16.3 | 35.0 x 27.4 cm. Right: March & April, 1895: from border: “A Lovely Lady Garmented in Light”—Shelley. 21.0 x 16.3 | 35.0 x 27.4 cm. From: PhotoSeed Archive

A New Color Printing Process: Chrome-Gelatine: Left: Edelweiss, chrome-gelatine, Alfred Seifert, Czech-German, 1850-1901, No. 76, Sun & Shade, December, 1894, 20.0 x 15.6 | 35.0 x 27.4 cm. “Edelweiss—The simple Alpine flower, which grows beneath the snow, is charmingly embodied by the portrait of a fair girl, so delightfully presented by the new color process.” Middle: The Holy Family, chrome-gelatine, possibly Rogier van der Weyden, Netherlandish, 1399 or 1400 –1464, No. 77, Sun & Shade, January, 1895: A Monograph of Flemish Art From Original Paintings, 17.8 x 17.3 | 35.0 x 27.5 cm. Portraying the Virgin Mary with infant Jesus upon her knee, editorial comment from S & S: “The details of the picture are exquisite, and its reproduction in Chrome-gelatine is a marvel of accurate duplication and another proof, if such were needed, of the value of the process in fac-simile of color-effect.” Right: “A Note of Color“, miniature by Ernest Meissonier, France, 1815-1891, glued, inset chrome-gelatine plate— part of cover design for No. 86, October, 1895, Sun & Shade. These paintings are some of the very first chrome-gelatine color plates published by the N.Y. Photo-Gravure Co. Advertisements in the magazine from the period described the process, as “a perfected modification of the three-color printing process. It is so named from the Gelatine process of printing being used to produce the resulting pictures, which are allowed to be really wonderful. …The results, in all cases, are produced from three color negatives. Artists whose works have been reproduced by this method, express their satisfaction of the results in the highest terms, without qualification.” Ernest Edwards claimed he was the inventor of the process whereby “subjects to be reproduced are first photographed on three of the chromatic plates with suitable color-screens, and from the resulting negatives, three gelatine printing plates are made, from which the prints are obtained.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

19th Century Communication in Sun & Shade: Long Distance and Old Reliable: Left: Professor Bell Opening the Telephone Line Between New York and Chicago, October 18, 1892. Photogravure plate in Sun & Shade, No. 80, April, 1895, 23.0 x 18.6 | 35.1 x 27.4 cm. (uncredited) “The flash-light picture, from which our plate is made, represents the professor whispering his distant message. In the background stands Mr. Hudson, president of the New York Metropolitan Co., and near him his assistant, both deeply anxious about the success of the professor’s invention.” Heavily retouched from the original held by the The National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., who credits this photo to E.J. Holmes. A more likely candidate may be Edwin Thomas Holmes, credited on the web as having “entered into an innovative symbiotic relationship with Alexander Graham Bell. Bell had already strung telephone wires around the greater Boston area. Bell and Edwin T. Holmes reached an agreement: during the day the wires would be used for telephones, and at night they would be used for alarm systems. Edwin T. Holmes quickly assembled a 700-alarm network using telephone wires in Boston, which his father then copied in New York City.” Right: Pleasant News, Photogravure, W.C. Chase, of Boston, plate in Sun & Shade, No. 91, March, 1896, 21.6 x 17.2 | 35.0 x 27.54 cm. “The failure of securing the right kind of aspect in a sitter is, more often than not, the fault of the camerist. We all know the well meant, insidious request to “look pleasant,” with the general result of an appearance of acute martyrdom. Mr. Chase never, we may be sure, says “look pleasant,” but when his model looks as he desires, he captures the counterfeit presentment before it can vanish.” Both: PhotoSeed Archive

Edwards Last Printing Concern: The Photogravure and Color Company: Left: Advertisement for the New York City Studios of The Photogravure and Color Company from The 1897 American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac. Bottom Left: Karl A. Arvidson, 1859-1922, was the first co-owner of the firm with Edwards. Charles Furth, 1872-1942, took over when Arvidson died. After the N. Y. Photogravure Co. declared bankruptcy in 1896 and shortly reorganized the same year as the Photogravure and Printing Co., Edwards founded The Photogravure and Color Company with Karl Arvidson in 1897. The company continued into the 1960’s. Right: Boy – Uruapan, (1933) photogravure plate VII from Photographs of Mexico, Paul Strand, 1940, New York, Virginia Stevens, 25.7 x 20.6 | 40.4 x 31.7 cm. From Photogravure.com: “This portfolio is one of the most potent and impressive collections of fine photogravure ever produced. Strand’s photographs, taken during an extended stay in Mexico in 1932, (and 1933-editor) sensitively depict the country’s streets, architecture, religious statuary and inhabitants. Such post-revolutionary subjects also appeared in the work of contemporaneous Mexican painters such as Diego Rivera. The photogravures in Photographs of Mexico were hand printed with great skill by Charles Furth of the The New York Photogravure and Color Company in an edition of 250 copies. Strand customized the inks, fine tuning the color depending on the image, almost as if he were printing them in his darkroom.  Strand also experimented with and personally applied a Damar varnish to the prints making them prone to darkening but ultimately warming and enhancing them.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

A Full Life Through his Love of Photography: A prolific public speaker to the end of his life—perhaps the affable clergyman that was never to be still animating the passions he believed in—Ernest Edwards never lost his love for the medium of photography. Top: Notice of public lecture at the Carleton Club in Brooklyn. (The Brooklyn Daily Times, Jan. 30, 1902) Bottom: High Tide at Coney Island, Ernest Edwards, born England, 1836-1903, photogravure from No. 65, Jan., 1894, Sun & Shade, 14.2 x 18.3 | 27.7 x 34.8 cm. “A snap-shot picture, made from the Brighton Beach Hotel, by Mr. Ernest Edwards, is a remarkably picturesque and accurate view of the tremendously high tide which swept away a large portion of the Beach and destroyed a great deal of property last fall at Coney Island.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

Should you be so inclined after our “picture show”, I’ve included a deep-dive into the rich career of Ernest Edwards, arranged as a timeline spanning his early life in England and achievements in photography in America through the early 20th Century. Sources where his own work can be found as well as other published examples of photo-mechanical work by his English and American printing companies are included. This archive holds examples by the photographer here as well as a continually growing body of work from his N.Y. Photogravure Company.   —David Spencer— April, 2026

1. Rear cover: Sun & Shade, January, 1894, No. 65

Beginnings:  Ernest Edwards: 1836-1903

1836: Ernest was the youngest of six children, born November 6 in London, “within the sound of Bow Bells”, to a middle class family, according to his March 16, 1903 obituary in The Brooklyn Eagle. Traditionally, anyone born within earshot of the bells was considered to be a true Londoner, or Cockney.

He was one of four sons of clergyman Rev. Joseph Edwards, (ca. 1803-1875) Second Master at King’s College School, London, 1831-53 (1.) who had graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge. Rev. Edwards spouse was Elizabeth Mary Spunier or Spurrier, and they married June 19, 1827 at Semer, Co. of Suffolk, England. (Ernest’s other brothers were Rev. Roland Kenrick Edwards, (B.A. Trinity College: 1829-1871);  Rev. William Walter Edwards, (1832-1896-noted as one of the tallest clergymen in London ) admitted pensioner at Peterhouse, July 2, 1856 & William Joseph Edwards, (b. 1846) admitted pensioner (age 20) at Magdalene, July 1, 1866 but did not proceed to a degree.

1. F.J.C. Hearnshaw, The Centenary History of King’s College, London, 1828-1928. (1929) Rev. Edwards was elected second master to the junior department of the college (today—King’s College School) on April 15, 1831. (p.91) He resigned after 22 years in 1853 because he was “vigorously opposed some of the recent changes in the school, which had altered his position for the worse, and he was glad to get away.” (p. 193)

1856: Ernest Edwards initially intended to follow his father into the ministry after admitted a pensioner (commoner) to Peterhouse College at Cambridge on August 25. Before this time, he briefly studied medicine with William Miller Ord, (1834-1902) and then served in the Crimean War beginning in late 1853 as secretary to Dr. Duncan McPherson, (1812-1867) an army surgeon, writer, and Inspector General of the Madras Presidency during the British Colonial era. McPherson had found time during wartime for archeological excavations in Ukraine, which certainly gave his sidekick an unusual penchant for exploration while traveling far from those Bow Bells. Later, after matriculating at the University of Cambridge, it does not seem surprising Ernest Edwards decided to become a photographer, his camera becoming another way to explore the world.

Photographic Influences

—Although his father had retired as Second Master of King’s College School by 1853, it’s probable Edwards interest in amateur photography expanded socially through associations made in the late 1850s with members of London’s Photographic Exchange Club founded in 1855. Although not a member himself, the club’s honorary secretary and treasurer—the Reverend J. R. Major Jr.— was a teacher at King’s College School, and his father, the Rev. John Richardson Major, (1797-1876) was school headmaster there and also a member. (1.)  The club’s purpose was to allow photographers the means by which they could trade and distribute their pictures among themselves and an interested public. In another likely association, the work of photographer Francis Bedford, a member who took part in the second “exchange” of prints to club members in 1856, appeared along with Edwards photographs in the 1860 volume Memorials of Cambridge.

1. Grace Seiberling, Carolyn Bloore, Amateurs, Photography, and the Mid-Victorian Imagination, 1986, University of Chicago Press, p. 11, Introduction.

But another stronger influence on Edwards taking up the camera comes after his 1856 enrollment at Peterhouse. As cited in Mellby, (1.) Edwards had no sooner matriculated there but soon departed. He had accepted an offer as teaching instructor at Cambrian House School in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, where his eldest brother, the Rev. Roland Kenrick Edwards, (1829-1871) was school headmaster.

Mellby writes: “Ernest stayed for several years, teaching, serving with Ryde’s volunteer Rifle Corps and refining his skills as a photographer. During the 1850s, the Isle of Wight was a hotbed of photographic activity, where amateur photographers included members of the royal family.” (p. 134)

1. “Ernest Edwards and the Permanent Photograph.” Julie Mellby: Journal of the Printing Historical Society, 3rd series, 6 (2025): 133–54.

1859: In January, his photograph described as “Study of Clouds” was exhibited as part of the Sixth Exhibition of The Photographic Society of London at the Suffolk Street Gallery. What is really interesting is that at the same time, examples of the early photo-mechanical process known as photogalvanography, patented by Paul Prestsch in 1854, were also displayed, and they undoubtedly made an impression (pun intended) on Edwards, who would go on to make his career as a printer:

“There are several fine specimens of photogalvanography, the invention of Pretsch, which will give great satisfaction to the intelligent visitor, and examples of instantaneous productions in the Exhibition; among them are the ‘Waves,’ and some other subjects by Cundall and Downe; ‘Study of Clouds,’ Ernest Edwards.”—The Photographic Journal, January 21, 1859, p. 150

Example of an early photogalvanograph by Oscar Gustave Rejlander at PhotoSeed.

From 1859 to ca. 1861, Edwards pursued stereo photography, with examples including “A Statue of  Silence,” taken at the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge (shown with post) and other university views published in the Stereoscopic Magazine from 1861-2. An additional four stereo mounted works, taken while he worked in Ryde, featuring views of Shanklin, Isle of Wight, are recorded by a listing in the National Stereoscopic Association’s Photographers of the World, updated in 2003.

1860: Albumen photographs appear with those of Francis Frith in volume: Memorials of Cambridge, by Charles Henry Cooper. Online bookseller description of plates: Cambridge: William Metcalfe, 1860. New Edition. 8vo…3 volumes, 138 steel engravings, 90 wood engravings, 17 etchings, and 31 pasted photographs. (by Frith and Ernest Edwards)

1861: Edwards becomes a member of the Amateur Photographic Association in London. … “it had for its purpose… the interchange and publication of the productions of Amateur Photographers, in order, on the one hand, that they may realise the full value of every negative which they possess, and on the other, that the thousands of interesting and valuable negatives, now buried in the plate-boxes of Amateurs, may be brought before the notice, and placed within the reach, of the general public.

This association, perhaps the first of its kind, lasted until 1905 and included some of the most surprisingly sensitive photographers of Victorian England. Among many others, Captain Bankhart, the Earl of Caithness, F. C. Curry (or Currey), Ernest Edwards, Major F. Gresley, F. H. Lloyd, the Countess of Uxbridge, and Virginia Waters all produced pictures that are perfect distillations of the British romantic sensibility.” — Robert A. Sobieszek, British Albumen Printing: 1850-1880, in: British Masters of the Albumen Print: A Selection of Mid-Nineteenth-Century Victorian Photography. International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House & The University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London, 1976

— Edwards makes the acquaintance of the Prince Albert Edward (1841–1910), the future King Edward VII, while both attended Trinity College, Cambridge. “In 1861, (Prince Albert Edward)  transferred to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was tutored in history by Charles Kingsley, Regius Professor of Modern History. The photographer would later take formal photographs of the Prince and his mother, Queen Victoria. In Edward’s 1903 obituary it was stated that one of his “most interesting lectures was his “Reminiscences of the Prince of Wales.” 

1862: Elected a member of the London Photographic Society at their regular meeting on December 2 after exhibiting during the summer at the South London Photographic Exhibition: “Mr. Ernest Edwards sends some exceedingly fine pictures, of which we may mention one of King’s College Cambridge, and another of Netley Abbey, as especially fine and worthy of attention.”—The Photographic News, June 13, 1862, p. 278

—A Series of Pictures contributed to the Photographic Association by Ernest Edwards BA Cambridge.

Elsewhere it has been our pleasing duty to refer to the progress and good doings of the Amateur Photographic Association. We have now to notice the present contribution. A very good interior of Trinity College Library; Statue of Silence and Shield of Achilles from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; King’s College, Cambridge; Whippingham Church, Isle of Wight; an Instantaneous View at Ryde; a very good Landscape View on the Hamble, Bursledon; two views of Anchor Church, Derby, one a remarkably good one; and three views of Nettley Abbey, one of which especially would do credit to any photographer, professional or otherwise. —The Photographic Journal, Aug. 15, 1862

— A series of 109 images by Edwards: Photographs of Various Views, is published in London by McLean, Melhuish and Haes for the Amateur Photographic Association. (Mellby noting no copies have been located)

—In late December, he marries Charlotte Eliza Cottee (Edwards) 1841-1922 in London. There are no children. (Mellby noting Edwards also completes his studies at Cambridge this month.)

1863:  Attained the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Cambridge. (During this period he often used the professional designation B. A. Cantab—Latin for Cantabrigienses, meaning “of or pertaining to Cambridge”) By this time Ernest had already established his own photographic studio in the fashionable Marylebone neighborhood of London at 20 Baker St.

— The National Portrait Gallery in London currently holds 154 works by Ernest Edwards in their collection, with most being cdv’s engraved with his 20, Baker St W. studio address. These photographs were mostly taken between 1863-69.

— “Photographic Portraits of Men of Eminence in Literature, Science and Art. With Biographical Memoirs” 24 pasted albumen photographs by Ernest Edwards in each of six volumes. First issued 1863-64 by Messrs. Lovell Reeve and Co., it was then published by Alfred W. Bennett from 1865-67 in London after Reeve’s passing. For this series, Edwards photographed hundreds of eminent personages of his day in his Baker St. studio, including women of mark.

1864: “Shakespere, his Birthplace, Home, and Grave : A Pilgrimage to Stratford-on-Avon in the Autumn of 1863“, J.M. Jephson ; with photographic illustrations by Ernest Edwards. London: Lovell Reeve. 15 pasted albumen photographs by Edwards: “…these images are among the first to bring realistic images of Shakespeare’s birthplace and memorials into the public eye.”—State Library, NSW   

1866: “The Oberland and its Glaciers: Explored and Illustrated with Ice-Axe and Camera.” By H.B. George, M.A., F.R.G.S., with twenty-eight photographic illustrations by Ernest Edwards, B.A. And a map of The Oberland. London: Alfred W. Bennett, 1866. “In 1866 appeared ‘The Oberland and its Glaciers,’ the account of a tour made in the autumn of 1865 by a party which included two ladies and a photographer. Mr. George was himself no mean photographer, and practised the art for years in its wet-plate and early dry-plate stages,* but the views in this book were taken by Mr. Ernest Edwards, B.A. The subjects were skilfully chosen, and it is a pleasure even now to look at the frontispiece, the noble upper ice-fall of the Ober Grindelwald Glacier seen from the Gleckstein, unfaded after forty-five years. The objects of the book were to popularise the glacier theory of Tyndall, which is very lucidly stated, and to show how much of the pleasure of the upper regions is within the reach of a mixed party.”—In Memorian, H.B. George, The Alpine Journal, May, 1911, p. 533

1867: “Photographs of Eminent Medical Men, of all Countries”, published by John Churchill & Sons in London, 1867-68 in 2 volumes. It contains the portraits of 48 leading Victorian doctors by Ernest Edwards, each accompanied with a biography. Note: 47 photographs are “from life” and a copy of a painting of the late Dr. Thomas Hodgkin.

—Before he purchased along with other investors the British carbon process invented by Joseph Swan the following year, Edwards was already thinking how the carbon process could be altered for financial gain. On March 23, he made application for British patent no. 849: “Improvements in Photographic Pictures and in Apparatus for Producing Them”, his own variation of carbon transfer whereby metal and paper supports are substituted for the traditional carbon transfer from a glass matrix printing plate.

Ernest Edwards Moves to America

1872:  Along with wife Charlotte, Ernest Edwards arrived in Boston aboard the steamer Siberia on October 16. From his 1903 obituary: “In 1872 James R. Osgood of the Ticknor, Osgood & Fields publishing house of Boston, bought the process for America, with the understanding that Mr. Edwards would come and start the business here. In the fall of the same year he went to Boston and started a factory, intending to return to England again, but Mr. Osgood made him a generous offer, which he accepted, and remained with the firm for several years.” —Brooklyn Eagle, March 16, 1903 (note: by 1872 the company had restructured as James R. Osgood & Co.)

—Drama in the form of the largest fire in the history of Boston, which struck on November 9, impacted Edwards settlement in the city, precluding any chance he had in quickly establishing the new Heliotype division at Osgood & Co.  News accounts recorded 776 buildings destroyed in the conflagration, mainly in the financial district. However, the Osgood publishing house, then located at 124 Tremont Street at the eastern edge of the Boston Common, was not affected, other than the inevitable downturn in business and impact to suppliers the fire had caused. A silver lining of sorts gave the new Bostonian and his firm a “breaking news” type opportunity for sales once the smoke and streets were finally cleared. The very first publication the new Heliotype company was a bound collection of plates priced at 50 cents titled: HELIOTYPE PICTURES of the GREAT FIRE IN BOSTON, Giving Views of the Burnt District.

As it turned out, with Edwards writing in 1876 for his volume The Heliotype Process, he accomplished this feat at the very outset of the Heliotype firm in Boston, in one room, with one press set up at 124 Tremont St.:  “notwithstanding the interruptions to business caused by the great fire and subsequently by the panic”… he wrote.

Ernest Edwards set up his first press in America to print heliotypes in this building at 124 Tremont St. in Boston, home of James R. Osgood & Co.

A rare example of the second series is held by the Gardner Museum in Boston. An oversized map dated 1873 was additionally printed later by the Heliotype Company: Plan of BURNT DISTRICT …Showing Street Improvement as adopted by Board of Street Commissioners and City Council.

1874: In January, James R. Osgood & Co. and the Heliotype company moved into the first floor and basement of the Franklin Building, at 131 Franklin St. in Boston. Boston Illustrated in 1875 wrote the move was: “from their former quarters in Tremont Street, which had become quite inadequate to the demands of their business and their constantly growing list of publications. Their present situation is in the very heart of the wholesale trade, and has become a sort of trade centre for bookmaking and book-makers’ supplies, as before the fire it was for the dry-goods business. This house has recently acquired the valuable and interesting heliotype process for making photographic reproductions in permanent ink.” (p. 85)

—The 1874 & 1875 Boston City Directories show Edwards living at a house at 8 Hancock Street, in the Charlestown section of Boston.

“It is to be remembered that the Heliotype is not an originating process. There must be in the first place an original, suitable for reproducing. Unlike painting or sculpture, it cannot originate, it cannot idealise, – it can only realise. There must be originals, and they must be suitable.”—Ernest Edwards, 1876

1876:  This year, the Heliotype firm moved again to 220 Devonshire Street, (corner of Franklin Street) to the top floor of the Cathedral Building, a prominent commercial building described in 1878 as a “handsome iron structure on Winthrop Square, occupying the consecrated site of the ancient Cathedral of the Holy Cross”.

—The Boston City Directory for 1876 shows Ernest with a home address at Downer’s Landing, Hingham. (MA) However, this was most likely a summer address as Downer’s was a popular harbor resort on Boston’s South Shore.

“It may be interesting to note the rapid development of the process in this city where it has found its home. Established in one room in Tremont Street towards the end of 1872, — notwithstanding the interruptions to business caused by the great fire and subsequently by the panic, — it already occupies premises covering over twenty thousand square feet of floor. In place of the one press with which operations were commenced, nearly fifty are now at work, and a steam-press is in course of construction—a growth which has been, indeed, in some respects too rapid, for so much work involves of necessity the instruction of a large number of men in an entirely new trade, and the organization of machinery to meet the requirements of an entirely new business. By slow degrees the number of employees has reached above a hundred, and every week adds to the number. By slow degrees, also, but still steadily, the process of improvement is going on, — the improvements that only can come of time and the experience gained by those employed in printing.” —The Heliotype Process, by Ernest Edwards, 1876, Boston: J. R. Osgood and company, pp. 11-12

“The range of subjects covered by the process is only limited by the limit of what can be secured in the photographic negative; whatever can be obtained in the negative can be printed at the printing-press, whether it be a portrait from life, a view from nature, an artist’s or architect’s drawing, a statue, a coin, a botanical specimen, a surgical case, -any subject that can possibly be photographed comes within its reach. The short description that I have often used as my text perhaps describes what I would say in the fewest words: “The pictures produced by the Heliotype process are, in effect, photographs printed in printer’s ink at an ordinary printing-press. They are produced with great rapidity, and independently of light; they are as permanent as engravings; they require no mounting, but come from the press with clean margins, finished, and ready for binding or framing.”—Ibid, p. 12

1877: The Boston City directories for 1877-79 show Edwards living at the Hotel Brunswick. Directly beneath this listing shows: Edwards E, Mrs. chiropodist, 130 Tremont, h. do. If this is his wife, it would appear Charlotte Edwards treated foot disorders.

1878:  From Boston Illustrated: “On the upper floor of the Cathedral Building are the press-rooms and offices of the Heliotype Printing Company, which is conducted under the auspices of Houghton, Osgood & Co., and carries on a large business in the reproduction of engravings, the illustration of books, and commercial printing.

The heliotype process was invented in London in 1870, by Ernest Edwards, who coined the word “Heliotype” to express the results of his discovery. The process was introduced into the United States in 1872 by James R. Osgood & Co.; and Mr. Edwards, the inventor of it, has been from that date its superintendent. The pictures produced by this method are, in effect, photographs printed in printer’s ink, at an ordinary printing-press.

They are produced with great rapidity, and independently of light; they are as permanent as engravings, and require no mounting, but come from the press with clean margins, finished, and ready for binding or framing.”—Boston Illustrated, James R. Osgood & Co., 1878, p. 82B

—Edwards took delivery in April, 1878 of a 45’ open (steam) yacht he named Puck. She was built by Herreshoff Manufacturing, Bristol, Rhode Island. The Puck later featured in an article on marine photography for the August, 1881 issue of The Photographic Times. (see below)

—Edwards applied to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, presenting himself at the clerk of the circuit court in Boston on July 6.  One discrepancy on the form: he was one year younger, writing his birthdate as November 6, 1837.

1879: The English press visits The Heliotype operation in Boston: from The British Journal of Photography, Nov. 21, 1879:

“A short time back, when in Boston, I called upon Mr. Ernest Edwards, and found that gentleman at the head of the photo-illustrative department of the large printing and publishing house of Houghton, Osgood and Co. The quantity of illustrative work turned out by Mr. Edwards and his numerous staff of assistants is very great, and the process of “heliotyping” there is carried on in all its possible ramifications, steam power being applied to several of the larger presses. I was shown much that interested me greatly, but which I cannot here describe. I may state, however, that the transferring of negative films, even those of large dimensions, is effected with a celerity and certainty I never saw equalled elsewhere. The development having been completed and the plate washed, the surface is rinsed with acidulated water, a sheet of gelatine, rendered flaccid by soaking, is squeegeed upon the wet film, and after a few minutes the whole is removed from the glass. In this way a film of about eighteen inches by fifteen was removed from the plate in less than three minutes, Mr. Edwards keeps up an intimate acquaintance with English photographic journalism, and appears to be not slow in availing himself of the suggestions therein to be found. His friends will be glad to know that “his shadow has not grown any less” since he came to reside in America.”—New York Correspondence, p. 560

Another Fire: The Heliotype Printing Company Burned Out

1879: On Sunday, December 28th, a much smaller fire took place in Boston. But this time, the Heliotype Printing Company, run by Edwards as part of the larger and short-lived Houghton, Osgood & Co. publishing house, was completely destroyed.

The American Bookseller, for their article The Fire in Boston on January 1, 1880, gave an extensive report on the fire, leading with the news the Heliotype firm and others were covered by insurance:

“Messrs. Houghton, Osgood & Co. have new quarters at 47 Franklin street, over Lee & Shepard, and on the 30th were filling orders with fresh stock received from the Riverside Press. …The fire originated in one of the upper stories of the five-floored Miller building, 91 Federal street, occupied on the first floor by Rice, Kendall & Co.: on the second, by Dwight Faulkner, wool; on the third, by T. Y. Crowell and Adams & Baker, bookbinders; on the fourth, by S. K. Abbott, bookbinder; and on the fifth, by the Heliotype Printing Company. Where or how the fire originated is and doubtless will remain a mystery. …

A connecting room. built for the convenience of the Heliotype Printing Company, united the upper story of the Miller building with that of the Cathedral building, occupied by Houghton, Osgood & Co., S. D. Warren & Co., the North National Bank, the New York and Boston and other Express Companies, and through this the fire was carried to the latter building. … The loss of the Heliotype Printing Company is complete, their valuable negatives, plates, stones, and presses being all destroyed; yet they are ready to receive orders for new work.” (pp. 5-6)

The publication followed up on February 2, reporting: “Among the heaviest losers by the late fire in Boston was the Heliotype Printing Company. All of their negatives, lenses, cameras, and various tools and appliances, the accumulation of seven years, were swept away in an hour. The Company, however, lost no time in resuming their extensive business, but, with a most creditable energy, they have fitted up the large building, Nos. 124 and 126 Pearl St., and are working night and day to repair their loss in machinery and fill their orders.” (p. 96)

And this report, from The Publishers’ Weekly, on January 31, which includes a deep-dive into the extensive printing processes the Heliotype firm was using at the time:

THE HELIOTYPE PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT.

One of the chief losses by the Boston fire was that of the entire plant of the Heliotype Printing Co., which has for seven years been bringing together from all parts of the world the processes and machinery and negatives which formed its being. Twenty-five thousand negatives, some forty to fifty specially designed hand and power presses, twenty or thirty lenses and cameras of all the best known makers, carefully devised appliances of all sorts, original engravings, works of art, designs, drawings, in fact every implement that went to make up its working whole, says the Boston Journal, was destroyed. Five dollars would more than cover the value of what has been recovered from the ruins.

It is the best proof of the success of this company that those interested, among whom Mr. Jas. R. Osgood is foremost, have determined to replace the plant as fast as can he done, and have already put a new establishment in working order. This is at 124 and 126 Pearl Street, Boston, and the company is already filling some orders.

It is curious enough that the first pictures offered for sale from this company’s presses were views and a map of the Burnt District caused by the fire of 1872. The first pictures now produced by the company in its new printing-office are views of its own Burnt District.

The heliotype process was introduced into this country by Mr. Osgood in 1872, when he secured both the patents for America and the services of Mr. Ernest Edwards, the inventor, as superintendent. The company has been very successful in the character of its work, and has had much to do with promoting the present art interest in the department of engraving.

The reproduction of some 200 or 300 of the leading subjects of the “Gray Collection of Engravings” was its tour de force in this direction. The bound volumes of heliotype reproductions from the great masters and from modern artists on the Houghton, Osgood & Co. list, are well known to the trade and to the art public.

Of the last of their heliotype publications, Darley’s outline illustrations of Hawthorne’s “Scarlet Letter,” a second edition was in press at the time of the fire. Among other issues for which the company furnished the plates were Woodward’s “Medical and Surgical History of the War,” Lieut. Wheeler’s “Annual Reports,” “The State Geological Survey of New Hampshire,” numerous local, military and family histories, the Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and College books, and indeed this whole class of photographic volumes. The amount and variety of commercial work meanwhile executed would be a surprise to many.

The company had acquired, beside the original heliotype patents, a large number of others, including a direct transfer patent, well known as the means of producing letters in facsimile, Edwards’ dye patent for printing from gelatine with colors soluble in water, the patent for the Woodbury process, Woodbury’s photo-gravure patent, Rye’s Lichtdruck patent and many others. They use a still larger number of processes, including heliotype, photo-lithography, relief plate work of all kinds, including zine etching and photo-engraving: also the latest forms of photo mechanical printing practised by Obernetter of Munich and other European experts.

In its new quarters the company takes a new lease of life, with the double benefit of old experience and new facilities. The former has led especially to the procuring of two large fire-proof vaults for the storage of negatives and valuable originals. The pluck which has thus put the company on its feet again may be trusted to make its future record an entire success. (pp. 86-7)

1880: The Heliotype Printing Company moves again to 211 Tremont St. in Boston, and Edwards is now living at the Hotel Vendome in the city. (City Directory) Although written nine years later, the following account in King’s Handbook of Boston gives an idea of business at this final premises for the firm: “The Heliotype Printing Company has its offices in the handsome white granite building at No 211 Tremont Street one square south of Boston Common. The upper floors of this structure are occupied by the varied works of the company and their extensive plant for almost all varieties of illustrative printing About sixty workmen are employed in this establishment The business was founded in the year 1872 by Ernest Edwards of London in connection with the publishing house of James R Osgood & Co and for many years and up to the present time the beautiful heliotype and gelatine prints of The American Architect now published by Ticknor & Co have been made here.

In the year 1880 the establishment was moved to its present locality having previously occupied part of the Cathedral Building in Winthrop Square.—King’s Handbook of Boston, 1889, pp. 366-67.

—Although not mentioned directly, The article gives an account of the 1885 restructuring of the Heliotype Company, after Ernest Edwards departed to New York City:

“Five years later its connection with James R Osgood & Co was severed and the Heliotype business became an independent concern. It is now owned by Donald Ramsay and Charles F Brown, the former of whom is the active manager and director of the works. Mr Ramsay had been connected with similar enterprises in his native city of Glasgow and in 1876 he entered the Heliotype Printing Company of which he is now the head.”

— Edwards elected President of the Boston Draughtsmen’s and Artists’ Association on Nov. 4, 1880. Located at 227 Tremont St., Boston, the Association was for those interested in landscape drawing and painting. —The American Art Review, 1881, p. 86

BOSTON DRAUGHTSMEN’S AND ARTISTS’ ASSOCIATION.

It is announced that this Association will hold monthly exhibitions of the work of its members during the winter season. The rooms are to be supplied with periodicals and magazines relating to art matters, and the teaching in the classes is to be supplemented by a series of lectures, which Messrs. Ernest Edwards, Dr. B. Joy Jeffries, Mr. W. J. Scandlin, Mr. William H. Baldwin, Mr. George F. Hammond, Mr. A. V. S. Anthony, and Mr. W. H. Partridge have volunteered to deliver.—The American Art Review, 1881, p. 130

In addition to being a photographer, Edwards apparently was also an amateur artist. It could rightly be argued his role as president gave him professional connections with established New England artists whose work might feature in future Heliotype Co. publications.

1881:  The following appeared in The Photographic Times & American Photographer, for August, featuring Edwards in the role as skipper of his steam yacht Puck while hosting photographers taking pictures in Boston Harbor:

“Since writing the article “Shooting Yachts on the Wing,” which appeared in our July number, we have had an opportunity of going still more thoroughly into this pleasant kind of photo-marine warfare. About a week ago, when on a visit to Boston, we had the pleasure of a few hours’ dash through Boston harbor in the small but exceedingly swift, steam yacht of Mr. Ernest Edwards, the chief of the Heliotype Printing Company, Mr. Edwards himself acting for the nonce as chief engineer. Having with us a camera, the lens of which was fitted with an extremely simple trigger movement which we shall be glad to show to such as feel interested, we considered that it would be a photographic feat worthy of special notice if from the floor (we cannot say deck) of the smart little Puck we could secure transcripts of the ships under full sail as she was tearing along among them. To photograph passing ships from the deck of a large steamer is mere child’s play compared with doing the same from a small boat of the same class fitted with double engines, indeed a miniature edition, as regards the engines, of one of the ocean steamers. Every shot was a success whether the object aimed at was a passing steamer, a yacht, or one of the fore and aft rigged two and three masted schooners so characteristic of the Boston marine. The difficulty of making captures was enhanced by the fact that the swell rendered it necessary for us, on one or two occasions, not to trust to the insecure footing of the camera legs on the floor, but to almost catch it up and support it in our left arm, while with the right hand we pulled the trigger string at the fitting moment. Those who have not yet tried this kind of photography have a great treat in store.” (p. 270)

—His home address continues to be at the Hotel Vendome in Boston.

1882: Most likely during the summer months, he’s now listed again in the Boston City Directory as living at Downer’s Landing in Hingham, MA. (today known as Crow Point) He continues to live there through 1884.

1885: In January, Edwards retired from his partnership with the Heliotype Printing Company. From The Paper Trade Journal, May 9:

“James R. Osgood & Co.. publishers, No. 211 Tremont street, Boston, and the Heliotype Printing Company, at the same place, have failed and assigned to Robert M. Morse, Jr., and the creditors of the two concerns will meet next Tuesday. The Heliotype Company and Osgood & Co. are very intimately related, the former consisting of Osgood & Co. and Samuel D. Sargent, of Cambridge, the latter being the treasurer. Until recently Ernest Edwards was a member of the Heliotype Company, but he retired from the partnership some time in January. The two firms being so closely connected, the Heliotype Company was carried down by the failure of Osgood & Co.” (p. 241)

—The Boston City Directory lists Ernest Edwards as having “removed to New York City“.

Reinvention: The Photo-Gravure Company of New York City

1885: Although retiring from the Heliotype company sometime in January, Edwards may have already left for New York City by late 1884. And with good reason. Even with a reported surplus, the Heliotype company failed, caused by the insurmountable debts of the parent Osgood Co. by May. Now, without the usage of the American patent rights for Heliotype retained by Ticknor and Company, Osgood’s successor, Edwards would have to reinvent himself, but now in a much larger city. With professional contacts made in Boston and New York over his 12 year tenure at the Heliotype Co., (they had operated a long-standing N.Y.C. branch) he went on to form a brand new company. This new printing & publishing concern was primarily dedicated to the intaglio Photogravure process. With name recognition in a crowded publishing landscape paramount, he named it after the process itself: The Photo-Gravure Company. It  commenced business March 1st at 853 Broadway in the Domestic Sewing Machine Building, at 14th St. in Union Square.

Thomas Yanul (1940-2014) a photographer and historian from Chicago who had begun early research on Edwards (encouraging PhotoSeed) before his passing, wrote:

“And also noteworthy, Edwards locates his company in the same office building (853 Broadway) as Edward L. Wilson, the publisher of the Philadelphia Photographer magazine (and later Wilson’s Photographics). The two worked often in concert, Edwards making gravures of images to be included in Wilson’s magazine, and Wilson editorializing about Edwards’ work and company.”

1886: Yanul continues: “In the Nov. 5, 1886 issue of the Photographic Times & American Photographer it was reported:

“We recently visited the works of the Photo-Gravure Co. in Brooklyn at the invitation of the President Ernest Edwards. Part of the building was a private dwelling, other parts formed the winter quarters for a circus-a place now a court between the buildings.” These buildings originally belonged to the American Photo-Lithographic Co. and were now the photographic, platemaking and printing operations for the Photo-Gravure co. They were located at Third Ave. & Tenth St., Brooklyn. (or 3rd Av. & 10th St.)  The company was originally formed to do high grade printing, lithography, gelatin and gravure plate making.”

Glass-roofed printing shed identified as being associated with the Photo-Gravure Co. located at Third & Tenth Sts., Brooklyn, N.Y. Photograph probably ca. 1880-1900, courtesy Thomas Yanul & Osborne Collection, Div. of Graphic Arts, Smithsonian Institution.

1887:  The Photo-Gravure Co. received perhaps the one commission it’s best known for today: the printing of  781 collotypes, which Edwards called photogelatin plates, making up the monumental 11-volume publication: Animal Locomotion. An Electro-Photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements, 1872-1885, with the landmark sequenced motion study photographs taken by British photographer Eadweard Muybridge. 

Embracing Photogravure & Raising Photography to an Art

— Proselytizing for the photogravure process two years after setting up his new printing firm in New York City, Edwards spoke and gave a demonstration of the process on a hand-press at Clinton Hall to The Photographic Section of the American Institute. His June 7th lecture: “The Art of Making Photo-Gravures” was soon reprinted over multiple weekly issues in Anthony’s Photographic Bulletin & The Photographic Times and American Photographer. The following excerpt is notable as Edwards compares the advantages and disadvantages of photo-gelatine (collotype) plates with those of photogravure, and further criticizes the common practice then of publishers misattributing both:

“But I would like to say a word as to the advantages of photo-gravure as a method of photo-mechanical printing. It is not a cheap process. It cannot be printed with type. But just as a steel or copperplate print has qualities which are not possessed by a wood-cut, a photo-gravure has qualities-qualities which go without saying, not possessed by any method of typographic photo-engraving. What is known as the photo-gelatine process also produces results superior to the type method. But, although photo-gelatine work has a quality of its own and is in some respects unexcelled, photo-gravure, in other respects, has advantages over it. A photo-gravure can be improved and altered as much as may be desired after the plate is made till just the result needed is obtained, and when obtained the printing ceases to be a source of anxiety, as the edition printed should always be uniform. The plate is good for subsequent editions–which are exactly like the first–whenever desired, and they are made without the further action of light. There is a strength and robustness, and the blacks are more nearly velvet in a good photo-gravure plate than in any other photographic method. And there is room for far greater artistic development in photogravure than in any other photographic method. I cannot forbear in this connection from adverting to an unfortunate tendency that exists among some manufacturers and some publishers to call photo-gelatine work by the name of photo-gravure. What is the sense of this? Nothing in the world can beat the special qualities of gelatine printing-qualities which photo-gravures do not possess.

And nothing in the world can beat the special qualities of photo-gravures—qualities which photo-gelatine prints do not possess. To my mind it is as much an outrage on photo-gelatine as on photogravure work to reverse the names. Yet the tendency is to do just this thing—a serious mistake that will become, if not checked, a serious mis-fortune. Would there be any sense in calling a lithograph a steel-engraving? It would be just about the same as calling a photo-gelatine print a photo-gravure, and, though the result might benefit the producer for the moment, it would be otherwise when the deception was discovered.

In going through all the ancient, yet modern, history of the development of photo-gravure, one can but ask that old, old question, “What is there new under the sun? “

With the story before us of Fox Talbot’s process and the process of Pretch, of Woodbury’s process, and of aquatint engraving, of steel-facing and all the other tricks and turns, what is there new in what we are doing to day? Nothing, absolutely nothing. These men played the same play that we are playing, knew the words and the cues just as well as we do, only in one respect, one grand re-spect, is the situation changed. They played to empty benches. We have an audience–largely in this vast new world—an audience ready to applaud and to support all those results and efforts which tend to raise photography into art.”—Ernest Edwards, The Photographic Times & American Photographer, July 15, 1887, pp. 361-2

1888: On March 21, fire destroys the Brooklyn plant leased to the Photo-Gravure Company:

Fire broke out at 1:50 o’clock on Wednesday morning in the two story and basement frame house, Nos. 484 and 486 Third avenue, Brooklyn, which is leased by Ernest Edwards & Co. as a lithograph works. The flames caused a damage of $2,000 to stock and machinery and $1,500 to the building, which is owned by the American Lithograph Company, No. 59 Broadway. (sic) (1.)

1. The American Stationer: March 22, 1888. The correct address was 591 Broadway

Birth of Sun & Shade

“Within the covers of Sun and Shade…We shall especially endeavor to encourage the artistic side of direct photography in all its phases,”—Ernest Edwards, president & publisher, 1889

1888-96: Even with the story headline in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper declaring: “Lithographic Works Almost Completely Destroyed This Morning“, the firm apparently managed to rise from the ashes in the same location. (1.)  In July, a new folio monthly began publication called Sun & Shade: A Photographic Record of Events. Published with letterpress and advertisements, it featured lovely oversized hand-pulled photogravure plates as well as plates printed in photogelatine, (collotype) and halftone.  Subject matter included the work of leading amateur and professional photographers, as well as works of art-many then from the holdings of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.  Success was swift. The first issue sold 1000 copies “in a fortnight” (2.)  Within the first year, Sun & Shade quickly increased circulation to 4000 copies a month. With a public demand for reprinting earlier issues, this success lead to a rebranding, after which, beginning with the September, 1889 issue, the magazine was renamed Sun & Shade: An Artistic Periodical. The magazine would publish until at least March of 1896. (3.) In May that year, the N.Y. Photo-Gravure Company would close after declaring bankruptcy.

1. Besides the business offices for the company at 853 Broadway, the address of 3rd Ave. & 10th St., Brooklyn, N.Y. appears on the September, 1888 issue of Sun & Shade.
   
2. Sun & Shade: October, 1888. The August and September issues did not appear.
   
3. Notice: The March, 1896 issue of Sun & Shade states the April 1, 1896 issue would feature “seven high-class, copper plate Photogravures of M’lle Calvé (French opera singer Emma Calvé-1858-1942) in Operatic characters, besides a dashing Color Plate of her as “Carmen,” reproduced from Chartrau’s Painting.” It’s unclear if this issue was ever published or the one for May, 1896 before the bankruptcy. 

—The following is a typical review of Sun & Shade: “Number Three of Sun and Shade comes to hand, and meets with the hearty welcome which its two predecessors have prepared. The first plate in this number is an exquisite one in brown, a copperplate engraving of Mr. Hamilton Gibson’s “Autumn.” The portraits of vice presidential candidates, Morton and Thurman, are excellent as is also that of Mme. Jane Hading, the French actress. The “Examples of Modern Artists, No. Ill,” is a characteristic one of Carl von Piloty. It is a suggestive study for any photographer. Then there are the bronze portrait statue of Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, on Little Round Top, Gettysburg, and the Tower of Catherine de Medici, at Blois, France, which are of great historical as well as pictorial interest. Altogether this number is an improvement on the two preceding issues. Where this progress will take us, in the course of the twelve numbers which its publishers advertise, if it continues at all as it has begun, it is impossible to conjecture. Perhaps Mr. Edwards knows. The price remains the same, 30 cents per copy; twelve numbers, $3. New York: Photogravure Company.” —The Photographic Times and American Photographer: Nov. 2, 1888, p. 528

1889: In November, The Photo-Gravure Company moved into a new leased building, located at 137 West 23rd Street, New York City. Located next to Proctor’s Theatre, the top five floors of the six-story building were taken over by Edward’s firm, with the basement and first floor store areas leased out. The Publisher’s Weekly in Oct. 1889 declared the store area “admirably suited for publisher book or art store”. A street-level photograph of the building appeared in the 1893 edition of King’s Handbook of New York City along with a two-page profile. Excerpt: “The New-York Photogravure Co. has a gallery fitted to produce negatives of all sizes up to 24 x 30, by the best orthochromatic methods. From this department to the packing room there is not a phase of any work, however trivial apparently, not carefully attended with the most zealous supervision. It seems easy, it is extremely difficult; but it is intensely fascinating. Mr. Edwards has yielded the energy, the incessant labor of a life-time, to that fascination. It is due to him that if the reproduction of paintings made in the United States may be matched abroad, the reproduction of landscapes from original negatives remains an unequalled and unapproachable American art. The New-York Photogravure Co. gives of it extraordinary models.

Sun and Shade reproduces not only the most notable paintings and portraits, but the best work of amateur and professional photographers. If it gave nothing but the latter work it would be deserving of the most liberal patronage that it receives; but it is an admirable record of the greatest paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of living American players, of portraits of celebrated Americans, of great American painters with reproductions of their work, and it is a monumental production of the New-York Photogravure Co.” p. 965  (King’s also noted for their own Handbook: “the designs for the cover linings and the series of bird’s-eye views were made by the New-York Photogravure; Company”)

—Before their new building was occupied, Edwards and Washington Lincoln Adams, the Photographic Times editor, toured the new building on 23rd St.:

“The Photo-Gravure Company of New York, makers of the excellent photo-gravures which embellish the weekly issues of THE PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMES, will shortly be the fortunate occupants of a most approved building in this city, especially adapted for their use. Some time next month they will move into the new building on Twenty-third Street which has been especially constructed for their purposes. The editor of this magazine, accompanied by Mr. Ernest Edwards, President of the Photo-Gravure Company, recently made an inspection of the building and greatly admired its accommodations. The company will have five stories with windows on three sides, and a roof, which is by no means the least available space for a photographic establishment. On the top floor a commodious operating room is arranged, with a northwestern exposure, and is supplied with four good-sized and well ventilated dark rooms. There are separate rooms for gelatine printing and photogravure work, also for carrying on the various stages of work in both printing methods. On the second floor will be the offices and show rooms. With such accommodations, the Photo-Gravure Company ought to largely increase their productiveness, and improve the quality of their work-if such a thing were possible. We shall go through the building again when it is completed and the Photo-Gravure Company is established in it, at which time our readers may look for a more detailed account of this model establishment for photo-gravure work.” —The Photographic Times, Oct. 25, 1889, pp. 529-30

—In Sun & Shade, a full-page advertisement from 1890 noted the new building…”has been completed and fitted with the best and most perfect appliances for the execution of illustrative and pictorial work of the highest class only, by their PHOTO-GRAVURE and PHOTO-GELATINE PROCESSES.”

1890: Because of capital expenditures, the likely result of the move to their new building, Edwards restructured his company, bringing on board additional trustees:  “There has just been filed in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany the certificate of incorporation of the New York Photogravure Company. Objects: photomechanical printing and publishing. Capital, $50,000, and trustees, Ernest Edwards, Myrick Plummer, Walter B. Moore, August Fellheimer, William R. Stanbury, Isaac M. Cook and Morris J. Hirsch.”—The American Stationer, August 21, 1890, p. 403

1891: “It may be conceded that for the reproduction of paintings, Goupil’s results have not been excelled, but in the domain of printing from original landscape negatives, nothing has been done anywhere which at all equals that done in the United States. This has been brought about by the almost life-long labors of Mr. Ernest Edwards of the New York Photogravure Company, the pioneer of the process in this country.” —Wilson’s Photographic Magazine: Nov. 21, 1891: p. 681

1894:  The state of the art: “An exhibition of photo-mechanical work, of unusual interest to all engaged in illustrative or reproductive processes, whether photographic or otherwise, was held at the Rooms of the Society of Amateur Photographers of New York, December 4th to 15th inclusive.” Excerpt:

“In completeness and interest the exhibit of the N. Y. Photogravure Co. (New York) may fairly be said to have surpassed any other. It included specimens of the ordinary photogravurc process, photo-gelatine prints, chrome-gelatine prints (reproductions of water colours, pastels, oil paintings, industrial objects and art subjects, printed in three colours by Ernest Edwards’s new process), examples of photogravures in colour (in which the photogravure plate is locally inked in with the desired colours as indicated in the original), and an instructive display of the method employed in producing photogravures and gelatine prints, from the securing of the original negative to the completion of the print in each process. The attractiveness of this exhibit was emphasised by daily demonstrations of printing photogravures and the presence of Mr. Ernest Edwards, who personally explained the processes operated by his company. 

In the display of chrome-gelatine prints here mentioned was afforded the only opportunity given at the exhibition for the visitor to compare the original subject With the coloured reproduction. This consisted of a frame of variously coloured and figured oil cloths, attached to which was the chrome-gelatine reproduction.

The catalogue of the exhibition was also embellished with a chrome-gelatine picture, by this firm, from a pastel portrait by Mr. J. Wells Champney.” —The Photographic News, Jan. 25, 1895

1895: On June 10, Edwards files a lawsuit against Eadweard Muybridge, then affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia for failure to pay bills plus interest due the N. Y. Photogravure Co. The suit was in connection with printing work affiliated with Muybridge’s 1887 Animal Locomotion series. Edward’s claim of  $4,869.15 represented two separate actions, for $896.44 & $3972.71. The lawsuit claimed, in legal parlance, that Edwards as the plaintiff had “performed work, furnished material and expended moneys at the request of the defendant in and about the manufacture, storing, preserving and shipping certain prints or pictures pursuant to contract…”

Muybridge pushed back hard. In Sarah Gordon’s 2015 volume, Indecent Exposures : Eadweard Muybridge’s Animal Locomotion Nudes, he “disputed the claims of the Photogravure Company, deeming them “fraudulent designs, and refused to take credit for the financial losses. On August 5, 1895, he wrote to Jesse Burk, secretary of the university, “I have done my best and if I did not succeed in making the work pay for itself I cannot bring myself to believe that I am to blame.” (p. 32)

The lawsuit was settled the following June: “In the end, in a document dated June 9, 1896, and signed by Muybridge, Samuel Dickson, Charles Harrison, and Edward Coates, Muybridge signed over all interest in the Animal Locomotion plates, which were at that time in possession of the New York Photogravure Company, in exchange for Pepper paying the amount due and enough to properly pack and store the plates.” (p. 33) (Dr. William Pepper was the former University Provost. See more at Eadweard Muybridge Collection)

—Yet Another Fire: No. 77, January, 1895 issue of Sun & Shade carried a full-page publishers notice: “The proprietors of Sun & Shade greatly regret that, owing to a recent fire, the plates prepared for this—the January number,—were injured to the extent of necessitating re-making. Hence the production of the picture and monograph of “Christ in the Temple,” have been temporarily delayed. They will be presented in an early number of the magazine.”

1896: In the weekly trade journal The American Stationer for May 21, it was reported the company had gone into receivership:

The New York Photogravure Company, at No. 137 West Twenty-third street, has gone into the hands of a receiver, Henry M. Denton having been appointed by Judge Pryor, on the application of the directors. Ernest Edwards is president and principal stockholder, having 274 out of 500 shares of stock. The embarrassment of the company is ascribed to the prevailing depression in trade, which has particularly affected business in the artistic line, poor collections and lack of capital. The company has a capital stock of $50,000, and the business has been established eleven years. Besides photogravure work the company also published a magazine called Sun and Shade. The liabilities are $30,180. The assets consist of plates, prints, machinery, materials, &c., estimated worth $6,074, and book accounts nominally $14,644. out of which the officers think that only $2,500 will be realized. (1.)

1. The American Stationer: New York: May 21, 1896: p. 886
   

A New Company

1896: Bankruptcy did not prevent Ernest Edwards from, as a short mention in the Process Photogram and Illustrator tell it soon after-to rise from the ashes, and in the same building no less:

The N. Y. Photogravure Co. has recently been broken up, but only for re-construction, for out of its ashes has sprung the Photogravure and Printing Co., 137 West Twenty-Third-street, New York, which takes over the work of the late Company, and which is under the management /of Ernest Edwards, the president of the late Company.  (1.) The old accomodations would prove to be only temporary however, and the business soon found itself on the move again.

1. The Process Photogram and Illustrator: unknown 1896 issue: p. 158 (November?)
   

The Photogravure and Color Company

1897: The firm moves to new quarters, 241 and 243 W. 23rd St. in New York City, opposite “The Chelsea”, changing its name again to The Photogravure and Color Company. Edwards is now co-owner, along with Karl Arvidson, (1859-1922) who formerly worked with Edwards at Boston’s James R. Osgood Co. (1)

1. Advertisement: The Publishers’ Weekly: May 15, 1897, p. 834
   

— Edwards past association with Muybridge spurred a continued interest in the medium of moving pictures: “Mr. Ernest Edwards, President of the Photogravure and Color Co. of this city has perfected a very compact camera for the making of animated photographs, and is taking up this line of work with much enthusiasm. The Edward’s camera spool will accommodate 150 feet of film, and is fitted with many ingenious devices for its efficient operation. Its bulk does not exceed 15 x 15 x 8 inches, which is much less than the size of some of these instruments. The negative strips taken with this camera, shown to us by Mr. Edwards, are remarkable for their clearness and abundant detail in the images, resulting from facilities for ample exposure. The film perforating machine, also perfected by Mr. Edwards for this work, is a wonderful piece of mechanism, giving absolutely true perforations, the necessity of which is well understood by those familiar with the making of movement pictures.”—Personal Paragraphs: in: Wilson’s Photographic Magazine: June, 1897: p. 272

1900:  At some point after the turn of the century, Edwards was believed to have ceded controlling interest in The Photogravure and Color Company to Arvidson, although at his death he was listed as senior partner in his obituary. In 1900, his occupation was listed as engraver while living in Brooklyn at his longtime home at 367 Eighth St.  (1.)

1. See: Brooklyn Ordinances, Resolutions, Etc, Volume 4 (1900)

1903:  Died on March 10 of a cerebral tumor at 8:15 pm, according to his State of New York death certificate. He was 66 years, 4 months and 4 days old. Cremated, the certificate shows he was buried on March 12, although a final resting place is unknown. His wife Charlotte survived him, and she passed in 1922.

—Obituary: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 16, 1903, p. 3:

Ernest Edwards.

Ernest Edwards, recently deceased, was a son of the Rev. Joseph Edwards, who was master, at one time of King’s College, In London, England, was born in London in 1837, within the sound of Bow Bells, was schooled in Leicester and afterward studied medicine for a time under Dr. Ord, at Bristol. He finally took a position under Dr. McPherson, serving in the Crimean War, becoming his secretary, and continued service until the end of the war. Returning home, he determined to take a course in Cambridge and went to PeterHouse, intending to become a clergyman, and passed the degree of B. A. He finally changed his mind, however, and took photography as a profession. During his career as a photographer in London he became one of the most distinguished members of the profession and made pictures of many of the noted men of that day, among them Darwin, Froude, Browning. the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria and many others. He also invented the heliotype process, which created such a revolution in the art of Illustrating books, both is England and this country. He wrote many papers for the trade journals on the art of photography and the processes depending on it.

He frequently delivered lectures on the art of photography and engraving and the process work. One of his most Interesting lectures was his “Reminiscences of the Prince of Wales.” Mr. Edwards attended college at the same time with the Prince of Wales.

In 1872 James R. Osgood of the Ticknor, Osgood & Fields publishing house of Boston, bought the process for America, with the understanding that Mr. Edwards would come and start the business here. In the Fall of tho same year he went to Boston and started a factory, intending to return to England again, but Mr. Osgood made him a generous offer, which he accepted, and remained with the firm for several years. He then came to New York and started the photogravure business.

At the time of his death he was the senior partner of the Photogravure and Color Company of New York.

1872-1885: The Heliotype Printing Company of Boston

“The photomechanical revolution was truly the single most important contribution since the invention of moveable type“—David A. Hanson

Although not comprehensive by any means, we are indebted to the David A. Hanson Collection of the History of Photomechanical Printing for the following descriptions of works which include plates by the Heliotype Printing Company of Boston. The list spans 1872-1885, when Ernest Edwards was plant superintendent.

Flagg, Wilson
THE WOODS AND BY-WAYS OF NEW ENGLAND, James R. Osgood and Company, Boston, 1872. 8vo, 442 pages.
22 Heliotype illustrations from photographs of scenery. Ernest Edwards, England, moved to the United States when Osgood bought the Heliotype rights in fall of 1872. James R. Osgood, one of Boston’s most respected publishers, saw the Heliotype process in England during the summer of 1872, bought the American rights and induced the inventor, Ernest Edwards, to come to America and set up business in Boston. Edwards arrived in the fall of 1872 and apparently produced this book before the Christmas season because it still bore an 1872 copyright. The plates vary from somewhat rough to nearly perfect. No other publication has appeared with Heliotypes bearing a publication date of 1872 in the United States. (note: Heliotype Pictures of the Great Fire in Boston does include an 1872 date)

1873: Higginson, Thomas Wentworth
OLDPORT DAYS, With Ten Heliotype Illustrations, From Views taken in Newport, R.I., expressly for this work James R. Osgood and Company, Boston, 1873. 8vo, 268 pages. 10 Heliotype illustrations from photographs around Newport. This second book by the Heliotype process in the United States shows that the plant had developed the ability to produce excellent results. One of the reasons that so few books appear during the first year of Heliotype production might be because Osgood was preparing to print the Gray Collection of engravings from Harvard, a project that was to be an important art historical and educational project in the United States.

1874:1 B.Y.M.C.A. BAZAAR OF THE NATIONS. REPORTS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Boston, 1873/74. 12mo, 64 pages. 9 Heliotype illustrations from photographs of tableaux of national costumes at the Bazaar. “Special acknowledgment is due to Messrs. J. R. Osgood & Co., for a liberal contribution toward the cost of the heliotypes illustrating this report, which are specimens of a new and valuable application of the photographic art; ..” page 61. The images include a group of lovely Heliotypes of grouped tableaux of people from Europe in native costumes.

1874:3 Drake, James Adams
HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX, James R. Osgood and Company, Boston, 1874. 8vo, 442 pages.
21 Heliotype illustrations, 1 map and 20 photographs of scenery. This is the third Heliotype book published in the United States by Osgood.

1874:5 Hitchcock, C.H.
THE GEOLOGY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. Volumes 1 & 2 of 3. Edson C. Eastman, Concord, 1874/77/78. 8vo, 667 pp.
Vol. I, 21 Heliotype Plates, some with multiple images from photographs in the White Mountains, + 3 Albert-type Plates from drawings. Vol. II, 13 Heliotype Plates, some with multiple images from photographs in the White Mountains. This book is the earliest publication of a scientific nature in Heliotype and it is noteworthy that Hitchcock chose this process.

1874:8 Lowell, James Russell
THE COURTIN’, James R. Osgood and Company, Boston. (Copyright limitation 1873), 1874. 8vo, unpaged, 7 Heliotype illustrations from silhouettes by Winslow Homer. One of these plates also in THE HELIOTYPE PROCESS, 1876. Winslow Homer illustrated only two books. One of the plates in this volume is used as an illustration to Osgood’s HELIOTYPE book that was prepared for the World’s Fair in Philadelphia in 1876.

1875:3 Bonnemaison, The Chevalier F.,
A SERIES OF STUDIES DESIGNED AND ENGRAVED AFTER FIVE PAINTINGS BY RAPHAEL. American Edition reproduced by the Heliotype Process. James R. Osgood and Company, Boston, 1875. Folio, 59 pages, +24 plates. 24 Heliotype illustrations from engravings after paintings and details. “The reproductions in this edition have been made by the HELIOTYPE PROCESS; and the prints are about one-third the size of the original engravings.” This example, one of many produced at this time by Osgood, shows the company’s interest in disseminating art reproductions on a large scale. This folio volume is typical of the Gray Collection work as well as the numerous other art volumes to have come out of the Heliotype shop in the 70s.

1875:6 Coolidge, George A., compiler
BROCHURE OF BUNKER HILL with Heliotype Views. Revised edition with account of the Centennial. James R. Osgood and Company, Boston, 1875. 12mo, oblong, Printed paper wrappers, 38 pages, + 5 pages of ads. 10 Heliotype plates, 5 Autographic Heliotypes, 11 Heliotype Relief plates. From photographs, art, documents, signatures, etc. Autographic Heliotypes, Heliotype Relief Plates by James R. Osgood and Company, 131 Franklin St., Boston. Interesting in the number of processes that Edwards had spun off from the Heliotype, basically line work either planographic or relief. This little souvenir was originally published one year earlier and may be one of the earliest of this type of work.

1875:8 Flagg, Wilson
THE BIRDS AND SEASONS OF NEW ENGLAND. James R. Osgood and Company, Boston, 1875. 8vo, 457 pages. 12 Heliotype illustrations from photographs of scenery. The second Flagg book to include Heliotypes and still one of the earliest productions in book illustration by the company.

1875:9 Gilbert, G.K., A.M.
REPORT UPON GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS WEST OF THE ONE HUNDRETH MERIDIAN, etc., volume III GEOLOGY. (Wheeler Surveys) Government Printing Office, Washington, 1875. 4to, 681 pages, + 14 plates. 7 Photolithographs from photographs (5) and maps (2), 6 Heliotypes from photographs of
scenery and rock specimens. Heliotypes by James R. Osgood and Company, Boston; Photolithographs by The Graphic Company, New York. At this time Osgood started to develop government contracts and from now on a good part of his production in books came from these contracts. These photographs by Timothy O’Sullivan are striking and one or two are well known.

1875:10
THE HARVARD BOOK. 2 volumes. Welch, Bigelow and Company, Cambridge, Mass., 1875. Folio, Vol. I. 347 pages, Vol. II. 447 pages. Vol. I, 90 Heliotypes, 33 views and 57 portraits from photographs. Vol. II, 50 Heliotypes from photographs of views. James R. Osgood and Company, Boston produced the Heliotypes. A major production by Osgood and a lavish one as well. Probably one of the first photomechanical coffee table books, and nearly a coffee table itself.

1875:11 Massachusetts Normal Art School
THE ANTEFIX PAPERS. Papers on Art Educational Subjects, read at the weekly meetings of the Massachusetts Art Teachers Association, etc. Printed for private circulation, Boston, 1875. 8vo, 239 pages, ads, + 3 plates.
3 Heliotype illustrations after drawings. The note on page 239 details the plates and the chapter on “The Application of Photography to Engraving.” pgs. 162-7, quotes Ernest Edwards. The plates are by James R. Osgood and Company, Boston. This group of lectures, before the Art Teachers Association, points to the value of these methods for the dissemination of knowledge. The photomechanical revolution was truly the single most important contribution since the invention of moveable type.

1876:3 Curtis, Benjamin Robbins
DOTTINGS AROUND THE CIRCLE. 2nd Edition. James R. Osgood and Company, Boston, 1876. 8vo, 329 pages, + 12 plates. 12 Heliotype illustrations from photographs gathered around the world. A very good example of an illustrated travel book published in the United States from photographs purchased along the way. The frontispiece is by Watkins and some of the inside images are by Thomson.

1876:4 Edwards, Ernest
THE HELIOTYPE PROCESS, James R. Osgood and Company, Boston, 1876. 4to, 19 pages, + 28 plates. History and description of the process as well as a short list of publications of the Gray Collection of engravings from Harvard. 28 Heliotype illustrations from a number of methods, each designed to highlight various applications of the process; engravings, drawings, paintings, maps, etc. 5 plates are directly from photographs. This book was prepared in conjunction with Osgood’s display at the Centennial in Philadelphia. All of the plates are from prior publications and Edwards wrote the description of the process. This is one of the most lavish presentations executed by a printing firm as a form of advertisement and only Osgood would have such funds available. This book is one of the most significant photomechanical display books in the United States in the nineteenth century.

1876:5 Etting, Frank M.
AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE OLD STATE HOUSE OF PENNSYLVANIA. NOW KNOWN AS THE HALL OF INDEPENDENCE. James R. Osgood and Company, Boston, 1876. 8vo, 204 pages. 28 Heliotype illustrations, some folding, with 29 images after art, documents, and 11 from photographs. It is possible that this heliotype production was to serve also as a special book for the Centennial. It contains illustrations from many different sources related to the building as well as exterior and interior views of how the halls were laid out for exhibition.

1876:16 Stillman, W. J., editor
POETIC LOCALITIES OF CAMBRIDGE, James R. Osgood and Company, Boston, 1876. 8vo, 41 pages. 12 Heliotype illustrations from photographs of scenery around Cambridge, Mass. (Some copies have different masking of one or two images, perhaps indicating a second, undated printing.) The noted painter and photographer William Stillman’s only book illustrated with collotypes. His photographs prefigure images by such masters as Emerson and Strand.

1878:1
THE BOSTON HERALD AND ITS HISTORY, Boston, 1878. 8vo, 93 pages. 7 Heliotype plates with 10 illustrations, 1 from art and 9 from photographs of the exterior and interior offices and rooms of the paper. Heliotype Printing Co., Boston, did the plates. A very nice self-published piece by the newspaper with excellent views of the various interiors including offices, the printing rooms and the newsboy’s room.

1878:5 Richardson, Charles F., and Clark, Henry A.
THE COLLEGE BOOK, Houghton, Osgood and Co., Boston, 1878. 4to, 394 pp. 61 Heliotype illustrations from photographs of college campuses. Plates by the Heliotype Printing Co., Boston. Here we see that Osgood has split off the Heliotype operation into its own branch, apparently so that the publishing arm could siphon off monies from the Heliotype business, by this time a major source of income. This aspect of the business is discussed below in the Osgood biography (listed under Later References).

1878:8
VIEWS IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS, C. R. Chisholm and Brothers, Portland, Me., 1878. 12mo, 20 pages, + 12 plates. 12 Heliotype illustrations from photographs of White Mountain scenery. First publication in this series, no stars. The process is Heliotype (not credited, all subsequent Chisholm “White Mountains” refer to plates as “Heliotypes”). This small publication was the first of what is one of the best groups of heliotype books published. After this first attempt, Chisholm Brothers, who had the monopoly of selling in train stations and on board trains in the area, created a suite of White Mountains books that ran to three sets of books each in three different sizes, plus two compendium volumes in two sizes; a large group of these books is collected together below. (1879:11-19).

1879:12 Sweetser, M. F.
VIEWS IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS (no stars), Chisholm Brothers, Portland, Me., 1879. Folio, unpaged. Compendium volume utilizing views from all three of the editions of the book. 22 Heliotype illustrations from photographs in the White Mountains. In 1880 Chisholm advertised this volume with 23 plates. This is by far the most lavish of all the White Mountains books. All in the folio size are extremely scarce, none more so than this compendium volume.

1880:8 Dutton, C.E., Captain of Ordnance, U.S.A.
REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE HIGH PLATEAUS OF UTAH Government Printing Office, Washington, 1880. 4to, 307 pages. 11 Heliotype illustrations from photographs of Western scenery, one plate is folding. The Heliotype Printing Co. Boston, executed the plates from photographs by John K. Hillers, (uncredited.) By this date the Heliotype Printing Co. has grown to be the most important photomechanical printer in the United States. The shear volume of production outstrips their nearest competitor. This volume of landscapes shows the company at its best. The quality of work is second to none.

The following titles produced from new quarters at 220 Devonshire St., after the Heliotype firm was burned out of the Cathedral Building in Winthrop Square.

1880:14
THE HELIOTYPE PRINTING CO. STARTING ANEW AFTER THE GREAT FIRE, From the Boston Journal, Jan. 17, 1880 Compliments of Heliotype Printing Company, [ca. 1880]. 8vo, 3 page flyer (single folded sheet). Flyer, important for the historical and technical information it contains about the history and operations of the company. A very important piece of ephemera describing in detail what was contained in the company when the fire destroyed it.

1881:14 Shaler, Nathaniel, and Davis, William
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE EARTH’S SURFACE, GLACIERS, James R. Osgood and Co., Boston, 1881. Folio, 198 pages, 25 plates. 25 Heliotype plates with 33 illustrations, 3 of maps, the rest photographs of Glacial scenery, some two to a page. Plates by the Heliotype Printing Co., Boston, from photographs by W. H. Jackson, Braun, Frith, Knudsen, Bourne & Shepard. A major example of Heliotype printing and the first of what was to be a series. This seems to have been the only publication to make it to press.

1881:15 Shedd, Mrs. J. A.
FAMOUS SCULPTORS AND SCULPTURE, James R. Osgood and Co., Boston, 1881. 8vo, 319 pages. 13 Heliotype Illustrations by the Heliotype Printing Co., Boston, from photographs of sculpture. The image of Power’s THE GREEK SLAVE in this book is a fine example.

1881:16 Sigsbee, Charles D. Lieut.-Commander, U.S. Navy
DEEP-SEA SOUNDING AND DREDGING. A DESCRIPTION AND DISCUSSION OF THE METHODS AND APPLIANCES USED ON BOARD THE COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY STEAMER, “BLAKE”, United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, 1880-81. 4to, 221 pp. 43 Plates. 25 Heliotype Plates showing the ship, Sigsbee’s sounding machines and various deck photographs of how to place it in operation. Plates are marked by The Heliotype Printing Co., 220 Devonshire St., Boston. An example of a lavishly illustrated report. The industrial photography in this book is of the highest quality and is striking in its directness.

1882: The Horse in Motion, J.D.B. Stillman; Eadweard Muybridge, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1882. [ii]-viii, 127 pp., 107 plates, including 9 chromolithographs, 5 heliotypes, and 98 lithographs. The 5 heliotypes show 3 of the Muybridge camera set-ups & 2 show composite images of horses from life: “Mohammed in Running Stride” (20 photos) & “Edgerton,—Trotting Stride”. (24 photos) “In the spring of 1872, Eadweard Muybridge photographed a horse. He did so to settle a debate for Stanford about whether or not a trotting horse ever had all four feet of the ground. Although the photograph was blurry, it confirmed that horses did, in fact, have all feet off the ground while trotting or galloping, but unlike most artists’ depictions — with the front legs extended forward and the hind legs extended to the rear — the legs were brought in under the torso. From this initial experiment, Muybridge had captured aspects of motion whose speed had made them invisible. He was on the verge of revolutionizing photography and needed money and resources to continue. For this, he turned to Stanford.”—J. Willard Marriott Library Blog, Oct 19, 2021 (not in Hanson)

1882:4 Norman, Henry
AN ACCOUNT OF THE HARVARD GREEK PLAY, James R. Osgood and Co., Boston, 1882. 8vo, 129 pages. 15 Heliotype plates of photographs of the cast and the play in rehearsal. “The groups were photographed on the stage of the Sanders theater with the electric light;..are believed to constitute the most extensive piece of photography of this kind which has yet been attempted,..” were done by James Notman of Boston and Pach for plate Il. This early use of electric light for photography is interesting but the portraits of the actors in their costumes are far more entrancing.

1883:10
THE RAJAH. Madison Square Theatre, Tues. Sept. 11, 1883. “This Souvenir is presented in commemoration of the 100th Performance of THE RAJAH,” Madison Square Theatre, New York, 1883. 4to, cover with 8 plates, single punched hole with loose silk string tie. 8 Heliotypes of scenes from the Play. “The plates forming this Souvenir are reproductions, by the Heliotype Printing Co., Boston, of photographs taken in the Theatre by electric light by Falk, 949 Broadway, N.Y.” An interesting theatrical souvenir produced by the Heliotype Printing Co.

1885:7
THE GARDENS AT MAGNOLIA-ON-THE-ASHLEY, [ca. 1885]. 8vo, oblong, Chromolitho wrappers with string, 1 page, +12 plates. 12 Heliotype plates from photographs of the gardens and bridges at Magnolia-on-the-Ashley, near Charleston, S.C. Another Heliotype view book and interesting because the cover of this and the cover of the Portland book (1885:21) use identical chromolithographs. View books from the South are much less common than from any other area of the country. (editor: this title may have been published after Edwards left the Heliotype firm)

1885-1896: The New York Photogravure Company of New York City

Works including plates by the New York Photogravure Company of New York City, courtesy of the David A. Hanson Collection of the History of Photomechanical Printing. The list spans 1885-1896, when Ernest Edwards was president.

1885:8 Goodrich, Lieut. Commander Caspar F., : U.S.N. REPORT OF THE BRITISH NAVAL AND MILITARY OPERATIONS IN EGYPT, 1882, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1885. 8vo, 340 pages, + 79 plates. 32 Collotypes from photographs of ravages of bombardment. The type style for plate identification here is identical to those in the edition published in 1883, where the plates are identified as being by the Heliotype Printing Co., Boston. The collotype method, patented by T. C. Roche and called Indotint and Photo-Gelatin, was the one Ernest Edwards stated (cf.. Philadelphia Photographer, vol. XXIII, No. 276, June 19, 1886) that the N.Y. Photogravure Co. used. Ernest Edwards left the Heliotype Printing Co. to found the N. Y. Photogravure Co. in the same year that the man that brought him to America, James R. Osgood, died. (sic: it was 1892) This seems to be the earliest dated book thus far located to have been produced by the N.Y. Photogravure Co. This company chose many different ways to identify themselves: NY Photo-gravure Co., Photogravure Co., etc.

1885:  Log of the “Ariel” in the Gulf of Maine, illustrated by  L. S. Ipsen. Log of Mr. Elson’s steam yacht, written by Mr. Parson, the “parson“. Published by: New York, Press of the Photo-gravure co.; Boston, Cupples, Upham & co. Volume: 18 x 28 cm with lithographed plates by the New York Photo-Gravure Co. The possibility exists the yacht was not the Ariel but the Puck, owned by Ernest Edwards, who summered on Boston’s south shore at Downer’s Landing in the early 1880’s. If he was also the “parson”, it may be a sly reference to his early aspirations for the clergy :  “Among the recent books of Cupples Upham & Co are … The Log of the Ariel, a copiously illustrated record of a steam launch’s summer voyage down the Maine coast with many drawings by our Danish-American artist L.S. Ipsen. The yacht was that of Ernest Edwards, now of the Photo-Gravure Company, New York.”—The American Bookseller, May 1, 1886, p. 237 (not in Hanson) The Elson surname in the title is also suspect: although only about 25 at the time of publication, could this be the same Elson as Alfred Walter Elson? (1859-1938) If true, his profession aligned perfectly with Ernest Edwards, as Elson was an American photographer, printer, and lithographer based in Boston, and would go on to found A.W. Elson and Company. Active from roughly 1894 to 1925, this printer specialized in the making of fine photogravure plates.

1886:27: VIEWS OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. Madison and Park Avenues, 49th and 50th Streets, New York, Library Bureau, 32 Hawley St., Boston, 1886. 4to, title page, +23 plates. 23 Collotypes (Indotints) from photographs of the college buildings both exterior and interior. The Photo-Gravure Co., New York, executed the plates and had purchased rights to T. C. Roches’ Indotint collotype variant. Even though this book makes no reference to the process used, Edwards, in other publications, made reference to this being the method adopted by his company.

—Also known as the Autoglyph process, the Indotint is believed to have been patented around 1881 or slightly before by Thomas Roche and later trademarked in December, 1881 by E. & H. T. Anthony & Co. of New York. An advertisement listing the processes of the Photo-Gravure Company from the 1887 Photographic Mosaics annual gives credit to Roche for their Photo-Gelatine prints: PHOTO-GELATINE PRINTING.—“The results produced by this process are similar to what is known as Albertype, Artotype, Heliotype, Autoglyph, Phototype, Lichtdruch, etc. The particular method used is that patented by Mr. T. C. Roche, and is believed to give the best results at the least cost. The Photo-gravure Company has in this department the best staff of printers in the country, and a most extended experience of the treatment of gelatine for the purposes of printing. All classes of subjects are suitable for reproduction by this process, and it is especially suitable for portraits, views, architecture, art catalogues, scientific and natural objects, book illustration, town, county, and family histories, theatrical and general advertising, reproductions of engravings, machinery, animals, and still life, copies of deeds, instantaneous effects, scientific records, mill labels, etc.”

1887:1 Burbank, Rev. W. H.: PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTING METHODS: A PRACTICAL GUIDE, etc., Scovill Manufacturing Company, New York, 1887. 8vo, 221 pages, +2 plates, + ads. 1 Photogravure illustration from two photographs of Catskill scenery, “At The Catskills”. 1 Bromide print from a photograph of a Spanish cottage in Santa Barbara, Calif. An article by Ernest Edwards on Photogravure is in the book. The Photogravure Company, New York did the photogravure. Link to tissue gravure of plate from 1888 publication.

1887:7 Haynes, F. Jay: THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Photogravures from Nature. F. Jay Haynes, Fargo, Dakota, 1887. 4to, oblong, Title and index pages, +25 plates. 25 Photogravure plates with 32 illustrations, by the Photo-Gravure Co., New York, from photographs of Yellowstone scenery by F. Jay Haynes, Fargo. These photogravures, from Haynes negatives, are much moodier and deeper in tone than the subsequent printings from them in other view books. It is interesting to compare these views with the later Haynes Yellowstone album in this collection printed in St. Paul in collotype (1896:3).

1887: Animal Locomotion. An Electro-Photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements, 1872-1885. This landmark in the history of photography is comprised of  781 individual photo-gelatine (collotype) plates printed on copper by the Photo-Gravure Company of New York from sequenced motion study photographs taken by British photographer Eadweard Muybridge. 

1887: The Land of Sleepy Hollow and The Home of Washington Irving: A Series of Photogravure Representations, With Descriptive Letter-Press by J.L. Williams, large quarto, original blue cloth over bevelled boards, upper cover gilt-lettered and with inset gravure, t.e.g., limited to 600 copies, G.P. Putnam’s Sons/The Knickerbocker Press, New York, 1887. Photogravure plates by the Photo-Gravure Company of N.Y.: Views of Tarrytown and the Hudson after photographs by Williams; and reproductions of drawings by F.O.C. Darley. “The present volume contains some thirty large photo gravure views and the mechanical execution text and illustrations is believed to be in keeping with the associations which hallow the spot where Irving lived and died.” Featuring about 30 gravure plates and priced at $15.00, this holiday book in 2026 dollars would be worth approximately $516.00 (not in Hanson)

1888: Edwards produces tissue gravure plates for: Bits of Nature: Ten Studies in Photo-Gravure. Three of the plates bear his credit, and others unidentified may also be by his hand. link here

1888: “A sort of landmark comes for (C.D.) Arnold via the elegant 1888 self-published book of 20 architectural views entitled “Studies in Architecture  –  At Home And Abroad”. A most curious and interesting fact here is the printer – “The Photo-Gravure Company” of New York.  These plates were made by a company whose founder and president, Ernest Edwards, was already a legend in the photographic and printing trades.—Thomas G. Yanul. More on Charles Dudley Arnold 1844-1927 

Cover for Studies in Architecture At Home & Abroad, 1888. Self-published by C.D. Arnold. Courtesy Thomas Yanul.

—The Log of the Ariel. A Summer Yachting Cruise on the Coast of Maine. New Edition, NIMS & KNIGHT, Troy, N. Y. 1888, 1 vol., oblong, quarto, $1.00. (not in Hanson)

1888-1896: Sun & Shade, an art periodical spanning 91 issues over 8 volumes, is published by Edward’s N.Y. Photo-Gravure Co. (several issues in Hanson with many plates at PhotoSeed)

1889:13 Peabody, Henry G. : THE COAST OF MAINE, Henry G. Peabody, Boston, 1889. 4to, oblong, unpaged. 48 (out of 50) Collotype plates, two never bound in, of photographs of the Maine shore. The Photogravure Co., N.Y, printed the plates from Henry G. Peabody’s negatives. Henry Peabody was a marvelous photographer and the landscape views in this large album are beautiful. The collotypes are also some of the richest, equal to the best of the Lithotype Co. or any other company working during this time.  See our blog post “Reverie” from February, 2012 showing cover of volume with background on Peabody’s photographic practice.

1890: The Photographic Times And American Photographer: “Alfred Stieglitz was a subscriber and kept his set in his /library. This periodical and its plates was very likely his inspiration for producing the plates in Camera Notes and Camera Work.”Edward’s N.Y. Photogravure Company had been printing many of the plates for this journal since at least 1887.

1890:1: Adams, W. I. Lincoln, Editor: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMES AND AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER Vol. XX, Part 1, The Photographic Times Publishing Assoc., New York, 1890. Folio, 314 pages, + ads, +27 plates. 16 Photogravure illustrations from photographs. 9 Phototype illustrations from photographs, 1 Half-tone from a photograph. P.C. Duchochois’ article “The Origins and Processes of Photo-Engraving” May 2-July 11 pgs. 212-14, 220-222, 256-59, 282-283, 294-96, 305-308, 318-321, 331-33. pgs. 331-33 in Vol. XX, Part 2. Alfred Stieglitz was a subscriber and kept his set in his library. This periodical and its plates was very likely his inspiration for producing the plates in Camera Notes and Camera Work. Link to all plates in PhotoSeed Archive

1890:12 Burbank, A.S. : GLIMPSES OF PILGRIM PLYMOUTH, Burbank, Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1890. 12mo, oblong, paper wrappers, +15 plates with printed descriptions on tissues. Reduction of large edition. 15 Photogravure plates with many composites from art and photographs. Photo-Gravure Co., New York produced the plates. An interesting comparison to the more common larger edition of this book.

1890:21 :Edwards, Ernest : NIAGARA, Photo-Gravures from Originals by Ernest Edwards, Nims & Knight, Troy, New York, [ca. 1890]. 4to, oblong, paper wrappers with Photogravure title, +13 plates. 13 Photogravure illustrations from 18 photographs of Niagara scenery. The plates are by the Photo-Gravure Co., New York. This is one of the few works that Edwards signed as photographer after he came to America. This book also is more usually found in hard covers with a text by M. F. Sweetser.

1890:29: Jackson, William Henry: GORGE OF THE NIAGARA RIVER. On the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. Single large print by W. H. Jackson, n.p., 1890. Single Leaf, print size 16 3/8″ X 20 3/4″. 1 Photogravure from a photograph of the Niagara River. 1 small photogravure “Remarque” from a photograph of a railway engine and cars. Plate executed by the N.Y. Photogravure Co., New York. This is one of a series of large display photogravures that William Henry Jackson executed for the New York Central, for their passenger waiting rooms. This plate size has to be one of the biggest used commercially during this time period. Larger plates have not been noted in any bibliographies or histories. See another example showing a landscape at West Point from our archive.

1890:46: SOUVENIR OF AUSABLE CHASM, W. H. Tracy, Proprietor, Ausable Chasm, New York, [ca. 1890]. 12mo., paper wrappers, title page, 1 page text, +12 plates. 12 Photogravure illustrations from photographs of Chasm scenery. Printed by the New York Photogravure Co., New York, photographs attributed to S. R. Stoddard, uncredited. This souvenir and the one above are companions to the one published by Stoddard mentioned earlier (1890:42). These plates also have lovely remarques drawn next to each on the page.

1891:9 ST. AUGUSTINE IN PHOTO-GRAVURE. Chisholm Bros, Portland, Maine, 1891. 8vo, Oblong. 40 Photogravure plates of St. Augustine views, + Pictorial title page with photogravures. Many of the plates in this are duplicated in Bierstadt’s St. Augustine book. The plates were produced by the N.Y. Photo-gravure Co., 137 West 23rd. St, New York, B.F. Upton of St. Augustine, Florida, is credited with the negatives. This book compares more than favorably with Bierstadt’s venture of the same time period. Where Bierstadt’s Artotypes appear flat and lifeless, these photogravures are full of contrast and a rich and detailed tonal range.

1891:12: Whitney, Ernest (poems). Sanford, W. H. (pictures) PICTURES AND POEMS OF THE PIKE’S PEAK REGION, Ernest Whitney, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1891. 8vo oblong, Title page, 12 Plates +12 Tissues with poems printed. 12 Photogravure illustrations from photographs of scenery in the Rocky Mountains. The photographs by Stanford are not at all like Jackson’s and offer a refreshing change from the same views usually encountered. The photogravures are by the NY Photogravure Co., this time cited as Photo-Gravure Co.

1891:13 Williams, Dr. J. L.: GRAY’S ELEGY AND ITS AUTHOR, Nims and Knight, Troy, New York, 1891. 8vo, oblong, 41 pages, +16 plates. 16 Photogravure plates with 18 illustrations from photographs of English scenery and Genre scenes. Numerous Half-tones from photographs. Printed by the New York Photogravure Co., New York, and by Kurtz, New York. This James Leon Williams book is the smallest of the three with photographs that he published. His appropriation of P. H. Emerson’s style becomes evident in this publication. Some of the gravures are very nice and one or two are extremely beautiful.

1893:4: Bartlett, Mrs. N. Gray: MOTHER GOOSE OF ’93. Joseph Knight Company, Boston, 1893. 4to oblong. 10 Photogravure plates on tissue. Title page and intro have photo vignettes, and the 8 rhymes with photographs are hand lettered. The NY Photogravure Co. produced the plates and are identified on the Miss Muffett plate. This is possibly the most exquisite use of tissue photogravure in the United States. This extremely delicate volume could never have been handled by children because they would destroy it. It can hardly be looked at today, considering the gravures are only tacked down on the binding edge. The luminosity of these plates is superb. The photographs by Mrs. Bartlett are wonderfully charming and not at all cloying. Her abilities as a photographer of children are perfectly demonstrated in these re-enactments of Mother Goose rhymes.

1894:2: Irving, Washington: RIP VAN WINKLE, Joseph Knight Co., Boston, 1894. 8vo, 49 pages, +24 plates. 24 Photogravure illustrations from photographs of Catskill Mountain scenery. Plates are uncredited, but by the Photo-Gravure Co., New York. See SUN AND SHADE Vol. 5 for image from this book reproduced. This very fine group of Catskill photographs was very likely photographed by Ernest Edwards. A small photogravure of his is published in The Photographic Times (1894) that clearly is from this series. This book is interesting from another point of view: the photogravures are not listed in the plate list, many of the plates listed are not in the book, and the edition seems rather stitched together. All examined copies of this book are like this one. Many of the best photomechanical books of this time period were productions of the Joseph Knight Co.

1894:8; Williams, James Leon: THE HOME AND HAUNTS OF SHAKESPEARE. STRATFORD EDITION, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1894. Folio, XIX +120 pp. + plates. This is the second edition, the first having 45 photogravures. 15 Chromolithographs from watercolors, 30 Photogravure illustrations from photographs. No printing company is credited, but the other Williams books were done by the New York Photogravure Co. Williams produced three very fine books of photogravures from his photographs. This book is his most commanding work, with large and lush photogravures. The other two books were printed by the NY Photogravure Co., but no printer has ever been identified for this book. The photogravures in this book are some of the best commercial plates done in the 1890s.

1895:3: CATALOGUE OF MR. LOUIS R. EHRICH’S COLLECTION OF PAINTINGS OF THE DUTCH AND FLEMISH SCHOOLS, Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, 366 Fifth Ave., New York, 1895. 4to, Paper over boards, unpaged. Sales catalogue for 94 paintings on January 22 and 23, 1895. 1 Three-color Collotype, 12 (out of 13) photogravure illustrations from paintings all by the New York Photogravure Co., New York. This example of an auction catalogue has a reproduction of a Dutch painting done in three-color collotype which shows again the state of this art in its earliest stages. Though not at all prefect it makes the photogravure reproductions in tone look totally useless. Color in art reproduction, was only possible before this by creating multiple masked plates printing in multiple colors. This plate represents early attempts to reproduce paintings through color photography.

1895:15: Stoddard, S. R.: CAMP LIFE, Twelve Photogravures from Original Photographs by S. R. Stoddard, Joseph Knight Company, Boston, 1895 (ca.). 4to, oblong, Photogravure title on cover, +12 plates. 12 Photogravure plates with 18 illustrations from photographs of Adirondack scenery. 1 Photogravure from a photograph pasted down to cover as title. Printed by the N.Y. Photo-Gravure Co., N.Y. This, by far, is Seneca Ray Stoddard’s most important book: it contains most of his best examples, and the photogravures are wonderfully printed. It shows that he was more interested in capturing the actual feel of the place and its people than in presenting the standard tourist fare that most other photographers would produce. Few copies of this remarkable book are known, which leads one to believe all of his books were produced in very small editions.

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1901: Ernest Edwards, Photo-Mechanical Processes in Common Use, Brooklyn, New York, Eagle Press, Pamphlet, [4] p. 24 cm, OCLC Number: 37953930 (not in Hanson)

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“Put this with your Collection ⎯Kirby”, 1904, unknown American photographer, mounted gelatin silver print on card, 11.1 x 16.1 | 16.1 x 20.4 cm. Two men at foreground right work as a team while operating a Washington style, iron hand letterpress in an unknown American printing shop. Featuring an “acorn” style frame armature and large honeycomb-style platen which was lowered by a toggle gear activated by the lever, shop employees look on during a printing session in background. The site Letterpress Commons states: “The Washington Press was by far the most popular iron hand press in America, a position it held from the 1820s until the end of the hand press era. The press was invented during the 1820s by Samuel Rust, a New York printer nearly unknown today.” The distinctive platen may indicate this press dates to the 1890s, possibly manufactured by the Chicago’s Ostrander-Seymour Company. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Unconsciously, we’re all born into the world leaving remnants of ourselves as we travel through it: our fingerprints in things we touch and footprints on the paths of our travels. Technically, those remnants, via bodily oils from our fingers and tracks from our shoes, are unconscious ephemeral examples of letterpress impressions. But from a machine perspective, print itself: letterpress impressions on paper emanating from Johannes Gutenberg’s (c. 1400-1468) mid-15th century invention of the printing press which lasted until (photo) offset printing largely supplanted it in the mid 20th Century, forms an indelible record of the achievements of human history accurately recorded.

Right: At Igloo Letterpress in Worthington, OH, a large assortment of individual letters, made from oversized wood and metal type, await ink and new projects while stored in a print studio drawer. UL: owner Allison Chapman holds one of the very first antique metal design cuts she printed: a baby whose crown spells out Happy Birthday. LL: letterpress “furniture” is stored by size. These individual pieces of wood (or metal) are used to fill up spaces and lock up type within a metal frame, or chase, before printing. Photographed Summer, 2025 by David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive.

Today’s post is divergent from the sites primary focus of historical photography but entirely symbiotic in that the art and craft of letterpress printing derives from the perfect marriage of words and pictures, otherwise known as type and design. Although modern and even historical photographs and images printed in ink: think lithographs, ink-jet prints, newspaper photos and others are by the planographic process, intaglio printed images (copper plate engravings, gravures, etchings, etc.) are from recessed printing matrixes. Letterpress printing by itself is a relief process.

Beautiful papers for Letterpress: Left: page from 1906 promotional volume “The Strathmore Quality Deckle Edge Book Papers”, 23.5 x 15.5 cm published by The Mittineague Paper Company, which became the Strathmore Paper Company in 1914, a company still in business today. Page features letterpress design most likely by Will Bradley for Hutzler Brothers, a department store in Baltimore. It’s printed on antique “Old Stratford” laid paper: “This sheet has a distinctive character not possible in the Wove papers, and the beautiful ribbing secured is not met with elsewhere.” Right: “The Acorns”, 19.0 x 8.0 | 25.8 x 12.9 cm, 1896, Will H. Bradley (1868-1962), American. Originally issued as a lithographic poster by the artist, its been repurposed here as a full-page letterpress advertisement for the Whiting Paper Company in the first issue of Bradley His Book, published in 1896. In the 1987 volume “American Art Posters of the 1890s, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art” the work is described: “The small poster had nothing to do with paper in the literal sense; it showed only an Art Nouveau design of a woman with poppies within a border of oak leaves and acorns. But it implied that the fine quality of Whiting paper was essential for fine printing.” The Whiting Company owned a paper mill in Holyoke, Ma, known as “Paper City”. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Top Row: Inks for Letterpress & Lithography: Art-Nouveau woodcut designs by Hellmut Eichrodt, 1872-1943, German, ca. 1910. Printed in one color, they were designed as posters for the Stuttgart-based Kast & Ehinger ink manufacturers around 1900 and repurposed as advertisements for Charles Hellmuth, New York & Chicago, the US division for this German company. From a rare 80 pp. color ink swatch book marketed to book publishing (letterpress) and lithography firms. L-M-R: Ultramarine 1½, Brazil Brown, Violet 2 a. Bottom Row: Color wheel page advertisements showing Kast & Ehinger ink shades manufactured by Charles Hellmuth Inc. “Inks for Every System of Printing”. From a Charles Hellmuth Inc. Process Inks catalogue ca. 1906, the year the firm built a factory at 154 W. 18th St. in New York City. Charles Hellmuth the trade name was believed to have been named after a bookkeeper at Stuttgart-based Kast & Ehinger ink manufacturers, first opened in 1865. (14to42.net) The New York division opened around 1892 in New York and Chicago as early as 1901. During WWI, their assets were seized by the US Government, later reorganizing as Sleight and Hellmuth. It vacated the 18th St. location in 1973, and went out of business around 1980. From: PhotoSeed Archive

When I look back at my own professional arc of newspaper photojournalist and now historian and collector—a fortunate byproduct of being someone “of a certain age”—one vivid childhood memory still springs forth from my past leading me to believe my life would be informed by a bit of pre-destiny. This took the form of my ten-year-old self accompanying my mother on an appointment to collect a print order of musical programs for a club she was involved in. The rendezvous point was a small print shop located in the basement of a Connecticut suburban home the next town over. It was there when I experienced for the first time the wondrous smell of pungent ink and sounds of what I now surmise was a vintage Heidleberg Platen Press clacking away, puncturing the darkness and triggering my wonderment in that dimly lit basement so many years ago.

More beautiful papers for Letterpress: two-page-spread from 1906 promotional volume “The Strathmore Quality Deckle Edge Book Papers”, raised capitol and thistle design by Will H. Bradley (1868-1962), American, each page: 23.5 x 15.5 cm. Published by The Mittineague Paper Company, which became the Strathmore Paper Company in 1914, this company is still in business today. Check out this film “Making High-Grade Paper” released by Strathmore in 1914. Left: page printed on Old Cloister Book laid paper in Antique Finish: “It is carried in a fine and distinct Linen finish, not yet approached elsewhere, and the five colors, which are along the deeper shades, are of such a character as to bring out the richness and detail of a design to perfection and the full brilliancy of the printer’s inks.” Right: Bradley’s border design features thistles which company founder Horace Moses saw blooming in the Valley of Strathmore in Scotland around the time he opened the Mittineague mill in 1892. He used the thistle as symbol for the firm and Strathmore name to denote the quality art and printing papers they manufactured. From: PhotoSeed Archive

“The First Print Shop”, c. 1885-90, unknown American photographer, gelatin silver print mounted on card, 9.7 x 11.9 | 10.7 x 13.2 cm. All the elements of an early American letterpress print shop come together in this historical photograph that may originate from the greater Denver, Colorado area, where it was purchased. The three employees in the photo are identified on card verso: “Harve (?) at the big press. Harry at the job press. Allie setting type. The first print shop.” The larger flatbed cylinder press at far right appears smaller than the Cottrell press in this post, while at center, the platen jobber style press is similar to the Ben Franklin Gordon jobber, seen below in this post. The Museum of Printing explains “the American platen jobber derives from that of Stephen P. Ruggles of Boston in the 1840s, in which platen and bed were hinged below their lower edges to close on each other in clamshell fashion.” This may very well be a small newspaper printing office: notice the arranged lines of type set out on the table at foreground left, in proximity to “Allie” who selects metal type by hand in the compartmentalized cases set before her. This type would then be locked up within metal chases before being placed on the press for printing. From: PhotoSeed Archive

“Ault & Wiborg, Makers of Lithographic and Letter Press Printing Inks”, 1896, Will H. Bradley (1868-1962), American, letterpress printed advertisement 13.4 x 10.1 cm, coated paper. This poster design by Will Bradley features a Pierrot character he would rework in successive designs. Printed in two ink colors, it was published in the first issue (May, 1896) of Bradley His Book. Ad copy: “The Ault & Wiborg Inks sell on their merits. Letterpress, Steelplate, Copperplate and Lithographers’ Inks. Unequalled in Quality. Possessing the Largest and Most Complete Printing Ink Works in America, Ault & Wiborg give the Most Careful Attention to the Requirements of the Trade, and their superb Equipment enables them to best fill the wants of Ink Consumers in every department of the Graphic Arts.” From the Gordon A. Pfeiffer Collection at the University of Delaware: “The Ault & Wiborg Company was a manufacturer of printing inks based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They engaged Will Bradley to create his first advertisement for the company in April 1895.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

A good working definition of Letterpress can be found in the 2008 volume The Printed Picture by Richard Benson, (1943-2017) American photographer, printer, educator and dean of the Yale School of Art from 1996 to 2006:

Letterpress: “Relief printing from metal type and image-bearing halftone cuts in copper or zinc. Also the actual press used for relief printing.” (1.)

Revolution in Letterpresses: Letterpress printing came into its own with the invention of the platen style press which spead up the printing process. Also called a jobbing press, “A platen press is one that has a platen (a flat metal plate) to apply the needed pressure against the paper and bed of type to form the impression”. Left: American printer Charles Edward Bittinger, 1874–1956, operates a platen press at his family’s business, The Cohos Steam Press in Woodsville, N.H. ca. 1895-1900. Vintage cyanotype print, 10.3 x 8.0 | 12.5 x 10.0 cm. The Bittinger family also published the Weekly News beginning in 1890, a merging of the Woodsville Enterprise and The Grafton County Register newspapers. Right: An advertisement for the Gally Universal Press, a platen press invented by Merrit Gally in 1869, in Bradley His Book, May, 1896. The ad was for the American Type Founders’ Co., a trust and general selling agents for the Gally whom Bradley promoted and had designed type fonts for. The Cary Graphic Arts Collection at Rochester Institute of Technology describes the Universal as “the first of its type of press, having a stationary bed and a platen that rolled to a vertical position before gliding forward so that right before the impression, the platen was parallel to the bed and moved perpendicularly towards it.” Bittinger may also be operating a Colt’s Armory Press, a variation of the Gally Universal and subject of a fascinating rivalry. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Technically, the foundational Relief process is best defined as “printing from the high parts”, with Wikipedia summarizing: “The non-recessed surface will leave ink on the paper, whereas the recessed areas will not.”

Front and rear covers: Bradley His Book, May, 1896, letterpress printed in three colors, Will H. Bradley (1868-1962), American, 26.7 x 25.7 cm, (opened) Strathmore Deckle Edge Buff Cover. There were 10,000 copies of this first issue sold out before being published, with the front and rear covers printed on a single sheet of grey paper by a Gally Universal platen press, indicated later in the issue. On the front, the design of a large tree with clusters of red flowers blends into the rear cover advertisement, where a woman in fancy dress is seemingly swept up within swirling lines made by the revolving arms of the Twin Comet Lawn Sprinkler for sale by the E. Stebbins Manufacturing Co. of Springfield: “Sprinkles four times greater area than any other. Most attractive and efficient sprinkler in the world Price $5.00”. The slim periodical was written, designed and printed by Bradley at his Wayside Press in Springfield, MA., with his aim to “produce work that was “attractive and out of the ordinary.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

Let me tell you, those “high parts”, inked on paper, are a joy to behold, especially as ornament and text, the aforementioned “perfect marriage” within volumes I’ve collected over the years featuring (intaglio) photographic plates from the mediums artistic era spanning the late 1880s through the first several decades of the 20th century. But let’s skip ahead hundreds of years from Gutenberg’s era to the late 19th Century, when newly formed arts & craft societies in Europe and America made a new argument that hand-crafted work was far superior to the dreck of mass consumer products that were the output of the Industrial Revolution. As a collector interested in beautiful photography and design, the material output from this era is particularly satisfying to procure and reflective of the era in which it was made. 

Kelmscott Press inspired Masterwork, printed by Letterpress: “The Night-Blooming Cereus, A Poem, By Harriet Monroe”, Will H. Bradley (1868-1962), 1896, American, center-spread: Bradley His Book, letterpress printed in black ink with rubricated title, Strathmore deckle edge paper, 25.7 x 25.1 cm. Unlike the original Kelmscott Press illustrations by William Morris and his circle, photographically transferred onto woodblocks and then engraved by hand before printed on a letterpress, this original artwork by Bradley, drawn on paper, was first photo-engraved and then electrotyped on metal by the Phelps Publishing Company of Springfield, MA before printing. In her 2018 volume American Little Magazines of the Fin de Siecle, Kirsten MacLeod writes Bradley His Book “was also a vehicle for his own work, which included elaborate illustrations and decorations for the literary and artistic content, such as his black-and-white Kelmscott-inspired design for Harriet Monroe’s poem, “The Night-Blooming Cereus” …”In many respects, however, Bradley’s greatest artistic achievement was his conception of Bradley His Book as a print gesamtkunstwerk (total work). He oversaw every aspect of the magazine’s design and production and each issue was a unique work of art in itself.” American poet Harriet Monroe, 1860-1936, was founder and editor of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, “who became instrumental in the “poetry renaissance” of the early twentieth century by managing a forum that allowed poets and poetry to gain American exposure.”(PoeMine online) From: PhotoSeed Archive

Consider the first issue of an 1896 masterwork: Bradley His Book, with several pages scanned to accompany this post. This slim periodical was American artist and illustrator Will Bradley’s (1868-1962) art-nouveau letterpress-printed love affair “dedicated to the promotion of fine typography, design, paper, and printing”. (2.) The underpinnings for this new approach was inspired by some of the new thinking on art proposed by Oscar Wilde and his circle as well as ideas of social and design reform propagated by John Ruskin in England. When English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist William Morris (1834-1896) launched his Kelmscott Press in early 1891, the resulting volumes featuring this new era in design inspired Bradley. The proverbial torch passed, Bradley His Book was published the same year Morris died, and was:

Economic Force: The Golden Age for Letterpress:  By the end of the 19th Century, rapid improvements to the speed of cylinder letterpresses first developed earlier in the Century by electrification augmented with platen presses which enabled the printing of newspapers and books faster and more efficiently. One company that became a giant in the New England area was Boston’s H.M. Plimpton Company. Originally a bookbinding and printing firm founded by Herbert Mosley Plimpton (1859-1948) in 1888, it expanded, moving to Norwood, MA in 1897 where it became the Plimpton Press. Plimpton learned his trade in 1878 in New York City, where he gained “experience with typesetting and using a printing press”. By the 1920s, the firm, with all aspects of book production and publishing done in a series of massive buildings on its Norwood campus employed 1025 workers and produced 50,000 books a day, and closed in 1973. Left: “Men of the H.M. Plimpton Co., Hecht Building, Boston”, 1903, Commercial Photo Co., Boston, mounted gelatin silver print, 12.8 x 18.2 | 18.3 x 24.3 cm. Twelve men sit for a group portrait, with a notation on the card verso they worked in the “Extra Bindery”, a deluxe hand bindery founded in 1892 that moved to Norwood in 1905. Right: “Plimpton Girls in the Boston Shop- Hecht Building”, 1903, Arthur Hill, (Plimpton employee) unmounted gelatin silver print in masked frame, 12.6 x 17.6 cm. These women also worked in the “Extra Bindery”, although their duties perhaps extended to other jobs such as packaging and shipment of finished books. Notice the large reams of paper piled at right side of frame. Historical Note: from 1911-1930, the Plimpton Press printed the individual book and portfolio letterpress for volumes VI -XX of The North American Indian, the photographic masterwork by Edward Sheriff Curtis. From: PhotoSeed Archive

“distinguished by the outstanding decorative illustrations that enriched the text and advertisements. Bradley himself wrote several short stories for the magazine, again following the example set by William Morris, who once said, “If a chap can’t compose an epic poem while he’s weaving tapestry he had better shut up; he’ll never do any good at all.” (3.)

Letterpress Advances in Typesetting & Printing: Left: “Man Standing Next to Linotype Machine”: unknown American photographer: cyanotype: ca. 1895-1905: 11.9 x 9.6 | 13.2 x 10.6 cm. The mass commercialization of letterpress printing in the form of newspapers, magazines and book publishing (Bibles and textbooks in particular) began in earnest in the late 19th Century with the 1884 invention of the Linotype machine by German immigrant Ottmar Mergenthaler. (1854-1899) From: PhotoSeed Archive. Right: “Cottrell Flatbed Cylinder Press, 1871” This letterpress was manufactured in New York by C.B. Cottrell & Sons sometime after 1880 when the partnership was formed. (Calvert Byron Cottrell: 1821-1893) Its displayed in the Print shop at the Shelburne Museum in VT and described: “cylinder presses such as this Cottrell were extensively used by printers from the 1860s well into the 20th century. The large sheet capacity and printing speeds up to 1600 impressions per hour made them ideally suited for book and newspaper work.” The placard noted this press was used by the Democratic Press Company of Concord, NH for newspaper printing until 1897 and then sold to the Hardwick Publishing Co. of Vermont to print the Hardwick Gazette until it was finally retired in 1972. Photo by David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Letterpress as Living History

At least in America, should we care enough or have reason to experience firsthand places bringing the past alive, we can find instances of historical letterpress printing. Think Colonial Williamsburg, VA, Old Sturbridge Village in MA or the Shelburne Museum in VT. Here are places where a shop (many also dimly lighted!) oftentimes feature a vintage iron hand press. (letterpress) Invariably, these places might impart an American history lesson for tourists looking on, with a resident reenactor recalling American founding father and printer Benjamin Franklin’s role in publishing The Pennsylvania Gazette beginning in 1729. A newspaper man dear to my own heart, Franklin’s broadsheet promoted lively public discourse at the time—one of the factors leading to the eventual overthrow of the English King who ruled the American colonies—and with it, the founding of the United States which became a Constitutional Republic with Democracy as its backbone: something we do hope endures as I write this in the turbulent present. How’s that for the power and importance of letterpress?

Allison Chapman, along with husband John and daughter Ava, run Igloo Letterpress from their home studio in Worthington, OH. Its been an active venture fueled by some well loved vintage presses like this flywheel-powered Ben Franklin Gordon jobber press since 1996. When new, this platen-style letterpress with its “clam-shell” mechanism- used for smaller print jobs- was advertised in the pages of the June, 1891 Inland Printer and was described: “Is The Very Best Old Style Gordon Ever Built by Anybody”. Letterpresses like this one were named after George Phineas Gordon, (1810-1878) an American inventor, printer and businessman who developed the basic design of the most common printing press ever, the Gordon Letterpress. Photo taken 2025 by David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Papermaking & Typography

With apologies to Bradley and the rest, the Industrial Revolution in America was key in producing the matrix for letterpress: paper, and in huge amounts. I live in New England and specifically Massachusetts, where the remains of hulking mill buildings can still be found most everywhere, but particularly alongside rivers, where they drew their power. Many have fallen to the wrecking ball, but in present-day Holyoke, MA, some of those buildings that were part of the 25 companies producing paper during the late 19th and early 20th centuries still stand: some vacant but others repurposed.

Known as “Paper City”, Holyoke would surpass even Berkshire county in Massachusetts, which was the largest producer of paper in the US through the Civil War. An interesting tidbit? Berkshire-based Crane Currency in Dalton, MA, initially founded by Zenas Crane (1777–1845) in 1801, is still in business today, continuing to provide the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing with specialized paper for U.S. currency since 1879. Another later figure to explore in the arts & craft aesthetic: Dard Hunter, 1883-1966: “American authority on printing, paper, and paper making, especially by hand, using sixteenth-century tools and techniques.” 

Photography & the Art of Letterpress: Some of the most beautiful objects featuring photographic plates printed in intaglio such as hand-pulled photogravure and mounted halftones can be found in volumes such as these examples combining ornament and text, the perfect marriage of words and pictures from photography’s artistic era spanning the late 1880s through the first decades of the 20th century. Top: La Photographie est=elle un Art? (Is Photography an Art?) Elegant letterpress woodcut embellishments such as this design for Lily of the Valley, (Convallaria majalis) published in February, 1899, illustrating a page in the Belgian photographic journal Sentiment D’Art En Photographie, (1898-1901) are a feature commonly found in the best designed European photographic journals, portfolios and volumes. Unknown artist. Printer: Brussels: Xavier Havermans. Bottom, Covers: Left: This inner cover, bound in boards, is printed in one color, with a woodcut design hand-embossed in gold foil. A “Jubilee Album”, it was published in 1898 to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Belgian Photography Association in Brussels in 1874. Unknown artist. Printer: Brussels: Émile Bruylant. Middle: This intricate letterpress-printed Art-Nouveau design in three colors features on the cover of another album published in 1911 marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Austrian Publishing House of the Imperial and Royal Photographic Society in Vienna: Jubiläumsfeier der k. k. Photographischen Gesellschaft in Wien 1861-1911. Unknown artist. Printer: Wien: Friedrich Jasper. Right: A floral organic design, printed in two colors, dominates this 1903 first annual volume of French journal La Revue De Photographie, (The Photography Review) published by the Photo Club de Paris. Unknown artist. Printer: Paris: Draeger Freres. From: PhotoSeed Archive

“Print is Dead” ⎯ Egon Spengler, Ghostbusters-1984

Thank goodness Egon was a fictional character. While print in the physical form continues to thrive in the 21st Century, modern typesetting is now mostly digital. Mass commercialization of letterpress printing in the form of newspapers, magazines and book publishing (Bibles and textbooks in particular) began in earnest in the late 19th Century with the 1884 invention of the Linotype machine by German immigrant Ottmar Mergenthaler. (1854-1899) These machines cast entire lines of type (words & sentences) at once, known as “slugs”: stereotypes of cast metal formed from the contact of assembled brass type matrices that had been locked into position before a molten mixture of lead, tin, and antimony was injected over them from the linotypes’s heated alloy reservoir. Discontinued by the 1970s, linotypes were used almost exclusively in the production of American newspapers. I worked for several papers and these machines were on display in the corner of the front public lobby: dusty relics that once revolutionized letterpress publishing in the “hot-type” era.

Another Cover, but from America: First San Francisco Photographic Salon 1901, Second Edition, 1901, staple-bound paper catalogue, 19.2 x 19.1 cm. This striking ornamental letterpress design, printed in gold and blue, was published by the western photographic periodical Camera Craft. The design as well as internal letterpress and halftone photographic plates were photo-engraved by the Sunset Photo-Engraving Co. of San Francisco and printed by the Sunset Press. An advertisement in the rear for the firm states … “this catalogue ⎯both in engraving and printing ⎯is a good specimen of our ability to design and execute high-grade work.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

Business Models: Present & Past: Top Left: At Igloo Letterpress in Worthington, OH, directional signs point to the print studio and Bindery, the latter essential for gathering finished work into printed volumes & brochures. Lower Left: public education, especially for younger visitors, is perhaps the foremost intent behind living history museums. In the Print shop at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, where several platen-style presses are displayed at bottom, letterpress broadsides are tacked to the wall beyond, featuring enlarged alphabet letters from wood type embellished with metal design cuts. Both: David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive. Right: “Full Sheep Books Being Bound”, 1895, unknown commercial photographer, albumen print laid down on card, 15.3 x 20.2 | 19.5 x 25.0 cm. At Boston’s H.M. Plimpton Company, men wearing ties and aprons lend a professional look as they work in the bindery between stacks of books piled on work tables at left and right. The volumes were being bound in sheepskin, indicating these were of the very highest quality Plimpton published. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Similar to the old Eastman Kodak Company, essentially a monopoly which became a trust in 1901 and controlled 90% of the marketplace, the companies that produced the actual metal type for letterpress printing decided to fight back, now that the Linotype and Monotype machines threatened their own near monopoly in the market. In 1892, the American Type Founders Company, a business trust, was formed. Collectively this entity was made up of 23 type foundries “representing about 85 percent of all type manufactured in the United States at the time.” From Columbia University Libraries we learn the ATF trust was formed “in order to compete with the new typesetting machines, the Linotype and Monotype” and would be  “the dominant American manufacturer of metal type from its creation in 1892 until at least the 1940s.” (4.) Interestingly, from 1914-1959, the trust was also in the businesses of manufacturing their own letterpresses for industry, with the popular Kelly series presses selling 11,000 units by 1949. (5.) Besides designer Will Bradley, who created many different type fonts for the ATF, another designer who worked for the trust became more famous: Frederic Goudy: 1865-1947, “one of the most prolific of American type designers” whose “self-named type continues to be one of the most popular in America.” (6.)

Teaching & Business: Letterpress & Engraving Arts: Left: Title Page: “London County Council School of Photo-Engraving And Lithography: Principal’s Report for the Sixth Session, 1900-1901.” Design by Gertrude J. Sabey, British, dates unknown: letterpress on watermarked laid paper with rubricated title, subtitle & publishing attribution, 29.6 x 19.3 | 33.7 x 24.0 cm. A synopsis in the report stated “The object of the school is to provide instruction in certain branches of the craft of producing surfaces for printing. The school is open to all those who are genuinely engaged in business in the actual work of any branch of the photo-engraving, photographic, lithographic, engraving, designing, and printing crafts.” The compiled volume notes the title page was “designed and given to the School by Miss Gertrude J. Sabey, a former student, and was reproduced by A.J. Jackson (negative) and W.C. Hardy (line block). Letterpress printed by Messrs. Charles Whittingham and Co. at the Chiswick Press, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, E.C.” Little is known of designer Sabey, although a 1913 reference said she was affiliated with the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. Historical Note: Alvin Langdon Coburn learned copperplate photogravure while a student at this school in 1906. Right: Re-worked design in the manner of “The Etcher’s Press – The Printmaker’s Shop” by French artist and engraver Abraham Bosse, 1604-1676, c. 1940-1960, Claudio Bonacini, Italian, (d. 1968) intaglio etching from wood engraving design on thin, hand-made paper, 6.1 x 6.0 | 9.5 x 10.0 cm, Verona: Calcografia artistica Cavadini di G. Cristini. In this reworked design from the 1642 Bosse etching, modern designer Bonacini emphasizes the shop worker applying ink to a plate at left with a 17th Century “Star” intaglio press at right. This press was used principally for copper-plate engravings, with early shops like this also using traditional Gutenberg style hand letterpresses. From: PhotoSeed Archive

What’s Old is New Again

I’ve been without business cards for many years now, after running out of an initial batch of beautiful letterpress cards designed by Kirsten O’Loughlin. This was actually the inspiration for this post. “Get yourself some updated cards” I told myself and you can do a bit on letterpress for the blog. I’ve now got the updated cards in hand (free card with any Ebay purchase!) so deadline met. I’ve featured letterpress printing in oblique ways before on the site, although never in depth. In 2014, I featured a wood-engraved copyright label designed in 1897 by the important American furniture designer Harvey Ellis for amateur American photographer John Dumont. In 2018, as part of the  conference “PhotoHistory/PhotoFuture” held at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York state, I visited the Cary Graphics Arts Collection where I saw the famed Kelmscott/Goudy iron hand-press featured among other working presses in the Arthur M. Lowenthal Memorial Pressroom.

Book Arts & Letterpress: Academic & Museum Worthy: Top: Letterpress Broadsides, left & right, 2017, 2023, after “Delle Vite De’ più Eccellenti Pittori, Scultori, Et Architetti by Giorgio Vasari, 1663” (From the Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects) Katherine Ruffin, American, b. 1972. At the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, these modern broadsides are displayed as part of a faculty exhibition. (the artist is Director of the Book Studies Program at Wellesley and Lecturer in Art) Printed on hand-made paper, they feature an original 16th century rendering by an unknown artist of a wood-engraved portrait of sculptor and architect Michelangelo, 1475-1564. Repurposed, along with the title from the original 17th century volume in which it appears, they feature in that volume by Vasari published in 1663- displayed in the separate case at bottom. Ruffin comments: “Over the years, we have printed multiple versions, or editions, of some broadsides. In this pair, variations in layout and the addition of type ornaments create a distinct look and feel. The white and cream paper made in the Papermaking Studio typically contains a blend of cotton, flax, and abaca fibers. One year, we created another variation using blue paper made from blue jean rag. Blue paper was common in the Renaissance, offering artists a contrast between lights and darks-and thus provided another teaching opportunity.” A team effort, the broadsides were printed by Ruffin and students in Professor Jacki Musacchio’s first year seminar course “Michelangelo: Artist and Myth” at the school’s Annis Press. Universities and other academic institutions the world over are important incubators offering courses and degree programs in the book arts, often under the umbrella of a studio arts discipline. Giving new life to the historical past may combine courses such as papermaking, type design and printing in conjunction with a liberal arts degree, although trade schools and the web provide plenty of opportunities for those seeking a community of learners or wanting to go it alone in learning the rich history of printing and related disciplines. Learn more: Book Arts Lab at Wellesley. Photographed October, 2025 by David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

And Now, a Word from our Sponsor: PhotoSeed gets a new business card printed by letterpress. We’re decidedly old school, with a card to match. Top: At Igloo Letterpress in OH, the raised photopolymer plate “cut” featuring our Lotus leaf design is inked and ready to make contact with paper. The matrix of four cards (one side of card) was being run through a vintage Vandercook cylinder press in September, 2025. Lower Left: Owner Allison Chapman holds paper (Arturo soft white, an Italian mould-made paper) just off the press with the card’s other side: the business particulars, held in place by the Vandercook’s gripper heads. Both: photos courtesy Allison Chapman. Lower Right: Trimmed and individually cut from the larger sheet, the new cards wait to be sent out to the world. Photo by David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

The second-generation cards again feature the arts & craft inspired lotus flower which has become one of this site’s signature branding efforts. It’s by the hand (or rather computer mind) of designer Jay David, (responsible for the design of PhotoSeed) and takes up all the real estate of the new card’s verso- or recto- you decide. The one absolute change for me was to make “PhotoSeed” all one word, as my impression the old site design lead to some confusion in that words Photo and Seed were stacked on top of each other.

Letterpress printer Allison Chapman to my rescue. Shop local is something we try to adhere to, and although she lives in the middle of the country the argument can be made anyone hanging their letterpress shingle is local and worthy of your business, as no “big box” stores are ever anticipated to get in on the action. Along with husband John and daughter Ava, they run Igloo Letterpress from their home studio in Worthington, OH. Its been an active venture fueled by some well loved vintage presses since 1996. Like many old-time endeavors made new again, with examples including the resurgence of the wet-plate collodion photographic process and wet darkrooms in general in the 21st Century, Letterpress printing became a “thing” a bit earlier, in the 1990s. Here, Wikipedia informs us “renewed interest…was fueled by Martha Stewart Weddings magazine,  which began using pictures of letterpress invitations in the 1990s.” I’m not too sure on that one as small-press “craft” printers have always been part of the underground economy- in all parts of the world. In the present century, one thing is for certain: all those letterpresses not cast aside or sold for scrap in the 1970s for new-fangled photo-offset presses are still being sought out from their (presumably) dimly lit warehouses and basements in the present.

Wonderfully, for those adventurous enough, especially of the younger persuasion, risk takers will be rewarded by rejecting the modern-instantaneous for the slower and satisfying embrace of the tactile, hands-on approach in making something permanent and truly tangible: Letterpress: ink by type on paper.

Finis: “The End”, book design, (c. 1904-05) printed 1905, Olive Wood, British, 1883-1973, watermarked laid paper, 9.7 x 5.9 | 30.5 x 24.5 cm, negative & etching by T.M. Avery, typographic line etching by Mr. B.A. Newton (School letterpress printer) for London County Council School of Photo-Engraving & Lithography, Principal’s Report for the Tenth Session, 1904-5. Wood was a student at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts in London when this was designed. From Liss Llewellyn Fine Art, Wood “lived and worked in Dulwich Village, London. She exhibited illustrations and pen and ink page designs at the Royal Academy and at the Society of Women Artists Royal Miniature Society and ARMS from 1914 through to 1968. Her early designs incorporate art nouveau motifs.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

Letterpress Resources to Explore: Academic

Champaign, IL: Skeuomorph Press & BookLab is an experiential studio for teaching and researching the history and art of the book at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

Boston, MA: Huskiana Press:  experiential letterpress studio for students, faculty, and community members at Northeastern University. 

Rochester, NY: Rochester Institute of Technology Cary Pressroom in the Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED) 

Letterpress Resources to Explore: Public

Two Rivers, WI: Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum: “the only museum dedicated to the preservation, study, production, and printing of wood type. With 1.5 million pieces of wood type and more than 1,000 styles and sizes of patterns, Hamilton’s collection is one of the premier wood type collections in the world.” 

Carson, CA: The International Printing Museum: “a dynamic museum devoted to bringing the history of printing and books to life for diverse audiences. The Museum is home to one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive collections of antique printing machinery and graphic arts equipment.”  

Haverhill, MA: Museum of Printing: “dedicated to preserving the history of printing, graphic arts, and typography while showcasing their continuing influence on our culture. In addition to many special collections and small exhibits, the Museum contains hundreds of antique printing, typesetting, and bindery machines, as well as a library of books and printing-related documents.”

Atlanta, GA: Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking: “melds art, history, technology and industry from historical and global perspectives. Museum visitors follow the path of paper from the earliest examples of writing materials, to the Chinese discovery of how to make paper, to the paper mills of Europe, and the high-tech machinery of today’s modern paper industry.” 

Nashville, TN: Hatch Show Print: “From 1879 through most of the twentieth century, Hatch Show Print’s vibrant posters served as a leading advertising medium for southern entertainment, ranging from members of the Grand Ole Opry like Bill Monroe, Minnie Pearl and Ernest Tubb, to rock & roll impresarios such as Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry.”  

Chillicothe, OH: Dard Hunter Studios: (The Mountain House and Dard Hunter Studios are open for tours. The Dard Hunter Library and Archives are also available for research. Please contact us for more information.) 

1. p. 323. The glossary including the definition for letterpress comes from Benson’s 2008 volume The Printed Picture, published to accompany the exhibition of the same name in the Edward Steichen Photography galleries at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in the fall of 2008 through the Spring of 2009.
2. Excerpt: American Art Posters of the 1890s, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, including the Leonard A. Lauder Collection Catalogue by David W. Kiehl Essays by Phillip Dennis Cate, Nancy Finlay, and David W. Kiehl: The Metropolitan Museum of Art distributed by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1987, p. 16
3. Will H. Bradley Biography: from the online resource nocloo.com, celebrating the Golden Age era of children’s book illustrations, 1890-1930.
4. ATF, from Wikipedia accessed 2025
5. ATF, Ibid
6. Frederic Goudy, from Wikipedia accessed 2025

“They were up in the attic of the house in an old art box.”…

Skulls: Diptych: 1910, graphite on paper, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945. L: “Human Skull, Profile View”: 25.8 x 29.3 cm, R: “Human Skull, Frontal View”: 28.5 x 25.0 cm. Both laid down on oversized paper sheet: 37.9 x 61.5 cm. These two finely rendered views of a human skull were completed by the artist in his final year as an art student at the prestigious Art Academy of Cincinnati, then under the management of the Cincinnati Museum Association. From: PhotoSeed Archive

The above quote is a common refrain I hear when inquiring about artistic provenance. Or basement. But hardly ever: “They were (for our purpose: old photographs) hanging on the living room wall”. Of course, this particular artist ⎯ Charles A. Hellmuth (1887-1945)⎯ the subject of today’s post, was one of the lucky ones. His son, Joseph Foote Hellmuth, made the wise decision to hold on to a few choice remnants of his father’s artistic legacy before age forced his hand.

L: Self-Portrait? This charcoal |graphite on paper profile portrait of a young man by American artist Charles A. Hellmuth is dated 1911 (16 1/2″w x 22 1/2″h) and was described by its seller as a self-portrait of the artist. From: Private Collection. R: At twenty five years of age, class artist Charles A. Hellmuth is shown the year he graduated in 1912 from East Night High School, Cincinnati, OH. Along with this halftone photograph from The Rostrum, the school yearbook, were these insights: “Our able artist formerly attended Chillicothe High School, and entered our ranks in 1911. We were indeed very fortunate to have him with us, for his skill in art and valuable suggestions have aided us materially in making this book a success. He has always been recognized as a diligent and thoughtful student, and we are proud to claim him. We find him a very considerate and ever willing fellow, who has never failed us when called upon.” Source: web

No bother. Rescue is an archive speciality. Concerning examples of Hellmuth’s artwork and photographs I was able to procure in 2012, the online dealer from a northwest Rochester, N.Y. suburb I purchased them from added this little nugget after explaining his business was estate clean outs:

“Study of Miss A.”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, 1921, gelatin silver print: 24.4 x 19.3 cm on mounts: 26.7 x 20.4 | 42.9 x 35.5 cm. This figure study of a young woman clutching a flower bloom from a vase was entered in the inaugural October, 1921 exhibition of the Art Center, Inc., based in New York City. The purpose of this collective organization or  movement was to “advance the Decorative Crafts and the Industrial and Graphic Arts of America” according to a pasted exhibition label on mount verso. From: PhotoSeed Archive

“Many of the photos in the house were taken by the real estate agent before we got there !! I was told she sold them to the local museum for ALOT of $$$ !! I was pretty upset.”

L: Cover Design: “Art Academy of Cincinnati Catalogue, 1909”, two-color woodcut on laid paper. At this time, the faculty chairman of the academy was Frank Duveneck, (1848-1919) an important American artist known to Whistler and John Singer Sargent. Source: Web. R: “Artists Garret”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, 1910, pen & ink drawing on illustration board, 22.8 x 21.0 | 35.4 x 31.2 cm. With drawings and paintings decorating the background wall; along with the essentials of bare-bones living- a large steamer trunk, kerosene heater and rocking chair- it might seem reasonable the artist used his own living space as the subject of this drawing, executed in the final year he attended the prestigious Art Academy of Cincinnati. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Certainly a great story, but I’m more inclined to believe the dealer was just trying to tell me what he thought I wanted to hear. After all, Charles Hellmuth is a complete unknown. Know any museums purchasing anonymous works off the street for big money? Do tell. (me) I should know, I’ve been fortunate to sell a few choice works from PhotoSeed to several important American museums and institutions, as well as internationally, and always extend our invitation to those overseeing collections and other informed collectors seeking original material.

“Man with cane Walking away from Building”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, 1905, unmounted charcoal drawing on laid paper watermarked MICHALLET, 27.5 x 40.3 cm. This is an early drawing study executed by the artist in his first full year attending the prestigious Art Academy of Cincinnati. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Speaking of acquisitions, the process is exacting. Museum registrars are fastidious, and endowed money for rare photographs simply does not grow on trees- especially since the current unfortunate trends include deaccessioning works in order to provide collections the ability to keep the electricity on and front doors open. Committed benefactors, promised gifts and bequests make up the bulk of new work entering museums.

L: “Profile of Older Gentleman with Beard”,Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, (unsigned) dated “Sept. 1910”, unmounted charcoal drawing on laid paper, 42.8 x 34.0 cm. R: “Portrait of Older Woman”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, ca. 1910, charcoal drawing on laid paper tipped to backing board, 42.8 x 34.0 cm. These two fine drawings may very well depict the artist’s own parents, who each would have been around 60 years of age. Joseph Hellmuth Jr. (1850-1939) was a commercial painting contractor and spouse Anna Mary Rudman Hellmuth (1855-1940) was a homemaker. From: PhotoSeed Archive

“Silhouette”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, 1923, multiple gum-bichromate print on laid paper, 24.5 x 19.4 cm on mount: 35.5 x 27.9 cm & window matting: 50.8 x 40.6 cm. This exhibition print shows a young girl with hair bow silhouetted against an interior window. Perhaps dating to as early as 1920, it was exhibited in the 1923 Pittsburgh Salon as well as the International Salon hosted by the Pictorial Photographers of America in New York City, May, 1923. From: PhotoSeed Archive

But in the meantime, stories and lives can be retold- often for the first time, via the rescuing process- the heck with that ol’ dustbin of history notion! The pollination of photographers embracing the easel and the somewhat less common trend of artists embracing the camera concerns the subject of this post. Our artist, Charles Hellmuth, I would discover, was someone who might be called a journeyman artist. His interest in amateur photography, as it turned out, was only a short obsession: probably less than five years, from 1920-25.

“When the Days Grow Long”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, 1912, unmounted ink drawing on oversized paper, 38.2 x 51.5 cm. This work was published in 1912 as a full page illustration in the artist’s class yearbook, The Rostrum, for East Night High School, Cincinnati, OH. Hellmuth was the class artist and earned an academic diploma when graduating from the school when he was 25 years old. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Born in northern Ohio in 1887 to first-generation parents, (his grandparents had immigrated from Germany to the US) Charles was undoubtedly influenced by his own father’s profession from a young age- that of commercial painting contractor. So think houses instead of canvases. With however the certain paternal decree that a skilled trade was necessary in order to support his future self and family, (Charles had five other siblings) the completion of his primary education for the younger Hellmuth at first did not lead to advanced schooling, at least not right away.

“Lower Broadway N.Y. City”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, ca. 1920, mounted bromoil print, 32.1 x 20.3  | 38.8 x 27.9 cm. In this winter scene showing Lower Broadway in New York City, the former Singer Building at center towers above all. For one year, 1908-1909, the Singer was the tallest building in the world at 612′. The former world headquarters of the Singer Sewing machine company, it was designed by architect Ernest Flagg. (1857-1947) Hellmuth was a resident of the city when he took this view, living at 338 W. 22nd St. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Instead, the 17 year old somehow discovered he possessed actual artistic talent. The jackpot? In late 1904, he matriculated at the prestigious Art Academy of Cincinnati under their new faculty chairman Frank Duveneck, (1848-1919) an important American artist in his own right known to Whistler and John Singer Sargent.

“Homestead in a Snowy Landscape”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, 1922, oil on unstretched canvas, 34.4 x 44.5 cm (overall). A rare surviving example of a painting by the artist. It’s unknown how prolific he was in creating works such as this, although he most likely used the medium of oil paint for some of the poster work he did for the commercial lithography firms he worked for. In 1918, he became a member of The Society of Independent Artists and like hundreds of others, paid a $6.00 entry fee to have several works displayed in their 2nd annual exhibition. From: PhotoSeed Archive

For the six years he attended the Cincinnati academy, we are fortunate to be able to share some of the young artists original student drawings. The diptych of human skulls leading off this post- a common art school drawing assignment, are finely rendered, as are two individual portraits of an older gentleman and woman who may well be Hellmuth’s own parents. With the knowledge he would eventually immerse himself by the early 1920’s with amateur photography, these works are a wonderful reference for his obvious skill set in embracing the very different mechanical aspects of the camera and chemical knowledge requirements of the darkroom.

But our artist was not done with schooling. Even though his occupation was listed as artist for the 1910 Cincinnati City Directory, he chose to attend Chillicothe High School in the town he was born the same year and then enrolled in 1911 as a night student at East Night High School in Cincinnati. This would give him the necessary diploma required to open the employment doors more easily for one primarily schooled in the art trade. When he finally graduated high school, at the ripe age of 25, the editors of the class yearbook said of him:

“Man with Mustache”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, ca. 1920-25, mounted gelatin silver print, 24.0 x 19.5 | 26.5 x 20.3 | 43.2 x 35.6 cm. A fine example of the artist’s portrait work, the subject bears a passing resemblance to the artist himself. Although lacking the NY attribution he sometimes included with his signature, its still most likely from the period he lived their while being an active member of the Pictorial Photographers of America. From: PhotoSeed Archive

“We were indeed very fortunate to have him with us, for his skill in art and valuable suggestions have aided us materially in making this book a success. He has always been recognized as a diligent and thoughtful student, and we are proud to claim him.”

Charles A. Hellmuth worked as a commercial artist and lithographer for ACME Litho, from as early as 1917 to the mid 1920’s, and went on to work for Morgan Litho in Cleveland after this period. No extant posters or other advertising material produced by Acme or Morgan credited to the artist are known. L: “Felix the Cat Laughs it Off”, a 1926 animated short by Acme. M: closeup of ACME logo on ca. 1921 silent film poster “Franklyn Farnum” by Canyon Pictures Corp. R: “Husbands for Rent” Acme poster for 1927 romcom featuring Owen Moore and Helene Costello. From the web: “Acme Litho Company was initially used by Fox’s Box Office Attractions and Pathé (studios) in the teens. Acme also worked for Educational Film Distributors.” Source credits for all: Web

Ambitious, but apparently not of great health, (he claimed a medical deferment for a heart condition on his WWI draft registration) he eventually made a home in New York City, working as an artist and lithographer for the Acme Litho Company. It was in New York in the early 20’s that the artist fully embraced amateur photography, winning prizes and having his work-mainly bromoils- exhibited in the salons of the Pictorial Photographers of America, of which he was a member.

“At the Market”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, ca. 1920-25, mounted bromoil print, 19.8 x 28.2 | 32.2 x 40.3 cm with overmatt: 51.0 x 40.7 cm. A documentary image most likely taken in New York City shows a woman with oversized sun bonnet clutching her basket while eyeing grapes hanging in an outdoor produce market. The mount verso carries the white label for Member Pictorial Photographers of America and the artist’s NY address: 329 W. 22nd St. From: PhotoSeed Archive

It would have been interesting had Hellmuth stuck with photography longer, but with his marriage in 1926 and birth of his son Joseph in 1928, his free time was taken over more by family priorities. By 1930, they were back in his home state of Ohio where he would continue working as a lithographer and poster artist for Morgan Litho in Cleveland, a company that had bought out his former employer Acme.

Fellow Students and Collaborators: “A Good Joke”, Glen Tracy, American, 1883-1956, 1943, unmounted lithograph on paper, 4th state, 37.2 x 31.0 cm. Glen Tracy and Charles Hellmuth were fellow students at the Art Academy of Cincinnati in the first decade of the 20th Century, becoming lifelong friends. Tracy also became an instructor in Preparatory Drawing, and Painting in Oil and Water Colors in 1909 at the Academy. This Tracy lithograph was turned into a lithograph by Hellmuth while he worked at Morgan Litho in Cleveland in the early 1940’s. Hellmuth has added his printing notes in graphite to the bottom margin and titled the work in his own hand: A Good Joke | -work added and work taken out – just printed 4th edition of this one yesterday- many changes having been made.  From: PhotoSeed Archive

Apparently, with future evidence to be determined, Hellmuth never received artistic credit for the many posters, broadsides and other advertising material published by Acme and Morgan– a standard industry practice for the hundreds of anonymous artists plying their trade who would never see a byline working for these companies. In contrast, his photographs- beautifully composed with the hallmarks of a subtle palette of highlights and shadows enhanced by the bromoil process- would earn the public’s recognition in his lifetime.

“Cornwall on the Hudson”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, 1923, mounted bromoil print, 17.4 x 23.7 | 29.5 x 36.5 cm. Sailboats on the Hudson River can be seen in the distance in this Summertime view most likely taken in 1922. It  received an honorable mention in a monthly camera contest sponsored and published by Shadowland magazine for their February, 1923 issue. Judges comments included with the reproduction: “This is well composed with a pictorial quality“. From: PhotoSeed Archive

This balance of a career trade and amateur craft surely satisfied his artistic drive, and reason enough his proud son chose to preserve the evidence of his father’s career- squirreling it within an old art box in the attic of his Rochester, N.Y. home. Memento memories rescued and showcased here for your consideration and delight.

Historical Biography: Charles Andrew Hellmuth  1887-1945

1887: Born on January 17th in Chillicothe, OH to father Joseph Hellmuth Jr. ,(1850-1939) a commercial painting contractor, and mother Anna Mary Rudman Hellmuth, (1855-1940) a homemaker.

1904-1910: Seeking a trade, he enrolls in late 1904 at the age of 17 at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, then under the management of the Cincinnati Museum Association. 

1907: Student living in Cincinnati and attending Art Academy of Cincinnati. (1907 Directory)

1910: In his last year at the Academy, he lists himself as an Artist living at 2153 Fulton Ave., Cincinnati. (1910 Directory)

-Enrolls in Chillicothe High School in the Ohio town he was born.

1911: Perhaps desiring to be closer to the city of Cincinnati where he earned his art diploma and to be closer with friends and professional acquaintances, he matriculates at East Night High School in Cincinnati, OH, living at 1927 Auburn Ave. in Mt. Auburn, OH. As its name implied, East Night was a night school, where students worked during the day and attended class at night. Although born in Chillicothe, his first-generation parents- also born in Chillicothe, whose parents both immigrated from Germany- had a large family of six children to support. Because of these family obligations, dedicated students such as Hellmuth graduated older. At East Night, many graduates took courses in Bookkeeping and Stenography- trades with good career outcomes. Additional information from Fulshear Books, Whiting Texas: “Some history on East Night High School from the Withrow High School Alumni Association site: “East Night High School was in existence from 1911-1937 and classes were held in the East High School building and eventually the Withrow High School building. It was intended for students that could not attend day classes due to necessary working conditions, family care concerns or for any reason that daytime classes were not an option for individuals who wanted a high school education.”

1912: Graduates from East Night High School on May 24, listed as the Class Artist. He had participated in the school’s Oratorical Contest and gave the speech: “The Value of Art Culture.” From The Rostrum: school yearbook: “Our able artist formerly attended Chillicothe High School, and entered our ranks in 1911. We were indeed very fortunate to have him with us, for his skill in art and valuable suggestions have aided us materially in making this book a success. He has always been recognized as a diligent and thoughtful student, and we are proud to claim him. We find him a very considerate and ever willing fellow, who has never failed us when called upon.”

-Its unknown where and in what capacity Hellmuth worked during this period. One idea, subject to research, was that he was employed at one of the many potteries in Cincinnati. Known as “the cradle of American art pottery”, a good friend of the artist, Albert F. Pons, (1888-1971) had worked in the city as an artist for Rookwood Pottery from 1904 through 1911, and was best man at Hellmuth’s 1926 wedding.

 1917: Registers for WWI draft. His occupation is listed as a commercial lithographer, working for the Acme Litho Company at 601 W. 47th St., N.Y.C. He claims an exemption for service because of heart trouble on his June 5th registration card, describing himself with grey eyes, brown hair, 6′ tall and of medium build.

1918: He becomes a member of The Society of Independent Artists: exhibiting several works in the 2nd annual exhibition. His home address listed as 331 W. 55th St., NYC. Two works displayed: #919: Still Life & #920: Morning Shadows.

1920-25: Becomes a member of the Pictorial Photographers of America, exhibiting in their annual salons.

– Home address is 338 W. 22nd St., NYC.

1921: Exhibits photograph #62 “Study”at Art Center in NYC.

1922: In February, he wins first and second prizes in Class C for a contest sponsored by Kodakery: A Journal for Amateur Photographers for their contest which closed Dec. 1, 1921.

– His photograph, “A Summer Idyll” awarded honorable mention and exhibited at the Worcester, (MA) Art Museum from May 14 – June 11 as part of an exhibition of prize-winning prints organized by the journal American Photography for their second annual contest and brought to Worcester by the Worcester Camera Club.

1926: Marriage on May 8th to Alice K. Foote (1896-1989) after having moved to 79 Beverly St. in Rochester, in upstate, N.Y. Occupation on license listed as artist. His best man was Albert F. Pons of Cleveland. Pons, 1888-1971, who had been an artist for Rookwood Pottery in Cincinatti from 1904 through 1911.

1928: Now living in Cleveland, Ohio as listed in The Art Digest for Mid-May. He may have accepted a job at Morgan Lithograph Corp., a company that bought Acme Litho. (see 1940)

– A son, Joseph Foote Hellmuth, born March 1.

1930: U.S. Census lists him as a lithographic artist living at 1350 W. 102nd St., Cleveland, OH.

1940: Registers for WWII draft. He continues to be a commercial lithographer, working for Morgan Lithograph Corp. located at E. 17th and Payne Ave. in Cleveland. His home address is 1350 W. 102nd St., Cleveland, OH.

– Listed occupation on U.S. Census is poster artist for a Lithographic Company.

1945: Passes away on February 8th in Cleveland at 58 years of age.

For your consideration, we offer a happier vision of patriotic leanings supporting the home-front on this milestone day in history marking the end of  World War 1.

“Kodak in Camp”: vintage framed bromide print ca. 1917 by unknown American photographer: Image Dimensions: 71.4 x 60.0 | cm 83.2 x 71.8 cm stained oak frame. This rare mammoth-sized Kodak advertising photograph featuring American “Doughboys” working together developing film in their tent at night was used by the Eastman company in their “Take a KODAK With You” advertising campaign. In late 1917, it appeared in publications including The Saturday Evening Post and The Independent (with which is incorporated Harpers Weekly) From: PhotoSeed Archive

On the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month- November 11, 1918, the signing of the Armistice ending the Great War took place 60 kilometers north of Paris inside a railway carriage parked in the Forest of Compiègne. It has now been 100 years since that fateful day, on that fateful month and on that fateful hour. Sadly, mankind seems doomed to repeat his failures.

But a pivoting to Photography in relation to these weighty issues will always be of interest to the historian.

In 1914, the role of the medium expanded greatly at the outset of World War 1. In addition to photography’s new found power through smaller cameras to document unspeakable human suffering and death by the millions brought about by trench warfare, aerial reconnaissance photography gave countries the ability to monitor troop movements and to devise strategy in nearly real time. And then there was the home-front. The Eastman Kodak Company was certainly not going to let a war get in the way in order to call attention to their brand and sell more product.

Retooling like other large concerns in order to become an essential military contractor, they saw American Doughboys entering the war late in the conflict as brand ambassadors. As proof, the Kodak Vest Pocket camera, which debuted in 1912, found its’ way onto the front lines and trenches of many battlefields-legally or otherwise, and advertising posters hawking the camera as well as this oversized framed bromide print of soldiers for darkroom supplies and film called Kodak in Camp prominently appeared displayed in camera shops throughout the country.

And Kodak went further. As part of their national print advertising campaign dubbed “Take a KODAK with you“, this photo of nighttime developing in camp appeared full page in the pages of the Saturday Evening Post magazine for their August 4, 1917 issue as well as other publications around that time.

But most importantly, we honor the memory today of all the fallen. In a tribute to just one, a Scottish photographer by the name of Nichol Elliot, whose 1917 death in wartime Belgium is memorialized by a volume of his pictorial photographs accompanied by poems written by his wife Alice Elliot, we give her final stanza from An Idyll of Peace:

How swift from summer idylls came the wrench
Of life flung thence, by war and manhood’s will,
To battle roar and glare, or deathly chill
Of watch and warfare in the nightmare trench!
For peace divine man paid diviner price
In world-wide idyll of high sacrifice.

-Paired with Nichol Elliot photograph: In the Island, Toronto

For additional background on photography and the Great War, check out this New York Times Lens blog post from 2014.

 Like the mythological bird the Phoenix, the groundbreaking photography and art journal Camera Work edited and published by Alfred Stieglitz of New York from 1903-17 is now available for purchase as a full run after long being out of print.

Rare Camera Work Ephemera: Left: This blank Camera Work subscription form for the year 1905 was mailed by publisher Alfred Stieglitz to  photographer C.M. Shipman in Brooklyn, New York. (145 Milton St.) recto: 15.9 x 9.9 cm | opened: 9.9 x 19.8 cm | printed on Japan paper. Upper Right: The original mailing envelope (8.7 x 10.8 cm) addressed to Shipman in Stieglitz’s hand is stamped with a New York postmark of December 22, 1904. Lower Right: Another similar envelope addressed to photographer Adolph Petzold in Philadelphia and postmarked New York, September, 1904 is engraved on the verso: Alfred Stieglitz- 1111 Madison Avenue – New York. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Remarkably and metaphorically, this bird, capably guided by St. Louis resident Pierre Vreyen, has risen again even though its first creator, while acknowledging the passion it took to create it was a most admirable thing, nonetheless went on to dispose of at least one known full run of Camera Work by setting it alight in 1929 at his Lake George estate. In 1933, writing in a two-page letter on July 10 from there to writer and critic Lewis Mumford, Stieglitz outlines the emotional capital he expended on his involvement with and creation of Camera Work:

“Four years ago the complete set of Camera Work I had had up here for years I offered to the Evening Star. It was a wonderful sight to watch the volumes burn. As you know books burn slowly…What a continuous heartache Camera Work represented & what blood was spilled over each issue fighting printers & fighting engravers—fighting paper dealers & paper manufacturers—fighting ink manufacturers & binders—fighting those who did the packing—fighting the post office—every step I controlled personally—as I sat there & realized what passion it all represented—I had to smile at myself.—Ye gods what won’t passion do.” (1.)

Originally from Liege, Belgium and trained as an electrician and draftsman but more recently plying his trade as a commercial photographer, Pierre explained to me his inspiration for bringing Camera Work back to life, so to speak:

“It all started when Mark (Katzman) said he would love to have a digital copy of Camera Work so he could open it anytime without the fear of over-manipulating his set of originals. I told him I would give him a hand doing it and it took 2 years to make.”

With the establishment of his website cameraworkmagazine.com, which includes short videos of him leafing through each newly published issue of Camera Work, one can order the full run of the journal in facsimile: the most complete and faithful copy of the original ever published. The cost is $1200, which includes a separate index issue, plus shipping.

“Earliest known Camera Work Sales Catalogue” ( post publication): ca. 1924, uncoated paper: 13.8 x 10.1 cm (Cover). New York: E. Weyhe Gallery. This small pamphlet shows a facsimile of the CW cover at left while opened to the first gatefold at right. The prospectus by the E. Weyhe Gallery, located at 794 Lexington Avenue in New York City, reprinted press notices for CW along with a synopsis of available issues and prices, including the final Paul Strand double issue 49-50 from 1917 for $17.50: An excerpt: “We Have recently obtained from the publisher a large stock of Camera Work, the remainder of this unique chance to obtain copies, both singly and in sets. Many of these numbers had already become scarce, and there never will be an opportunity to obtain so large a selection again.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

“Synopsis of Numbers: 1-22”: “Earliest known Camera Work Sales Catalogue” ( post publication): ca. 1924, uncoated paper: 13.8 x 20.1 cm (this gatefold). New York: E. Weyhe Gallery. The prospectus by the E. Weyhe Gallery, located at 794 Lexington Avenue in New York City, reprinted press notices for CW along with a synopsis of available issues and prices, including the final Paul Strand double issue 49-50 from 1917 for $17.50: An excerpt: “We Have recently obtained from the publisher a large stock of Camera Work, the remainder of this unique chance to obtain copies, both singly and in sets. Many of these numbers had already become scarce, and there never will be an opportunity to obtain so large a selection again.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

“Synopsis of Numbers: 23-48; 49-50; 2 special issues and special large plate gravure of The Steerage”: “Earliest known Camera Work Sales Catalogue” ( post publication): ca. 1924, uncoated paper: 13.8 x 20.1 cm (gatefold at left and back cover at right: 13.8 x 10.1 cm ). New York: E. Weyhe Gallery. The prospectus by the E. Weyhe Gallery, located at 794 Lexington Avenue in New York City, reprinted press notices for CW along with a synopsis of available issues and prices, including the final Paul Strand double issue 49-50 from 1917 for $17.50: An excerpt: “We Have recently obtained from the publisher a large stock of Camera Work, the remainder of this unique chance to obtain copies, both singly and in sets. Many of these numbers had already become scarce, and there never will be an opportunity to obtain so large a selection again.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

Pierre says: “The aim of this project is to put (Camera Work) in the hands of schools, teachers, students, museums, libraries, collectors, appraisers, auction houses, individuals, etc… a high quality reproduction of the originals at a reasonable price.”

Intrigued, I asked him what some of the challenges were for pulling the project off, and I couldn’t help but think of parallels Stieglitz himself surely encountered, yet updated for the digital age:

“There were many challenges. At first was where to start? From what? Luckily I found the Modernist Journal Project online which has a digital copy of Camera Work. It is incomplete but we contacted them and they were kind enough to supply us with their raw files. I used their files for the text pages but not for the plates.

 The text pages needed a lot of work in Photoshop to clean, resize, straighten, etc… and then we had to photograph many of the plate pages Mark (Katzman) had no high res files in his archive. I also had to align the often found ghost image present on the facing page of the plates. Look at the video clips I have on the website and you’ll see what I mean. Especially visible in number 49-50.”

Continuing, and with the knowledge he has put up a significant amount of his own money to complete 25 full sets of Camera Work, Pierre spoke of finding someone to print the issues, something that happens less and less in this digital age:

…“I had to find a printer. I first looked online but the choices are limited and it ends up getting expensive really quick when you want to use a print on demand service like blurb.com. So I looked locally.

International Camera Work Scholarship: With “The Red Man”, a head study reproduced as a photogravure plate in Camera Work I by Gertrude Käsebier from 1903 projected on the screen at left, Professor Dr. Bettina Gockel, principal investigator for the project Camera Work: Inside/Out at the University of Zurich from 2015-18 delivers her paper: “More Than Genius: The Invention of Photographic Genius and the Importance of the Journal Camera Work” during the symposium Rethinking “Pictorialism”: American Art and Photography, 1895 to 1925 at Princeton University in October, 2017. Photo by David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

I found a printer that was in St. Louis but after many, many weeks of proofs and tries, it did not work out. Back to square 1, I found another printer about 80 miles from St. Louis and this is the one I ended up using. All in all, it took me 6 months dealing with different printers to finally get what you saw in Rochester, the final product.”

As an added bonus, Pierre will also sell you a piece of history from the pages of Camera Work: approximately 180 individual advertising pages from the journal are listed on his site and can be ordered as 16 x 20″ framable art prints for the bargain of $30 each.

Would the master Approve?

Not that my opinion matters, but here goes. It’s hard to guess if Alfred Stieglitz would have embraced the concept of digitization. My hunch says no, because I want to believe one of the most important legacies he left the world, Camera Work magazine, was something he would have been insistent be appreciated in its’ original form.

All well and good if you can get ahold of vintage copies, or have the tenacity and financial resources to acquire a full run of the 50 issues and supplements.  But to those of us in the 21st century, the importance of the groundbreaking nature of the journal as well as the superb photogravure plates contained within give many of us ample reason to collect at least a few of the plates.

Published Literature: Camera Work: A chronological timeline of significant works are seen left to right: 1973: “Camera Work: A Critical Anthology” by Jonathan Green. This was the first significant evaluation of Camera Work, with an emphasis on the articles and text rather than the reproductions; 1973: “Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly Edited and Published by Alfred Stieglitz, New York”. Published by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, this volume accompanied the exhibition, “I Am an American,” that traveled to more than a dozen towns in Minnesota on the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ Artmobile; 1978: “Camera Work: A Pictorial Guide” by Marianne Fulton Margolis was the first instance all 559 plates from Camera Work were published in a single-volume reference; 1997: “Camera Work- The Complete Illustrations 1903-1917”. Published by Benedikt Taschen with an essay by Pam Roberts additionally translated into German and French, it featured all plates taken from a complete set of the journal owned by the Royal Photographic Society, Bath; 2003: “Camera Work: A Centennial Celebration”: In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the publication of Camera Work, a traveling exhibition was organized by Stephen Perloff, editor of The Photo Review and The Photograph Collector. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Speaking personally, a delicate japan tissue gravure of a collaborative effort by Stieglitz and Clarence White from Camera Work was one of my very first photographic purchases as a collector. I convinced myself I would frame that photograph and hang it on the wall, but it slowly drifted to the bottom of an acid-free case as I rapidly descended into the madness of collecting vintage photographs, never to look back.

For the sake of historical context, a timeline of the most notable publishing efforts promoting Camera Work scholarship, although certainly not exhaustive given the hundreds, perhaps thousands of citations for the journal not listed here, are necessary for the record, and reveal ample support and evidence for Pierre Vreyen’s efforts at getting it back in print. I’ve also included a few links at the end of this post for some exciting recent scholarship and digitization efforts.

Camera Work: Key Dates & published Literature

1903-1917:

Issued quarterly in New York by Alfred Stieglitz, (1864-1946) the journal featured a cover design by a young Edward Steichen who created the Craftsman inspired typeface logo anchored by an outlined box: “A Photographic Quarterly* Edited And Published By * Alfred Stieglitz New York“. Steichen’s efforts included the overall design aesthetic for the interior pages, which even extended to the advertising pages published in the back of each issue. Through primary sources, Camera Work is known to have had a larger subscriber base when it was first introduced in the first decade of the 20th Century but waned considerably with the outset of World War I in Europe. In a three page letter written by Stieglitz to the writer and critic Lewis Mumford dated October 15, 1935, he states the size of the edition for individual issues while giving other valuable information on the albatross Camera Work had become to him, along with the solution:

“Camera Work has gone off to you in 4 packages by parcel post…As for the missing Plates they were not torn out of the books but were never put into those copies. You see many of the gravures were tipped in my hand (by me) after the numbers had been printed & bound. And I only completed the number of copies as were subscribed for. The edition was always 1000 copies except 49–50—that was 350. When I destroyed about 10000 copies of Camera Work—they were smothering me—I destroyed virtually all the Plates that had not been used. That’s why I can’t complete your incomplete copies.” (2.)

Vintage or Modern? Bottom Left: This mounted photogravure plate in Camera Work I from 1903 titled “A Study in Natural History” is by the American photographer A. Radclyffe Dugmore. This vintage example is opened to show it in relation to the opposing text page in an incomplete copy owned by the PhotoSeed Archive. Upper Right: The same page spread featuring the Dugmore plate in a new issue of Camera Work published as part of a set in May, 2018 and sold by Pierre Vreyen. Keen observers will notice the plates are flipped: this is because Alfred Stieglitz personally hand-tipped the gravure plates into each unique issue of Camera Work with the results sometimes being different in relation to placement on the plate pages. From: PhotoSeed Archive

1924: (ca.) After 1917, the first known marketing efforts for the journal appear by the E. Weyhe Gallery of New York City. They publish a small prospectus which served as a sales catalogue after buying up remaining copies from Alfred Stieglitz. Scans of an original prospectus owned by PhotoSeed can be seen above. In 2012, one was also included with the sale of a full leather-bound run of the journal  by Sotheby’s. The auction house provided the following background on the Weyhe firm as part of the listing:

“New York art dealer and publisher Erhard Weyhe (1882-1972), whose gallery and bookshop on Lexington Avenue promoted not only prints and art books, but also photography.  Weyhe and Stieglitz were friends who frequented each other’s gallery and worked with some of the same artists.  Laid in the present set’s first volume is a prospectus issued by the Weyhe firm, announcing that ‘we have recently obtained from the publisher a large stock of Camera Work, the remainder of this unique publication, and we are now offering the public a chance to obtain copies, both singly and in sets.” (3.)

1969: The first attempt at a true duplication for the journal was undertaken by Kraus Reprint, (Nendeln/Liechtenstein) and is outlined by scholar Meredith A. Friedman for her 2009 master of arts thesis “Camera Work And The Alfred Stieglitz Collection At The Metropolitan Museum Of Art“:

“Camera Work was published in fifty volumes from 1903 to 1917. In 1969 Kraus Reprint reproduced all fifty issues of Camera Work in a six-volume set. The reprint is not a facsimile, but rather a duplication of the content (text and illustrations) of Camera Work page-by-page. The page size of the reprint editions is slightly smaller than the original issues. In an introductory note, the publishers explain that the reproduction was printed “as a service to scholars. It records the entire content of the original number, but does not attempt to reproduce its visual quality, nor the calibre of its plates.” (32) The Kraus Reprint edition of Camera Work seems to be the first time anyone acknowledged the value of Camera Work from a scholarly perspective.”  (Editors note: Hathi Trust Digital Library currently has around 40 of the Kraus issues which can be accessed here.)

(32.) Alfred Stieglitz, Camera Work (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1969), edition notice.

Ready for Framing: In addition to the full run of Camera Work along with a separate index issue, Pierre Vreyen’s website cameraworkmagazine.com features approximately 180 individual advertising pages from the journal that can be ordered as 16 x 20″ framable art prints for $30 each. At top, a vintage advertisement from Camera Work XXXII featured an actual photogravure from Alvin Langdon Coburn’s volume New York. At bottom, an ad shows a full-length caricature of Alfred Stieglitz by the artist Marius De Zayas featured in Camera Work XXX. Courtesy: Pierre Vreyen

1973: Friedman continues with the journal’s literature survey:

“Jonathan Green’s Camera Work: A Critical Anthology (1973) is the first significant evaluation of Camera Work, particularly focusing on the articles and text rather than the reproductions. It describes the evolution of the photographic medium through the writing in Camera Work from issue to issue over the fifteen years of its publication. The volume is thoroughly organized with six indexes: biographical information each of the artists, photographers, and writers who contributed to Camera Work and that are featured in his text; a chronological bibliography of works relating to Camera Work and the Photo-Secession; an index of names and subjects appearing in Camera Work; a chronological list of articles published in Camera Work; an index of artists and the issues in which their works appear; and a chronological index of the plates, listing the process by which they were reproduced in Camera Work.”

1973: Scholar Christian Peterson notes the following title which featured a facsimile of the Camera Work cover logo and publishing attribution for Stieglitz in his online sales catalogue for the journal:

Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly Edited and Published by Alfred Stieglitz, New York, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1973. Softcover, 11 x 8 ½ inches, 40 pages, 3 halftone illustrations. This uncommon publication accompanied the exhibition, “I Am an American,” that traveled to over a dozen Minnesota towns in 1973 on the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ Artmobile. The show included photogravures from Camera Work, plus paintings, drawing, and watercolors by members of the Stieglitz circle. This item includes a facsimile cover of the magazine, brief text by curator Carroll T. Hartwell, and reprints of articles from Camera Work. Most importantly, it features images by James Craig Annan, Alvin Langdon Coburn, and Stieglitz, printed on translucent paper and tipped-in, in a modest effort to replicate the delicate nature of the original gravures. Fine condition. $25. (editor: note: the “gravures” are actually halftones)

1978: Friedman continues with her thesis survey:

“In 1978 Marianne Fulton Margolis published Camera Work: A Pictorial Guide, building upon the thorough indexing in Green’s publication, but instead focusing solely on the images in Camera Work. This was the first time all 559 images from Camera Work were published in a single-volume reference. The images leave much to be desired; all are printed the same size, four to a page, in black and white halftone. As a reference, though, the publication is invaluable. The main part of the book reproduces each image in Camera Work in their exact sequence as published. Like Green, Margolis lists the medium by which the image was reproduced in Camera Work, but she also provides the original medium of the work when known, and also indicates when the reproduction is known to have been created from the artist’s original negative. Further, Margolis provides the reproduction method for every illustration in each issue of Camera Work, whereas Green discussed the plates, and a number of graphics within the text (such as Steichen’s Photo-Secession poster in Camera Work Number 13) which Margolis has not included in her index. Much of this information comes directly from the text of Camera Work. Three additional indexes at the end of the book provide an alphabetical list of artists, titles and portrait sitters, each with corresponding number of the periodical.”

1985: Friedman survey continues:

“This same concern was raised again in 1985 in the exhibition Camera Work: Process and Image organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by Christian A. Peterson that chronicles the use of reproductions throughout the publication of Camera Work, and the response these images provoked in the photographers whose works were reproduced.”

1997: Camera Work- The Complete Illustrations 1903-1917 is published by Benedikt Taschen with an essay in English by Pam Roberts that was additionally translated into German and French for the volume. Along with a full index of all artists represented in the journal and selected texts printed in the rear of the volume, all of the plates are reproduced which were taken from a complete set of Camera Work owned by the Royal Photographic Society, Bath.  

Roberts notes in her essay: “Camera Work fulfilled many functions. On one level, it began as the last outpost of the confluence of Symbolist art, photography and literature, and ended as a messenger of Modernism. On another level, it was a non-concurrent exhibition catalogue for 291 and the publicity machine for the Photo-Secession.”

Pierre wears a Blue Shirt: Each issue of the full run of the newly re-issued Camera Work magazine plus a new separate index issue published in May, 2018 is featured in short video clips from back to front by Pierre Vreyen at his website cameraworkmagazine.com. At top, “The Steerage” by Alfred Stieglitz in Camera Work XXXVI. Courtesy Pierre Vreyen

Friedman’s thesis also comments on the 15th anniversary edition of this work: “An alternate version of this book, Camera Work: The Complete Photographs, published in 2008 for the l5th  anniversary of Taschen, features reproductions of every photograph in Camera Work, but not every illustration as its predecessor does.”

2003: “Camera Work: A Centennial Celebration” is published. Friedman comments:

“In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the publication of Camera Work, a traveling exhibition was organized by Stephen Perloff, editor of The Photo Review and The Photograph Collector. A double issue of The Photo Review was published as a catalogue and featured essays by Perloff along with Peter C. Bunnell, Lucy Bowdich, Barbara L. Michaels, and Luis Nadeau.” (33.)

33. Perloff, Stephen, ed. “Camera Work: A Centennial Celebration.” Exhibition catalogue. The Photo Review 26, no. 1-2, 2003.

Camera Work Resources & Scholarship on the Web

– Wikipedia: always a good resource if you are just getting your feet wet in first learning about Camera Work. Link

– Modernist Journal Project: originally founded at Brown University in 1995 to create an online periodicals database, the entire run of Camera Work, using vintage copies from Princeton University, has been digitized in the last five years and posted online. Brown teamed with The University of Tulsa for the effort, which lacks only six photographic plates-Gertrude Käsebier’s “Portrait (Miss N)” and “Red Man” (CW 1: 11, 13), A. Radclyffe Dugmore’s “Study in Natural History” (CW 1: 55), Eduard Steichen’s “Solitude” and “Poster Lady” (CW 14s: 33, 35), and Steichen’s “The Photographer’s Best Model: G. Bernard Shaw” (CW 42-43: 39). Link

– Photogravure.com: Site owner and collector Mark Katzman has made all of the gorgeous photogravure plates (as well as most of the halftone plates) throughout the entire run of Camera Work accessible from his personal collection in the newly relaunched version of his site. Link

– Heidelberg University Library in conjunction with The University of Zurich launches their digitization efforts to the web in March, 2018: “all fifty regular and three special issues of Camera Work are digitized to the highest standards“.  Link

– Camera Work: Inside/Out: Under the guidance of Professor Dr. Bettina Gockel, the principal investigator for the project, the University of Zurich from 2015-18 launches this research project in conjunction with the Institute of Art History at the university.  Link

– Video: Camera Work – Institute of Art History University of Zurich:  With a running length of about 5.5 minutes, this video produced as part of “Camera Work: Inside/Out” is a  wonderful tribute to the enduring legacy and importance of the journal, and a fitting end to our post. Link

Editor, Publisher & Shipper: As seen here, St. Louis, MO resident Pierre Vreyen told PhotoSeed: “I picked up 25 sets of Camera Work from the printer yesterday. 1275 books!!! That’s a lot of books spread around my house. I am currently stacking them all in sets…” Well done, Pierre and good luck on your new endeavor I say! Courtesy Pierre Vreyen

Notes:

1. Letter excerpt: in auction listing by RR Auction, Amherst, NH April, 2018-lot passed- #0537. Additionally, the first two sentences of this letter cited in footnote #15 by Lori Cole for her essay “Camera Work: Forming Avant-Garde New York” published in the 2013 volume The Aesthetics of Matter: Modernism, the Avant-Garde and Material Exchange with cited source being the Alfred Stieglitz/Georgia O’Keeffe Archive at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book Library. (p. 186) (Note: the 2008 volume edited by Robert Wojtowicz titled Mumford on Modern Art in the 1930s states carbon copies of letters, believed to include this one sent by Stieglitz to Mumford, are contained within the Alfred Stieglitz correspondence files at the Beinecke.) The actual bonfire set by Stieglitz is corroborated somewhat in a description by Sue Davidson Lowe, the grandniece of Stieglitz, who writes in her volume: Stieglitz-A Memoir/Biography (1983) that in 1929, when Stieglitz was at Lake George and experiencing an emotional helplessness because he had not heard from Georgia O’Keeffe for several weeks, took to the cathartic act of burning: “an accumulation of papers-books and pamphlets, magazines (including many issues of Camera Work), negatives, and prints.” p. 294
2. ALS signed “Stieglitz,” three pages on two sheets, October 15, 1935, in part. (Stieglitz to Lewis Mumford) From auction listing: RR Auction, Amherst, NH April, 2018-lot passed- #0537.
3. ‘CAMERA WORK: A PHOTOGRAPHIC QUARTERLY’ Alfred Stieglitz, Editor: Sotheby’s: 03 OCTOBER 2012: Lot 55

In 1926, Minnesota artist Cleora Clark Wheeler made the following observation in an article she wrote explaining her feat of photographing scores of fellow Kappa Kappa Gamma fraternity sisters by means of silhouette portraiture:

“Silhouette Self Portrait of Minnesota artist Cleora Clark Wheeler” ca. 1926. (typography added by this website) The photograph was used to illustrate an article written by her published in The Key, the quarterly magazine for Wheeler’s fraternity Kappa Kappa Gamma in December, 1926. (p. 500)

“anyone who saw the interested crowd getting their pictures on banquet night just before we all parted, will be sure it proved there is a way to have one’s picture taken without having one’s head turned.”

Using said dishpans in the title to this post, procured from a nearby hardware store outside Oakland, California, Cleora, or Cleo as she was known, went on to secure these pans used as reflectors for the photo shoot using her mother’s wooden tomato supports, placed in the trunk of her car before heading to the annual convention that year at Mills College from her St. Paul, MN home, a journey of 2000 miles.

So we will say it with our own flowers here: on the occasion of PhotoSeed posting a rare surviving folio volume of 23 of her delicate Japan-tissue photogravures of California landscapes taken and printed by Wheeler used as a sales catalogue, some further context into the life of this fascinating and talented woman is necessary in order to fill in the historical record.

Detail: Title of California Sample Book by Cleora Clark Wheeler, American: 1882-1980: gilt hand-lettering: “Cleora Wheeler Designer And Illuminator 1376 Summit Avenue St. Paul, Minn.” 33.0 x 50.0 cm: folded, olive-colored cardstock leaf used as album cover. From: PhotoSeed Archive

To be clear, photography was just one of the many talents American artist Cleora Wheeler employed in her 98 years. Although never married, it might be said her significant partner through life was her beloved fraternity, Kappa Kappa Gamma, which she was initiated into at the Chi chapter at the University of Minnesota on October 9, 1899. Graduating in 1903, she went on to serve Kappa her entire life.

A designer and illuminator, as she would often describe herself while working out of the third floor studio of her longtime St. Paul family home, often in the act of creating unique bookplates and greeting cards, Cleora wore many professional hats.  Artist, poet, school teacher, women’s advocate, business manager, an expert in steel die stamping, photographer and tireless promoter of her fraternity both locally in Minnesota and around the country were but a few of her passions.

With the knowledge that “Miss Wheeler thinks of California as her second home” as noted in a follow-up article describing her hand-colored photographic work and bookplates on display in 1922 at the St. Paul Public Library, her love of place and record of spirit is evident in pictorial photographic work taken in the American West ca. 1914-1921: a reaffirmation of the cross-pollination taking place in the arts by unconventional practitioners.

Left: “Redwoods”: Cleora Clark Wheeler, American-1882-1980: ca. 1922: hand-pulled Japan-tissue photogravure: 10.7 x 6.2 | 20.8 x 15.1 Gampi | 25.0 x 38.0 off-white handmade paper (folded) | 33.0 x 25.0 cm olive-colored cardstock leaf. From: PhotoSeed Archive. Right: “Redwoods”: ca. 1922: Cleora Clark Wheeler: hand-colored gelatin silver exhibition print from the artist’s 1922 St. Paul exhibition Atmospheric Studies. A roadway in the Sierra Mountains leads to a stand of soaring redwood trees in this landscape study colored with Japanese dyes. Courtesy: Grapefruit Moon Gallery auction listing, Minneapolis MN.  

The following timeline by year in the life of Cleora Wheeler is meant as a starting point for this remarkable artist.  It begins with her birth in Austin, Minnesota in 1882 and concludes with a 1980 obituary printed in her alumni magazine. Although long-winded in some cases, I’ve decided to include some of the expanded background articles written by and about Wheeler in The Key, the Kappa Kappa Gamma quarterly. In addition to photographic work by Wheeler held by this archive, a link to 45 bookplates held in the Helen Brainerd Lay Bookplate Collection at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts can be found here, and a general search link to the Wheeler family archive at the Minnesota Historical Society Library catalogue is here. (type in “Cleora Clark Wheeler”) Further suggestions for inclusion are welcomed. Please contact me through the blog or at admin@photoseed.com.

 David Spencer- February, 2018

Top: December, 1910 advertisement for new Ex-Libris book plate designed the same year by Minnesota artist Cleora Clark Wheeler as it appeared in The Key, the quarterly magazine of her fraternity Kappa Kappa Gamma. Bottom: “Ex Libris of Kappa Kappa Gamma, by Cleora Clark Wheeler”: (American: 1882-1980). Ca. 1920-30. Hand-colored book plate shows the fleur-de-lis iris, the fraternity flower, with the artist’s initials CW appearing on opposite sides of the base of cut flowers. Courtesy: Helen Brainerd Lay Bookplate Collection, Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections: Identifier: ms0048-s02-b02-f15-i001.

Timeline: Cleora Clark Wheeler: 1882-1980

1882: Wheeler is born in Austin, Minnesota. Her father, Rush Benjamin Wheeler, (1844-1930) was an East coast transplant who graduated from Yale. He was a lawyer involved in banking and real estate. Her mother Harriet Sophia Clark Wheeler (1853-1938) was a graduate of the University of Minnesota. Her siblings were two brothers: Frost Montaine Wheeler: 1878-1963 & Ross Clark Wheeler: 1886-1901. The family lived in St. Paul.

1903: Graduates from The University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. She later went on to earn certificates of proficiency in engineering drafting and advanced engineering drafting from U. M.

  Moves to California and lives for a year: “Cleora Wheeler’s first work with the Young Women’s Christian Association was in California. Soon after her graduation from the University of Minnesota she was asked by Miss Louise Brooks of New York, national secretary of conventions and conferences, to be her assistant at the student conference at Capitola, Cal.” source: 1921 background on Wheeler in The Key.

“Miss Wheeler thinks of California as her second home, as she spent a year with Pi after graduating at Minnesota.” –The Key: 1926 (Pi chapter at the University of California, Berkeley)

1904: Named Grand Registrar for the Grand Council of Kappa Kappa Gamma, with offices at 301 Pioneer Press Building in St. Paul, MN. source: The Key, October.

Detail: “Approaching Carmel”: Cleora Clark Wheeler, American: 1882-1980. Hand-pulled Japan-tissue photogravure ca. 1922: 10.2 x 7.5 | 21.0 x 15.3 Gampi | 24.2 x 38.0 off-white handmade paper (folded) | 33.0 x 25.0 cm olive-colored cardstock leaf. An archway of cypress trees near Carmel, California frames the famed Seventeen-Mile Drive along the Monterey coastline. From: PhotoSeed Archive

1905: Wheeler’s love of nature,  a major theme that would soon emerge in her art, makes an initial greeting as Grand Registrar:

To all in Kappa Kappa Gamma, greetings! The wild thing of the woods has its call; the brook, playing with the bits of forest light and shadow, murmurs to itself; the wind, sighing through the trees, croons its melody and dies away; all nature is at peace, and sings. Song is the outpouring of a soul that cannot contain itself for very joy. Friendship is the life of that soul; a happiness too often unappreciated until perchance it is snatched away, only to leave a memory in its place. May we be worthy of this name of friend, appreciating more fully with each day the fortune that is ours. May we know a courtesy among ourselves that shall unconsciously touch each life we meet. May personal responsibility and devotion broaden into mutual helpfulness, and interest, and charity, until it meet and grace the world of kindly sympathy. (The Key: January: p. 298)

  Writes a poem in tribute to Anne Jones, a fellow Chi chapter member at the University of Minnesota, most likely a personal friend:

Jones. April 5, 1884-July 3, 1905. Initiated into Chi Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma October 16, 1902.

As breath of morning gently steals its way O’er sleeping valleys where the morning mist Half timidly awaits the smile of day, Gray mantled, ere the sun has kissed To gold the dim dew-crystaled haze, And gliding soft with footsteps all to fleet For ken of humankind, from out the maze Brings memories, intangible, replete With wonder-fancies, melodies akin To whisperings of heaven; thus she came, Her arms light laden with the green of springA radiance as summer showers win In afterglow, long held ere twilight claim A melody, low borne on evening wing.

 -Cleora Clark Wheeler.  (The Key: October: p. 534)

Top: “At the Beginning of The Seventeen Mile Drive”: halftone photographic reproduction by Cleora Clark Wheeler used to illustrate article on annual convention for her fraternity Kappa Kappa Gamma. Taken from December, 1925 issue of The Key, the quarterly magazine of the fraternity. The photograph is a variant of her photo titled “Approaching Carmel” seen earlier in this post. Bottom: “After Nightfall”: ca. 1922: Cleora Clark Wheeler: hand-colored gelatin silver exhibition print from the artist’s 1922 St. Paul exhibition Atmospheric Studies. Another variant of the halftone seen above, Wheeler used Japanese dyes and hand-painted white stars in the sky for this landscape transformed into a nighttime view featuring a twilight blue sky. Courtesy: Grapefruit Moon Gallery auction listing, Minneapolis MN.

1906: Wheeler now living in Berkeley, CA, possibly for reasons of health, where she continue her duties as Grand Registrar:  Notices:

 “Record charts may be ordered by chapters or individuals at any time. One dollar, including postage; twenty-five cents in addition if backed with linen. Address care Corresponding Secretary of Pi chapter, Berkeley, California. Cleora Clark Wheeler.” (The Key: October: p. 262)

1907: Relinquishes her duties as Grand Registrar by January. In February, a confirmed report in The Key (p. 71) states health is the reason for her absence from MN:

“Cleora Wheeler, whom you all met at convention; is spending the winter in California. We miss her very much, but are glad to say that her health is greatly improved.”

1909: Takes up work again with the Young Women’s Christian Association, (YWCA) with a notice in the February issue of The Key that she is now the business secretary of the St. Paul Young Women’s Christian Association. (p. 72)

“Sunlight thro’ the Redwoods”: Lindley Eddy, American: 1873-1946: ca. 1914. 14.0 x 8.5 cm. Tipped to page: 21.5 x 14.0 cm. Sepia gelatin silver print included in volume A Traveler’s Prayer of California Mountains, photographs by Lindley Eddy with poems by Olive Hinds Simpson: Visalia, CA: Commercial Printing Co.- copyrighted 1914 by Olive A. Simpson. It would have undoubtedly appealed to the artistic sensibilities of Cleora Clark Wheeler had she come across this volume of poetry featuring ten photographs taken by Eddy in the Sequoia National Forest. The work was published the same year it is believed Wheeler first took up her series of western US photographs in Colorado. From: PhotoSeed Archive (volume for sale: please inquire)

1910:  The first advertisement for Wheeler artwork appears in the October issue of The Key for what is believed to be her new book plate, although it’s described as a “plate book”. Showing her business savvy, earlier in August she had registered copyright in her own name for the design:

THE
Official Plate Book of the Fraternity
IN INDIVIDUAL PACKAGES
25 CENTS
Plan to Send Them at the Holidays
ORDER EARLY
Enclose Stamps or Money Order
1376 Summitt Ave. Cleora Wheeler St. Paul, Minn.

A notice in the December issue of The Key along with an accompanying photograph of the artist that Wheeler had indeed designed the official bookplate for her fraternity:

THE KAPPA BOOK-PLATE

There have been a number of inquiries as to the designer of the Kappa Kappa Gamma book-plate, which was adopted by the Grand Council at Convention Session as the official book-plate of the Fraternity. The plate was designed by Cleora Clark Wheeler, of Chi Chapter, who was Grand Registrar from 1904 to 1906. Miss Wheeler was particularly happy in her choice of the fraternity flower for decoration; for the fleur-de-lis with its long stem and heavy blossom lends itself with special effectiveness to composition. The Kappa bookplate should be an incentive to the growth of our chapter-house libraries; for the chapter name may be used in it, just as well as that of the individual owner.

(note: At the 1890 convention, the fraternity chose the fleur-de-lis “as the Kappa flower for its dignity and grace and because in it the two blues are combined.“)

The senior portrait and entry for Minnesota artist Cleora Clark Wheeler as it appeared in her 1903 University of Minnesota Gopher yearbook. Wheeler, 1882-1980, graduated that year with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and went on to earn certificates of proficiency in engineering drafting and advanced engineering drafting from U. M. Source: online pdf of The Gopher: Vol. 16, 1903: p. 78.

1911: With the rough design of a new Kappa crest duly recorded in a 1910 committee report, the intent of the adoption of an official coat-of-arms for Kappa was soon becoming reality. (discussions began in 1905)  Because of this and given her proven design expertise on behalf of the fraternity, and with the aim of surely involving her in other design decisions regarding fraternity insignia, Wheeler is appointed by February as new Custodian of the Badge, an important oversight and secretarial role for the official fraternity Badge, a piece of jewelry in the shape of a golden key stamped with the Greek letters for Kappa and worn by chapter members. Wheeler’s role would have been to make sure changes to the key were permissible, and she held the position as Custodian through 1917.

In the October issue of The Key, two separate advertisements for Wheeler’s new book plate design featuring the fleur-de-lis iris appear. One, for correspondence cards, are stamped in gold and priced at 35 cents a dozen. Another is for her bookplate:

The KAPPA BOOK-PLATE
Several times the size
of this cut
In Individual Packages
of 25 Prints
Blue or black ink on English
gummed paper -25 cents
Black ink on Japanese handmade Vellum-50 cents
Tinted prints-50 cents a dozen
The design same size as the Book-Plate
adapted to Dinner Cards and Folders
Cards : Untinted, 30 cents a dozen
Tinted, 50 cents
Folders: Untinted, 50 cents a dozen
Tinted, 75 cents
Address: CLEORA WHEELER
1376 Summit Ave., St. Paul, Minn,
Enclose Stamps or Money Order

An early triptych of halftone portraits of Minnesota artist Cleora Clark Wheeler. Left: Studying a book, perhaps taken while she was still an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota in the very early 20th Century. Photo by fellow Kappa Kappa Gamma Chi chapter member Margaret Craig published in a 1910 issue of the fraternity quarterly The Key. Middle: Portrait of Wheeler in a sailor-inspired tunic as it appeared in the February, 1913 issue of The Key illustrating an article she wrote titled “Character By Handwriting- And Otherwise.” Right: a photograph of Wheeler taken ca. 1911-17 when she was Custodian of the Badge, an important oversight and secretarial role for the official fraternity Badge, a piece of jewelry in the shape of a golden key stamped with the Greek letters for Kappa and worn by chapter members. Photo reproduced in the Fall 1977 issue of The Key.

1912: Wheeler becomes artistically involved in creating metal dies for the new fraternity coat-of-arms (also referred to as the crest) after consulting with the British College of Arms.  Earlier in 1910, A National Committee for Kappa, with Margaret Brown Moore appointed Chairman, produced the new coat-of-arms. Brown designed it with advice and help from Joanna Strange, BZ-Iowa, head of the reference department of the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, as well as from J. F. Hopkins, the designer of the Sigma Nu coat of arms. Moore’s design was then put on paper in the form of a watercolor sketch by Philadelphia heraldry expert Mark J. Rowe: “Margaret urged the Fraternity to protect the design so that “the technically perfect coat-of-arms will not be lost to us.” She expressed a wish that there should be perfect dies for stamping in gold and silver as well as plates for printing on documents and reports. Cleora Wheeler, Minnesota, prepared such plates and dies. The College of Arms in England was consulted before Cleora cut her die in filigree and it was made after the others that were modeled in the regulation way. When these were done, Margaret Moore declared that perfect reproductions had been made.” (1.)

“Ex Libris Young Women’s Christian Association of Saint Paul, by Cleora Clark Wheeler”: (American: 1882-1980). Ca. 1915-25. Hand-colored book plate shows an archway of grape clusters with stems forming a pair of opposing columns. The YWCA organization is spelled out at center while the whole is surrounded by extracted Bible verses from Philippians 4:8: “Whatsoever Things Are True – Whatsoever Thing Are Lovely – Think On These Things”. Wheeler first worked with the YWCA in California in late 1903 after her graduation from the University of Minnesota and in 1909 became business secretary for the St. Paul chapter. A 1921 article in The Key profiling Wheeler’s accomplishments stated: “The national bookplate of the association used in all of the books at the National Training School, and in association libraries throughout the country is designed by Miss Wheeler”. Courtesy: Helen Brainerd Lay Bookplate Collection, Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections: Identifier: ms0048-s02-b02-f15-i011.

1912-13: Wheeler moves to New York City and attends classes at The School of Fine and Applied Art, (now Parsons School of Design) where she studied color harmony.  Two folders of notes, including those by Wheeler made during lectures given by Frank Alvah Parsons, are held by the school in the present day, as well as a set of her bookplates in the Kellen Design Archives. Sources: WorldCat and Minnesota 1900: Art and Life on the Upper Mississippi, 1890-1915: 1994, Newark: University of Delaware Press.

An article in the October issue of The Key for 1912 states Wheeler issues the limited edition book “Kappas I Have Known” in  250 copies:

A novelty in college scrap books was presented at Convention by Cleora Wheeler, Chi, in “Kappas I Have Known, ” which can be used not only in college, but as a life time fraternity record. The book is divided into sections, under the heads, “My Chapter,” ” National Officers”, and “Kappas From Other Chapters;” and further space is provided for songs and other miscellaneous entries. The book is bound with stubs, so that clippings and snapshots may be pasted in to illustrate the careers of the notable Kappas therein enrolled. And a particularly pretty Kappa touch is added by the Fleur-de-lis design on each page, and the blue and blue binding. (p. 257)

Detail: Frame verso: “Evening”, by Cleora Clark Wheeler, American: 1882-1980. ca. 1922: 24.7 x 19.8 cm. The original series of framed photographs appearing in Wheeler’s 1922 St. Paul photographic exhibition “Atmospheric Studies” (& also most likely the 1926 San Francisco Paul Elder exhibition) were each finished off on the frame verso with one of several trimmed and pasted book plates identifying Wheeler as author of the work seen at top. Below it is a pasted and engraved listing for photographs included in a separate subheading for the exhibition that were taken in a particular region. This example shows “Evening” held by this archive and listed as #43 in the overall exhibition under Monterey’s famed Seventeen-Mile Drive subheading. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Further details are included about this book, illustrated by a photograph in the advertising section for the December issue of The Key:

Bound in two-tone blue cloth with gold stamping; page decorations and headings in gray-blue ink to harmonize. Sewed by hand. special attention being given to the reinforcement of the back by transverse tapes, and by stubs arranged to offset extra bulk of Kodak Prints and Clippings. In this way the book not only offers space for such additions, but also overcomes the possibility of having it stand open when only partially filled. Edition Limited to 250 copies. Price $1.50 net $1.65 by mail.

1914: This may have been the first year Wheeler undertook her series of Western U.S. photographs that would eventually appear in her 1922 St. Paul exhibit Atmospheric Studies, under the exhibition heading Out Where The West Begins : Colorado. Sometime in the Fall,  Wheeler travels to Boulder as part of fraternity business as noted in the December issue of The Key:

“We were very glad to have Miss Cleora Wheeler with us for luncheon, on her way home from a visit with Beta Mu at Boulder. We enjoyed hearing of the rushing season there, and also the interesting convention news from Miss Wheeler and the five Sigma girls who attended.”

Two examples of photographs taken ca. 1914-1921 in the northern California Redwood region by Cleora Clark Wheeler were later first exhibited in her 1922 St. Paul, MN exhibition Atmospheric Studies. Listed under the subheading “At Call-Of-The-Wild, California”, they are: Left: “Day Is Passing” (#19 in St. Paul): seen here as a halftone as it appeared in the February, 1926 issue of The Key. Right: “Sunshine Beyond” (#14 in St. Paul): ca. 1922: hand-colored gelatin silver exhibition print shows a roadway in the Sierra Mountains with a stand of Redwood trees in background all cast in a yellow glow. The effect was achieved with Japanese dyes. Courtesy: Grapefruit Moon Gallery auction listing, Minneapolis MN.

1915: Wheeler’s photographic skills come into play as she visits the U.S. states of  Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana, Texas and Missouri while reporting on Kappa chapter houses for the article “Chapter Homes I Have Known“, accompanied by several halftones appearing in the December issue of The Key.  (pp. 317-21)

The magazine cover design for The Key changes with the addition of a new hand-drawn crest (coat-of-arms) designed by recent Xi chapter graduate Ruth Anthony beginning with the May issue. This cover design was used through mid 1927 when it was replaced by a simplified navy blue crest against a gray background.

Several photographs by Cleora Clark Wheeler were most likely used as the basis for custom book plates engraved by the artist, as seen in this pairing. Left: “The White Birches At Bigwin” was a photograph taken in June, 1924 during the national Kappa Kappa Gamma convention held in Toronto, Canada at the Bigwin Inn and subsequently published as a halftone in the October, 1924 issue of fraternity quarterly, The Key. Right: “Ex Libris Cleora Clark Wheeler, by Cleora Clark Wheeler”: This book plate drawn free-hand by the artist shows a similar grouping of White Birch trees. Examples of this book plate are known to have been pasted to the verso of more than one framed exhibition print included in Wheeler’s 1922 exhibition Atmospheric Studies along with the additional designation of “California”. This leads one to believe these frames were the ones shown in the 1926 Paul Elder Gallery exhibition in San Francisco. Courtesy: Helen Brainerd Lay Bookplate Collection, Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections: Identifier: ms0048-s02-b02-f15-i029

1916: Wheeler expands her offering of Kappa designs in a full page advertisement for book plates, dinner cards, social stationary and other items appearing in the February issue of The Key.

Believed to depict scenes in Colorado or California and may have been done from source photographs, examples of these bookplates by Cleora Clark Wheeler were exhibited at her 1922 St. Paul exhibition Atmospheric Studies. Left: “Robert Tatlow Barnard Avery Trask Barnard Their Book,” by Cleora Clark Wheeler”: ca. 1915-25. (Identifier ms0048-s02-b02-f15-i022). Right: “Ex Libris Frost Montaine and Emma Phyllis Wheeler,” by Cleora Clark Wheeler”: ca. 1915-25 (Identifier ms0048-s02-b02-f15-i021). Both courtesy Helen Brainerd Lay Bookplate Collection, Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections.

1918: In May, Wheeler becomes Director for the newly formed St. Paul Vocational Bureau for Trained Women:

1015 Commerce Building, St. Paul
MISS CLEORA WHEELER, DIRECTOR

Backed by the Women’s College Clubs of the Twin Cities, a Bureau for Trained Women was opened in Minneapolis within the last six months. The original idea was to open a branch office in St. Paul, with Miss Cleora Wheeler of St. Paul in charge. It came to be realized, however, that the work in the two cities would be sufficient in importance and scope to warrant the opening of two independent bureaus, so on the morning of May 8 the St. Paul Vocational Bureau for Trained Women opened its office for business. It is conducted under the auspices of the St. Paul College Club, the Vocational Committee assuming the responsibility of its organization and management, while Miss Wheeler is in charge as director.

Miss Wheeler was for five years chairman of the Vocational section of the St. Paul Association of Collegiate Alumnae, and served on the Board of Directors of the Minneapolis bureau during its organization period and until joining their salaried staff as temporary assistant. She was their representative at the February convention of the Association for the Promotion of Industrial and Vocational Education in Philadelphia; and visited the Collegiate bureaus of Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Detroit and Chicago. She also visited the headquarters of Women’s Work in Washington that the St. Paul office might fully cooperate with them and with the government.

The St. Paul bureau is particularly fortunate in securing office accommodations with the Ramsey County Women’s War Organization, and it is fully expected that this arrangement will prove mutually beneficial.  (2.)

Examples of bookplates by Wheeler: Left: “Cecily Wheeler Allen Ex Libris, by Cleora Clark Wheeler” : ca. 1930-40. (Identifier ms0048-s02-b02-f15-i045). Right: “Ex Libris Frank B. Kellogg,” by Cleora Clark Wheeler”: 1915. This bookplate was shown at the artist’s1922 St. Paul exhibition Atmospheric Studies. (Identifier ms0048-s02-b02-f15-i020). Both courtesy Helen Brainerd Lay Bookplate Collection, Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections.

  First publicized notice of Christmas cards designed by Wheeler appear in the February issue of The Key. They are sold to raise money for French orphans impacted by WWI: “Epsilon made twenty dollars for the French children by selling the Christmas cards designed by Cleora Wheeler.” (p. 56)

1921: Accompanied by a reflective portrait of the artist, the December issue of The Key publishes a lengthy professional background story on her:

Cleora Wheeler’s first work with the Young Women’s Christian Association was in California. Soon after her graduation from the University of Minnesota she was asked by Miss Louise Brooks of New York, national secretary of conventions and conferences, to be her assistant at the student conference at Capitola, Cal. Soon after this she was elected business secretary of the St. Paul Association which was just organizing.

In a city association the business secretary banks the money, issues the membership cards, registers the gymnasium and educational classes, inspects rooming houses, acts as hostess, and audits the money if the association raises $250,000 in a whirlwind campaign for a new building. After helping in this way in her own city for two years, Miss Wheeler did county organization work under the state committee, assisting in the organizing of Mower County, Minn., the third county to be organized in the United States. It meant riding on freight trains to little towns throughout the county, arranging mass meetings and then lecture places for the state nurse, domestic science teacher, and sewing teacher who were sent down by the Agricultural Department of the university to give a ten-weeks’ course of lectures, the university collaborating in extension work with the association.

The next year under the National Board of the Young Women’s Christian Association Miss Wheeler was one of the two business managers of the student and city conferences at Lake Geneva. The national bookplate of the association used in all of the books at the National Training School, and in association libraries throughout the country is designed by Miss Wheeler. (p. 292)

“San Gabriel”: Cleora Clark Wheeler, American-1882-1980: ca. 1922: hand-pulled Japan-tissue photogravure: 10.5 x 6.3 | 21.0 x 15.2 Gampi | 24.2 x 38.0 off-white handmade paper (folded) | 33.0 x 25.0 cm olive-colored cardstock leaf. In California, the famous bell wall at the San Gabriel Spanish Mission is seen in this pictorial view by Wheeler. The California Missions Resource Center states: “Six bells occupy an espadaña or bell wall. The oldest bells were cast in Mexico City in 1795 by the famous bell maker, Paul Ruelas. The largest bell (dated 1830) weighs over a ton and was used for over a century to ring the Angelus, a prayer said at morning, noon, and evening in commemoration of the Incarnation.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

1922: The May 20th issue of American Art News prints a notice of Wheeler’s exhibition Atmospheric Studies:

“A collection of more than eighty prints of western scenes by Miss Cleora Wheeler, St. Paul artist, have been on exhibition at the St. Paul Public Library. They show a wide range of color and subject matter, and were done on trips which extended from the eastern reaches of the Rockies through the mountains and as far south as the Mexican border of California.   -G.E.P.” (p. 7)

In June, the artist’s first known public exhibition of hand-colored pictorial photographs as well as a smaller series of original bookplates takes place from June 1-15 at the Saint Paul Public Library under the auspices of the Saint Paul Institute. A slim eight-page exhibition brochure is printed listing the following sub-headings for the 76 exhibited photographs:

Out Where The West Begins : Colorado; California: At Call-Of-The-Wild, California; Pacific Grove; California: The Seventeen-Mile Drive; Santa Barbara; Farther South; La Jolla; Old Town; San Diego; Minnesota:  Senator Kellog’s Garden, St. Paul & White Bear Lake. A separate section for 14 original bookplates is also listed, and the entire list with all titles can be found on this website at a link featuring the original framed exhibition print Evening.

Some of the work for the exhibit was for sale, and a price list was printed on the last page of the brochure:

PRICE LIST

The prints in this exhibition are not for sale.
Duplicates can be ordered as follows:

SEPIA PRINTS
Large size, mounted as shown………$10.00
Smaller size, mounted as shown……..7.50

COLORED PRINTS

No. 34 ……………………………….$12.50
No. 40 ……………………………….. 20.00
No. 43 …………………………………10.00
All others …………………………….7.50
These prices include frames.

MINIATURE PRINTS
Made by hand from copper plates.
See sample book at desk.
Prints on Japanese tissue ……$1.00
No.  50,  No. 60, No. 63, colored ink, with
envelope …………………………… .50
Folders tinted to order, with envelope $.40 and  .50
Same without tinting ………… .15
Card without tinting …………. .10

CHRISTMAS CARDS
See sample books at desk.
Folders with Christmas wording.
Per 100 ………………………………$35.00 to $50.00
These may be ordered for fall delivery.

BOOKPLATE PRICES
Design ………………………………$25.00 up

Metal plate and prints are extra, cost depend-
ing on material.  Allow six months for book-
plate orders.  Estimates given.

1376 Summit Avenue             Midway 0234

Left: Custom designed Christmas cards were a staple source of income for artist Cleora Wheeler as well as an important fund raiser for her fraternity. She produced them as early as 1915, when an advertisement similar to this one featuring a potted Bonsai tree was photographed alongside a box of cards featuring four different designs ran her Minnesota Alumni Weekly, (this ad from Dec. 1916) until the 1960’s, when the cover of the December, 1963 issue of The Pen Woman magazine showcased card designs of Twin City churches. A 1944 article in the St. Cloud Daily Times newspaper of MN remarked: “Miss Wheeler has received nationwide recognition for her Christmas cards, hand-printed photogravures and hand stamped cards bearing her designs” Right: The Japanese inspired sensibility of Wheeler’s design aesthetic can be seen carried over in this photographic landscape taken along California’s Monterey coastline. In “Mustard Sky”, a lone Cypress tree is shown atop an seaside ridge. This original hand-colored framed exhibition photograph was featured in her 1922 St. Paul, MN exhibition Atmospheric Studies, listed as #44 under the subheading “The Seventeen-Mile Drive”. Courtesy: Grapefruit Moon Gallery auction listing, Minneapolis MN.

1924: In June, at the national Kappa convention held in Toronto, Canada at the Bigwin Inn, Wheeler makes 19 hand-cut silhouettes from black paper used as part of the Historical Pageant. The works were later reproduced in the October issue of The Key that year. (shown on pp. 250-253) Soon, Wheeler would take on the art of silhouette portraiture by means of photography. Additionally, a pictorial portrait of Kappa president May Whiting Westerman and Georgia Hayden Lloyd Jones, National Director of Provinces, appeared as a full page halftone in the issue and another pictorial photographic landscape: The White Birches of Bigwin, appeared on pages 248 and 255 respectively.

1925: Several California pictorial photographic works are published as halftones in the October issue of The Key with the following titles:

– Call-of-the-Wild, California

– San Juan Capistrano Mission-between Los Angeles and San Diego, California

Left: Although Cleora Wheeler never held editorial positions for The Key, the quarterly magazine of Kappa Kappa Gamma, it featured notices of her progress as an artist, support of the fraternity’s mission nationally via her election to various Kappa positions, including Grand Registrar in 1904 and Custodian of the Badge in 1911, and as a continual mouthpiece for advertisements in its’ rear pages featuring original artwork for sale. This issue shows a new cover design which debuted in May, 1915 featuring a new crest (coat-of-arms) designed by recent Xi chapter graduate Ruth Anthony. Right: One large advertisement appearing in the October, 1930 issue of The Key showcased no less than 18 individual Kappa designs by Cleora Wheeler made into steel dies. These were used to emboss custom orders of stationary, all from the third floor studio of her St. Paul, MN home.

Three further California images appear in the December issue of The Key promoting the national convention that would be held at Mills College outside Oakland, CA the following summer. The frontis photograph for the issue featured a view of a lone cypress tree that had become Wheeler’s signature California image known as “Near Monterey” taken along the Seventeen Mile Drive and was darkened and hand-colored with a star placed in the sky and re-titled “Evening“.

The article published on pages 415-17 of the issue is titled:

An Invitation To California

“The California chapters together with all Kappa alumnae in this western province unite in inviting every Kappa, young and old, to come to convention in California during the first week of August in 1926.” …The convention will be held at Mills College, in the suburbs of Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco.”

The two additional halftones are titled:

– At the Beginning of The Seventeen Mile Drive
 
– The Cloister Stairway, San Gabriel Mission

Left: “The Wraith”: Cleora Clark Wheeler, American:1882-1980. Sepia gelatin silver print, ca. 1922. Courtesy: Grapefruit Moon Gallery auction listing, Minneapolis MN. Right: ‘The Wraith”: Hand-pulled Japan-tissue photogravure ca. 1922: 10.1 x 7.8 | 20.7 x 14.9 Gampi | 24.8 x 38.0 off-white handmade paper (folded) | 33.0 x 25.0 cm olive-colored cardstock leaf. Cypress trees, one living and the other dead, stand sentinel among a rock outcropping, with the Pacific Ocean beyond. The landscape was photographed by Wheeler along the famed Seventeen Mile Drive on the Monterey, California coastline. From: PhotoSeed Archive

1925: Working out of her St. Paul home, Wheeler produced an unknown number of original artworks for the Buzza Company of Minneapolis in this year or before, with lithographed motto art being a specialty. (see example pulled from the web along with this post) Minnesota Historical Society author Moira F. Harris comments on the artist’s working methods:

Her studio was on the third floor of the family home at 1376 Summit Avenue. There she designed and engraved the plates for her cards and bookplates. Some cards she printed herself on a hand press, while others were printed on handmade paper by Brown & Bigelow and sold through the St. Paul Book & Stationery firm. (3.)

The Hennepin History Museum in Minneapolis, MN supplied this short overview of the Buzza Company as part of their 2016 exhibit “Greetings“:

A History of the Buzza Company

During its prime, the Minneapolis-based Buzza Company (1907-1942) was one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of greeting cards, framed mottos, gift books, and party stationery. GREETINGS tells the story of the company’s rise and fall, its larger-than-life founder, and the hundreds of artists, poets, printers, and others who produced, sold, and shipped many millions of items from the company’s Lake Street headquarters each year. (George Earl Buzza: 1883-1957)

Around 1925 or before, Cleora Wheeler created original artwork like this example for the Minneapolis-based Buzza Company, which between 1907-1942 was one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of greeting cards, framed mottos, gift books, and party stationery. This framed motto print made into a chromolithograph posted to Pinterest bears a 1925 Buzza copyright (“WHEELER” printed in lower left corner of artwork) and is titled “A Friend Like You”: optimistic lines penned by the English-born American poet Edgar Albert Guest: 1881-1959.

1926: Interestingly, a review of Wheelers 1922 exhibit Atmospheric Studies is published nearly four years later in the February issue of The Key, with insight stating the artist had “tramped the California mountains” “for two successive summers” to produce the views. This may indicate the entire body of California work was taken ca. 1920-21, as it’s known she made a Santa Barbara landscape dated 1921. The issue features a commercial portrait of Wheeler to accompany the article. Four additional halftones of California landscapes are further reproduced in the issue.

California Photographs by Kappa Artist

THE California photographs by Cleora Wheeler which are appearing in these issues of THE KEY are reproductions of a part of an exhibit of seventy or more prints in colors which were recently hung in the art gallery of the beautiful public library of St. Paul, under the auspices of the St. Paul Institute. This constituted the only exhibition during the year which filled this large gallery with the work of one person. The pictures are being reproduced for the first time in THE KEY, and as they are part of a professional record they bear the name of the member who made them. Miss Wheeler thinks of California as her second home, as she spent a year with Pi after graduating at Minnesota. For two successive summers she has tramped the California mountains, and as a result has produced the pictures which you are now enjoying at the request of Mrs. Westermann, and of which Arthur L. Wilhelm, the art critic, wrote the following:

UNUSUAL QUALITIES ARE DISPLAYED IN WORK OF MISS
CLEORA WHEELER; SUBJECT MATTER SELECTED
WITH VIEW OF UNUSUAL

BY ARTHUR L. WILHELM

There is on exhibition at the St. Paul Public library this week a collection of colored California prints by Cleora Wheeler, St. Paul artist and etcher. The St. Paul Institute is sponsoring the exhibit. In the collection of more than eighty prints are many that have unusual qualities. All are atmospheric studies and are colored, many of them with fine Japanese dyes, giving a wide color range and depth. Miss Wheeler has grasped the fine essentials of design in many of her studies. Many simple little prints take on glowing beauty under the touch of her brush. The subject matter is carefully selected with a· view of the unusual. Here, in one print, one sees a fine flowing rhythm. Again one feels the structure of design carried out to a fine point. Again there is quality of the color that charms. Always there is something unusual to attract.

Top: “Eucalyptus Screen”: Cleora Clark Wheeler, American: 1882-1980. Hand-pulled Japan-tissue photogravure ca. 1922: 6.3 x 10.5 cm | 14.9 x 20.4 Gampi | 38.0 x 24.5 cm off-white handmade paper (folded) | 33.0 x 25.0 cm olive-colored cardstock leaf. From: PhotoSeed Archive. Bottom: “A Forest Screen”: ca. 1922: Cleora Clark Wheeler: hand-colored gelatin silver exhibition print from the artist’s 1922 St. Paul exhibition Atmospheric Studies. “Screen-type” photographic landscapes by Wheeler show up frequently in her California work, with the latter print (#27 St. Paul) taken in the Pacific Grove region near Monterey and gravure believed to be from Santa Barbara. Courtesy: Grapefruit Moon Gallery auction listing, Minneapolis MN.

COLORADO-CALIFORNIA

Miss Wheeler has arranged the prints so that one follows her in her journey to the West, where the pictures were taken. First we see eight prints from Colorado, the first rampart range of the Rockies, a field of wild sunflowers with a great up-thrust of rock in the background, and others. Then we have what she terms the “Call of the Wild,” with a score of prints taken at random along the coast and in the big woods of the Sierras. There are many pictures that are romantic in feeling and others that have a rich poetic sentiment. The colors are soft and glowing or in the nocturnes are dimmed by the blue of night. There are ten prints taken at Pacific Grove which· include pictures of the woods and sea, pictures with the fog stealing in, and prints tinged with the sunset glow.

DRIVE PICTURES THE BEST

Perhaps the most charming group of the exhibition is that taken on the famous seventeen-mile drive at Monterey. Here the old cypresses are shown with all their varied forms. Also the rocks and the sea are most charmingly depicted. There are pictures of young eucalyptus groves with a bit of flaming sky showing through the foliage. One print, “The Old Witch,” is a portrait of a famous old tree which is known to the thousands of tourists who have made the trip. There is a group of prints from Santa Barbara and several from points farther South. The exhibition is enhanced by an oil painting, a landscape done by the mother of the artist, which has a fine feeling of harmony and color. The entire exhibition is both unusual and charming. (pp. 27-8)

1926:  July. Fifteen silhouettes, this time by means of photography, are taken by Wheeler of Kappa members taking part in the Historical Pageant held as part of the California annual convention at Mills College. In addition, she takes scores of additional silhouettes of those attending the convention itself on banquet day. The silhouette photos of the pageant members are published in the October issue of The Key.

These two sets of photographic silhouette portraits taken by Cleora Wheeler were done in July, 1926 as part of the Historical Pageant held during the annual Kappa Kappa Gamma national convention at Mills College outside Oakland, California. The studies here reproduced as halftones were published in the October issue of The Key. “So far as I was able to find out, this was the first time the Oakland, Berkeley or San Francisco photographers had seen the experiment of silhouettes by this method, and they were interested” said Wheeler, in the article titled “Say It With Flowers . . . . Do It With Dishpans” published in the December, 1926 issue of The Key. Kappa chapter members were credited in the publication but in an unknown order. The first four are at left followed by 5-8 at right: 1. Loretta Shea of Lambda as “Alpha, 1870.” 2. Mabel Paul, as “Beta Nu, 1888.” 3. Beatrice Peters, as “Beta Omega, 1913.” 4. Dorothy Fulton, as “Gamma Alpha, 1916.” 5. Dorothy Lewis, as “Beta Rho, 1885, 1914.” 6. Thelma Scheider, as “Beta Tau, 1883.” 7. Martha Bordwell, as “Gamma Rho, 1888.” 8. Abigail Semans, as “Rho, 1880, 1925.”

November.  Calling Wheeler “a painter turned photographer“, partly referencing her motto work for the Buzza Company, an exhibition of her photographs-likely re-purposed from the 1922 Atmospheric Studies exhibition, are shown at Paul Elder & Company, a San Francisco bookseller & publisher. (1898-1968) The following notice for the show appeared in Bret Harte’s Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine that month:

A painter turned photographer will occupy the attention of the visitors at the Paul Elder Gallery October 25 to November 6.  Miss Cleora Clark Wheeler, of St. Paul, Minnesota, gained a reputation as a painter before she took up photography as her medium. As a result, her prints have a feeling of conscious design and a quality of painting. Those exhibited at Paul Elder’s will be some of her atmospheric studies of California scenes and a group of miniature prints from copper plates.

December. In The Key, the artist describes how she made the silhouettes that year:

Say It With Flowers . . . . Do It With Dishpans

CLEORA WHEELER

So Many persons have been interested to know how the silhouettes which I made in California last summer were done, that 1 am very glad to tell. It was with two huge electric lights of a thousand watts each, set into two deep dishpans. After the dishpans had been located at a hardware store, and the sockets soldered into place, they were nailed to the top of two of Mother’s two-by-four tomato supports which I took to convention in my trunk. They in turn were nailed at base of two wooden boxes which the janitor at Olney Hall found for me, and before the lights were put into the sockets Mr. Gibson the head electrician at Mills College made some special fuses of thirty amperes each, one of which was installed in the switchboard where the electric wiring from the room ended. Without these special fuses not only all the lights at that end of Olney Hall, but the big lamps themselves would have gone out as soon as lighted. He even provided some fuses of forty amperes each, to be kept on hand for emergency, in case the big lamps should suddenly stop.

Arts & fine craftsmanship were integral to Cleora Wheeler’s working methods, as evidenced by this representative leaf included in a California sample book she made featuring 23 hand-pulled, Japan-tissue photogravures individually mounted on hand-made paper contained within the ca. 1922 folio posted to PhotoSeed. This photograph is titled “Capistrano”. Image and overall dimensions: 10.8 x 6.1 | 20.5 x 15.2 Gampi | 24.9 x 38.0 off-white handmade paper (folded) | 33.0 x 25.0 cm olive-colored cardstock leaf. The architectural study of archways was taken along the southern cloisters at the Capistrano Mission. From the missions online resource: “Mission San Juan Capistrano, became the seventh of twenty-one missions to be founded in Alta California. Like the previous six missions, San Juan Capistrano was established to expand the territorial boundaries of Spain, and to spread Christianity to the Native peoples of California.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

A huge sheet was stretched across one end of the room, the two lights were focused on its center, from the front, and the person who was to have her silhouette, sat in the shadow between the lamps and the camera. The stool she sat upon was set upon a certain square, chalked upon the floor. The camera tripod stood on a triangle also chalked upon the floor as they had to be an exact number of inches apart. The camera was equipped with a special portrait lens which can be bought at any camera store for a dollar or two and added to the front of a camera lens. Regulation roll film was used which was very quick to operate. As a result the silhouettes were taken at the rate of two seconds each.

In order that there might be no reflection from walls, on the side of the person next the camera, black cloth was hung on one wall and an Oxford gown was hung over the looking glass on the other. Black oilcloth was fastened over the glass of the door leading into the hall, and over the transom above, so that no light from the hall lamps might enter. The girls lined up outside the door evenings, registered by number and the films were marked with the same numbers. · In that way each received her own negative and print in the end.

The developing solution was a special one, a formula which I brought with me. The photographer who prepared it for me on the coast had none of one of the ingredients. When it was located and added, it ate up the first roll of films, then when used one-tenth the strength, it blistered the second roll. After eight hours of experimenting in the darkroom I emerged with the mystery solved, and from that time on the negatives went through like magic. So far as I was able to find out, this was the first time the Oakland, Berkeley or San Francisco photographers had seen the experiment of silhouettes by this method, and they were interested. But they didn’t know what in the world to do when that first film was eaten up.

The silhouettes of Ruth Rochford (Mrs. George W. Schmitz of Berkeley) and her children were made by a reverse method, using the light back of the sheet, and directly back of the figure, the figure being the only thing to prevent its shining into the lens of the camera. The sheet was a piece of architect’s tracing paper, this time, wide enough and long enough to fasten over the entire area of an open doorway. Tracing paper (not tracing cloth) gives a more satisfactory light than a sheet. It is almost transparent and the light is suffused around the figure. Only one light could be used by this method, and as the amount was therefore cut in two, the length of exposure was necessarily to be doubled. It is impossible to expect a little child of two and a half years, as the youngest was here, to sit still more than one second, surely not four seconds. So a graflex camera was used as it has a very fast lens. The exposures were one second.

Frances Murphy of the Oklahoma chapter, whose silhouette appears at the top of the page, was the first delegate to brave the array of dishpans. Dozens followed her, and anyone who saw the interested crowd getting their pictures on banquet night just before we all parted, will be sure it proved there is a way to have one’s picture taken without having one’s head turned.

Left: This commercial portrait of Cleora Wheeler dates to the mid 1920’s. A cropped variant accompanied a review published on her California photographs in the February, 1926 issue of The Key written years earlier by Arthur L. Wilhelm on her 1922 St. Paul exhibition Atmospheric Studies. An excerpt: “There are many pictures that are romantic in feeling and others that have a rich poetic sentiment. The colors are soft and glowing or in the nocturnes are dimmed by the blue of night.” Photographic halftone courtesy: Helen Brainerd Lay Bookplate Collection, Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections: Identifier: ms0048-s02-b02-f15-i010. Middle: Variations of this single advertisement for products bearing designs by Wheeler: letter stationary, place cards and matching envelopes among other things, illustrated with a small photographic halftone of the artist working at an embossing machine inside her St. Paul home studio, continued to appear with regularity in the back pages of the Kappa quarterly, The Key. Right: At 95 years of age, Cleora Wheeler was still very active in her Kappa Kappa Gamma fraternity. Here she is seen looking at a Ritual volume during an annual convention display. The original caption in the Fall, 1977 issue of The Key pointing out “that the cover had been hand-made by her!”.

1932: A historian at heart, Wheeler writes the chapter on Kappa insignia and compiles extensive illustrations included in the weighty volume: The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity, 1870-1930 published this year.

1930-1940’s: Advertisements for products bearing designs by Wheeler: book plates, stationary, etc, continue to appear with regularity in the back pages of the Kappa quarterly, The Key.

1952: The artist receives Kappa’s Alumnae Achievement Award, with the following notice appearring in the October issue of The Key:

Cleora Clark Wheeler, former grand registrar and custodian of the badge for the Fraternity, also prepared the text and illustrations on insignia which appears in the History of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Miss Wheeler is listed in Who’s Who in America and also in Who’s Who in American Art. She has recently served as national chairman of design for the National League of American Pen Women and holds certificates of proficiency in engineering drafting and advanced engineering drafting from the University of Minnesota. As a designer and illuminator of books and other publications, Miss Wheeler has gained national recognition. Her bookplate designs are represented in many collections. Of her work Miss Wheeler says: “The public seems to be especially interested in the fact that I learned’ the trade of steel-die stamping. It is a highly specialized field in the factories of wholesale stationery companies. It usually takes a girl nine years, stamping 1000 impressions a day by hand, to become an expert.” (p. 244)

1967: The following article published in the Mid-Winter issue of The Key gives a good overview of Cleora Wheeler’s accomplishments later in life:

CLEORA WHEELER, X-Minnesota, is one of America’s most distinguished artists in the rare field of illumination and etching. Forty three of her exquisitely fine drawings prepared as steel engravings, copper intaglio plates, and etchings on zinc and copper are on file in the Library of Congress, and in 28 university, historical and city libraries. She is listed in Who’s Who of American Women, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Art, and Who’s Who in the MidWest.

She has long made book plates, plaques, dedicatory scrolls, and coats-of-arms for New York firms, on special order for customers so discriminating they realize the surpassing quality of her workmanship. She is an honored member of the National League of American Pen Women, serving as national chairman of design (1944-46), of Heraldic Art (1954-56), and of Inscriptions, Illumination and Heraldic Art (1964-66). The work of the print maker is a dedicated one, and Miss Wheeler has experimented with the quiet and esoteric medium (as did Durer and Rembrandt) until her form of expression is close to perfection. In 1960 she went to Santa Barbara to extract the secrets of an early artist named Monsen, who washed glass slides with purple color, using other colors on top, to bring out rich values of greens in mountain landscapes. Miss Wheeler does many fraternity designs, seals, book covers, and Christmas cards. Her work requires space, and the entire third floor of her home is her shop, with the basement used for storing supplies.

1950-1977: A single advertisement for products bearing designs by Wheeler: letter stationary, place cards and matching envelopes among other things, illustrated with a small photographic halftone of the artist working at an embossing machine inside her St. Paul home studio, continue to appear with regularity in the back pages of the Kappa quarterly, The Key.

1980: Wheeler dies. Her obituary appears in the Spring issue of The Key:

Cleora Wheeler Dies

Kappa records with sorrow the death of Cleora Clark Wheeler, Minnesota, at age 97. She died of pneumonia February 24, 1980. Her BA in engineering and engraving was from Minnesota and she studied color harmony at New York School of Fine and Applied Art now Parsons School of Art) and is listed in Who’s Who of American Women. She began her career as a designer of Christmas cards and illuminator of books and publications. Her bookplates are on file in Paris, the Library of Congress and in 30 other libraries. They were exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution from 1946-1964 and at the International Ex Libris Association of Congress, Elsinore, Denmark, in 1972. Miss Wheeler received numerous awards for her work and served as president, chairwoman and judge of several national art associations. She was a member of the National Society of Magna Charta Dames, a past president of the Minnesota branch of the National League of American Pen Women, a member of the International Bookplate Association, held various offices in the Daughters of the American Revolution and was a life member of the American Association of University Women. Born July 8, 1882, Cleora Wheeler was initiated October 9, 1899 and served Kappa her entire life. She was an active delegate to the 1902 convention and an alumnae delegate to the 1908 convention. She was Grand Registrar of the Fraternity 1904-1906 and Custodian of the Badge 1911-1918. She received Kappa’s Achievement Award in 1952 and was the recipient of her 75 year pin.

Addendum: Wheeler family History

Described as “one of the best preserved upper-class Victorian promenade boulevards in America“, the homes along Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota- including one owned by Cleora Clark Wheeler at 1376 Summit Ave. where she maintained her studio for decades, were individually described for their architectural significance as part of the 2003 online posting: Thursday Night Hikes: Western Summit Avenue Hike Architecture Notes, Part 2.

Significant biographical background for Clark, her mother, father and extended family are included with the summary. It was compiled from public sources as well as from the University of Minnesota, Northwest Architectural Archives by historian Lawrence A. Martin. The following is his summary. I have only confirmed and filled in several birth and death dates for Cleora’s mother and father that were missing and added a few paragraph breaks for purposes of style:

1376 Summit Avenue: Rush B. Wheeler House; Built in 1909 (Ramsey County property tax records and Sandeen; 1909-1910 according to Larson;) Early Modern Rectilinear in style; Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., architect.

The structure is a two story, 2496 square foot, eight room, five bedroom, two bathroom, one half-bathroom, stucco house, with a detached garage. The house was constructed at a cost of $5,500 (Sandeen; $6,000 according to Larson.) In 1916, Rush B. Wheeler was a member of the Minnesota Historical Society and resided at this address. The 1918 and 1924 city directories indicate that Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Wheeler and their daughter resided at this address. The 1930 city directory indicates that Mrs. Harriet S. Wheeler, the widow of Rush B. Wheeler, resided at this address. In 1934, Harriet Clark Wheeler, the widow of Rush Wheeler, and Cleora Clark Wheeler resided at this address.

Rush B. Wheeler (1844-1930,) the son of Orange H. Wheeler and Eve Tucker Wheeler, was born in South Butler, Wayne County, New York, graduated from the Cazenovia Seminary in New York in 1867, was a graduate of Yale University in 1871, moved to Minnesota in 1873, resided in Austin, Minnesota, from 1873 until 1888, read the law in 1876, was a member of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Austin, Minnesota, from 1880 until 1883, moved to St. Paul in 1883, practiced law, was engaged in real estate and loans, was a member of the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce from 1885 until 1900, was president of the Real Estate Exchange of St. Paul from 1894 until 1896, resided at 520 Summit Avenue in 1907, and officed at the Pioneer Press Building in 1907.

Rush Wheeler married Harriet S. L. Clark in 1876. Harriet Clark Wheeler was a graduate of the University of Minnesota. Harriet Clark Wheeler and Cleora Clark Wheeler were members of the American Association of University Women and the Women’s City Club of St. Paul.

Cleora Clark Wheeler (1882-1980) was born in Austin, Minnesota, graduated with honors from St. Paul Central High School and from the University of Minnesota, received art training at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art/Parsons School of Art, opened a studio at this address, was a renowned artist, a designer, and an illuminator of books and other publications who received certificates of proficiency in advanced engineering drafting from the University of Minnesota, was a well-known bookplate and Christmas card designer, was also an architectural photographer and poet, was a wedding invitation designer, and was an expert in steel-die stamping with widespread recognition.

Cleora Clark Wheeler received an Alumnae Achievement Award from the Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity in 1952, after she served as the Fraternity’s Grand Registrar from 1904 to 1906 and as its representative to National Panhellenic Conference from 1905 to 1906, after she prepared a Song Leaflet and Manual of Information for distribution at the 1914 Estes Park Convention, after she attended the Fourth Inter-Sorority Conference in Chicago, where she was instrumental in bringing about the decision that the fraternities had the power of vote on recommendations only, not the power to legislate and hold their entire membership to rules passed by single representatives, after she served for seven years as the Fraternity’s Custodian of the Badge, after she prepared the text and illustrations on insignia which appeared in the 1930 History of Kappa Kappa Gamma, and after she created an official bookplate of the Fraternity.

Cleora Clark Wheeler was a member of the National Society Magna Charta Dames and Barons, whose membership is based upon the existence of a direct lineal descent from one or more of the twenty-five Sureties for the Magna Charta or from a Baron, Prelate, Knight, or other influential person present on the field of Runnemede, England, in June, 1215, was a judge for national achievement awards and was National Chairman of Heraldic Art of the National League of American Pen Women, and was state curator of the Nathan Hale chapter of the Minnesota Daughters of the American Revolution.

Cleora Wheeler also was a substitute teacher in the St. Paul Public Schools. Cleora Wheeler had an exhibition of her bookplate work, entitled “Atmospheric studies,” at the St. Paul Public Library in 1922, under the auspices of the Saint Paul Institute. Cleora Clark Wheeler was a niece of Charles A. Clark (1865-1929,) who was a Spanish-American War veteran and was a resident of the Far East. Clark airfield in Honolulu, Hawaii, was named for Clark’s son, Harold Melville Clark (1890-1919,) who died in a airplane crash. Rush B. Wheeler (1844 -1930) and Harriet S. Wheeler (1853-1938) both died in Ramsey County. Cleora Clark Wheeler (1882-1980) was born in Minnesota, had a mother with a maiden name of Clark, and died in Ramsey County. (current owner information as of 2003 was also included but has been left out here)  (4.)

“Evening”: Cleora Clark Wheeler, American: 1882-1980. Hand-colored gelatin silver print ca. 1922: image: 23.6 x 19.8 cm; frame: 24.7 x 19.8 cm: Believed to have been taken around 1920, the medium of fine Japanese dyes in hues of blue, green and yellow were used to color this double-weight, rough surface print, the view originally taken in daylight but manipulated as a much darker print in the artist’s darkroom with the addition of a lone “twinkling” star added to the “night” sky. The variant daylight version is titled “Near Monterey”, and a photogravure version pulled on Japanese tissue can be seen on this website. “Evening” was catalogued as #43, appearing under the sub-heading The Seventeen-Mile Drive as part of the artist’s 1922 exhibit Atmospheric Studies: An Exhibition of the Work of Cleora Clark Wheeler, June 1-15, 1922. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Notes:

1. “All About the Fraternity Coat-of-Arms“, Excerpt from January 2006 Historically Speaking, by Kay Smith Larson, Washington, History Chairman 2002-2006, excerpted in This is Kappa blog: accessed January, 2018.
2. The Journal of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae: Ithaca, NY:  June, 1918: pp. 704-05
3. Citation #19: St. Paul Pioneer Press, Jan. 2, 1967, p. 13; Crump, Minnesota Prints, 173. Moira F. Harris: Season’s Greetings from Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society magazine Winter 2011-12
4. Excerpt: Thursday Night Hikes: Western Summit Avenue Hike Architecture Notes, Part 2: Observations on Architectural Styles: Western Summit Avenue Hike Assembled by Lawrence A. Martin. Webpage Creation: October 20, 2003.