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.”

—In May, 1895, Ernest Edwards is profiled for his advancements in color photography in the pages of The Violet ’96—yearbook for New York University—published by the Junior class. In a double-page spread titled The Progress of Photography, It first paid tribute to the school’s former professor of Chemistry John William Draper, 1811-1882, who “spent many years in investigating the action of sunlight on various chemical substances, and as early as 1834 used a sensitive paper made with bromide of silver to map the visible lines of the spectrum, but failed so to do.” Wikipedia states Draper “is credited with pioneering portrait photography (1839-40) and producing the first detailed photograph of the moon in 1840.” (he was a founder of the NYU School of Medicine) The VIOLET then segued to Edwards: “The part played by the Drapers makes every member of N.Y.U. interested in every real advancement in photography; and the class of ’96 takes a pardonable pride in presenting to its friends through the VIOLET an example of the nearest approach to the ideal of photography in colors. 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.

In the following description of this process we frequently quote from a lecture delivered in December, 1894, by Mr. Edwards, before the Society of Amateur Photographers. There are, as we all know, three primary colors, yellow, red and blue; varying combinations of which give all the colors in nature or in art. By means of colored screens it is possible to exclude any one of the three primary colors in the object to be photographed from acting in the formation of a negative. The three color process is based on this power, and though in its infancy, has reached a high state of perfection in this country by the efforts of Mr. Edwards, the inventor of the photo-gelatine process called heliotype.” (p. 163, continues)

Pioneering New York University Chemist John William Draper, (1811-1882) left, and Ernest Edwards for his advancements in color photography are profiled in the NYU VIOLET 1896 yearbook. (PhotoSeed Archive)

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.

1895: The VIOLET ’96, Vol. VI, annual yearbook of New York University published by the Junior Class, with color frontis of a portrait in oil of chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken, reproduced by the chrome-gelatin process; & several collotype & halftone plates of select faculty & student groups by the N.Y. Photogravure Co., 191 pp, xvii, 8vo, printed & bound by WM. A. Baker, Newark, N.J. (inside back cover ad for Sun & Shade states “Illustrators of this annual.” (not in Hanson)

Left: Frontis plate from oil painting of Henry Mitchell MacCracken, 1840-1918, 6th Chancellor of New York University, reproduced by Edward’s chrome-gelatine color process. The University claimed it was “the first college publication to employ this latest and most remarkable development of the heliographic processes.” Right: Cover detail of The VIOLET ’96, Vol. VI, containing the plate. (PhotoSeed Archive)

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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

Top: “The Broads ⎯ Postwick Grove”, George Christopher Davies, English, 1849-1922, albumen print laid down on album leaf, 1882, 11.2 x 15.4 | 30.5 x 20.0 cm. The artist, writing in his 1882 book The Handbook to the Rivers & Broads of Norfolk & Suffolk, describes the scene: “Well, the view from Postwick was worth seeing. The curving reaches of the river, animated with yachts, wherries, and boats, lay beneath us, and the green marshes were bounded by the woods of Thorpe, Whitlingham, and Bramerton, while the ruined church of Whitlingham stood boldly on the brow of the opposite hill.” Bottom: “Whitlingham Vale (from Postwick)” 1883, hand-pulled photogravure on etching paper, T & R Annan, Glasgow, from original negative. Plate X from The Scenery of the Broads and Rivers of Norfolk & Suffolk, Second Series, published by Jarrold & Sons, London & Norwich. Both from: PhotoSeed Archive

Three years ago I purchased an original albumen print by the great Norfolk photographer George Christopher Davies. (1849-1922) As you can see in the top photo, it has some condition issues, but luckily for me, it depicts probably his most famous image: a work he titled Whitlingham Vale (from Postwick). In 1883, it appeared as a photogravure plate- one of 24- in the Second Series folio The Scenery of the Broads and Rivers of Norfolk & Suffolk. (1.) 

Dating to 1882, it was purchased along with seven other views, also believed to be by Davies, six of which I’ve uploaded to this archive. On the original album leaf it was pasted on, the print was simply titled: The Broads ⎯ Postwick Grove.

But what is really unusual is seeing a comparison of these two photographs side by side. A rare example to see a “before & after” working up from the same photographic negative printed in two different mediums.

Shown above, the hand-pulled photogravure print: the “after” version by Glasgow firm T. & R. Annan, in what Photogravure.com notes “would be some of the earliest by the firm”, (2.) is radically different. The addition of an array of complex clouds- stripped into the sky by the atelier- gives the scenic view an otherworldly dimension, one that gives a more continuous flow between the large highlighted areas of the surface of the River Yare, the wherry boat, and overexposed sky above.

Continuing down to the distant horizon? Subtraction galore. The city of Norwich, where buildings that can be seen in a magnified view of the albumen print, along with the surrounding countryside, are now completely smoothed over, with many features erased. The memorable results made real by artistic license and a steel etching needle altering the original copper printing plate. 

1. Both the first and second series featured “24 PHOTO ENGRAVINGS by G. Christopher Davies – Price One Guinea, Jarrold & Sons 3, Paternoster Buildings, London; And London Street, Norwich.”
2. James Craig Annan, Thomas Annan’s son, had traveled to Vienna to study photogravure with the inventor Karl Klic in 1883. More background.

19th Century amateur photographers faced trials and tribulations in mastering their new found craft, put into the spotlight after photography itself became a growing mass medium with the marketing of Kodak’s #1 box camera in late 1888.

In 1889, taking advantage of this new large audience-by giving them a fun diversion- the Milton Bradley company of Springfield, Massachusetts produced what is believed to be the world’s first card game on photography, one they called “The Amateur Photographer”.  So now, the agony and ecstasy experienced by those dedicated amateurs who owned more advanced cameras and maintained wet darkrooms while embracing art and science could be enjoyed by all. PhotoSeed recently acquired 24 cards of this game from the original set of 36.

Left: “Buy a Good Outfit” : Right: “First Prize”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. From: PhotoSeed Archive

The directions for this Victorian card game can be seen printed below in a vintage advertisement for the 1889-90 Milton Bradley Company “Catalogue of Games, Sectional Pictures, Toys, Puzzles, Blocks and Novelties”. 

For the most part up to the present day, physical card and board games have never featured the character of the photographer, although video games beginning in the 1990’s have included many, including: “Polaroid Pete” (1992), “Pokémon Snap” (1999), “Dead Rising” (2006): excerpt: “gamers play photojournalist Frank West, who somehow got stuck in a shopping mall in Colorado during the zombie apocalypse. Frank has to fight his way out through hoardes of zombies and uncover the truth with his camera.” and “Spiderman 3” (2007).

Instead, popular culture has taken the lead, with the larger than life character of the photographer (for good and bad) celebrated in films taking hold in our collective imaginations. Some that come to mind by this writer include James Stewart’s character spying out his apartment window using a telephoto camera lens in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful film “Rear Window”, (1954) and Peter Parker’s more recent alter-ego occupation sans Spiderman suit. Enjoy the following select game cards from this surviving set.

Left: Title Page from “Catalogue of Games, Sectional Pictures, Toys, Puzzles, Blocks and Novelties Made by Milton Bradley Company”. Right: Catalogue listing for card game “The Amateur Photographer” in same volume, 1889-90. (p. 10) Courtesy: Internet Archive

Left: “Try an Instantaneous Shot” : Right: “Film Comes Off”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. These two negative value cards show two common problems: film emulsion sensitivity or improper camera settings on left card reveals the amateur’s error of not being able to “stop” the action of a race horse while the chemical darkroom problem of a peeling film emulsion (washing too vigorously perhaps?) ruining the masterwork of a sailboat photograph at right. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Left: “Two on the Same Plate” : Right: “How Pretty”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. The negative value card at left shows the common problem of exposing the same photographic plate twice for two different scenes while at right, a positive value card shows a seemingly perfect picture of a bouquet of flowers. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Left: “She Only Wanted to See the Picture” : Right: “Composite Old Maids in Our Town”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. Gender sexism depicting the foibles of the female sex was alive and well when Amateur Photography first came into fashion- evidenced by the negative value card at left of a woman peeking at the results of an exposed photographic plate before the negative was properly fixed in the darkroom. Owing to the fact Photography was then a very expensive hobby and career opportunities for women in general were completely lacking, the majority of practitioners were men. But this would soon change, particularly after the dawn of the 20th Century, when Photography actually became one of the few occupations women were encouraged to pursue outside the home. At right, in a twist of this same gender sexism, a positive value card reveals itself in the form of this photographic portrait of an “old maid”, complete with mustache and tiara? or hair comb- with comparisons to later portraits of Queen Victoria by the card artist possibly being the so-called “humorous” intent. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Left: “Snap Shot at Tennis Player” : Right: “Try a Shot by Magnesium Light With Good Effect”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. These two high value cards reveal the very tricky technical goal of freezing sports action at left- something rarely attempted at the time- and at right, the undertaking of a so-called “flashlight” photograph. This was achieved on a photographic plate through the intense illumination given off during the ignition of flash powder made up of a mixture of nitrate and magnesium held off camera by the photographer. From: PhotoSeed Archive

One exception found online by this website is the 2016 Japanese card game  “Wind the Film!”, a half-frame camera photography themed card game for 2-4 players.

Surreal would be a good word for it. On the evening of Friday, November 4, 1904, the touring company of the Broadway flop Eben Holden made its way to a performance at a building called the Auditorium on S. 2nd Street in downtown Newark, Ohio.

Detail: Cover for “Eben Holden: A Tale of The North Country”: Edition de luxe by Irving Bacheller. Lothrop Publishing, Boston: 1903. Gilt-engraved decorative cloth with circular design featuring a design of a ribbon interlaced with pinecones and leaves: 21.0 x 14.2 cm: One of the best selling novels from the very beginning of the 20th Century, this edition features 12 photogravure plates by photographer Clarence Hudson White. from: PhotoSeed Archive

Most likely in attendance that night? Clarence Hudson White, (1871-1925) the world-renowned pictorialist photographer who was a recent founding member of the American Photo-Secession and current Newark resident.  Only two years earlier, he had taken a series of photographs using his Newark neighbors as models for a special edition of Eben Holden that had been made into this very play.

Written by American journalist and author Irving Bacheller, (1859-1950) the story is a classic rags to riches tale that captivated the masses in the new American century when first published in July of 1900, eventually selling over 1 million copies. The setting at the beginning of the novel is the “North Country” of Northern Vermont , the Adirondack’s and St. Lawrence River Valley of the 1840’s and 1850’s. It tells the coming of age story of William Brower, orphaned at the age of six after his parents and older brother accidentally drowned as well as his relationship with Eben Holden, a farm hand who rescued “Willy” from the cruel fate of an orphanage

But this post is part collecting story, a kind of hunt for treasure, or  “spondoolix” as “Uncle Eb” would say in one chapter-his country ways and lack of education brought into sharper focus for the reader by Bacheller’s liberal usage of Holden’s spoken dialect.

Detail: Top: listing for works by American author Irving Bacheller showing Edition de luxe of Eben Holden highlighted in blue: from: Illustrated Catalogue of Books Standard and Holiday 1903-1904: Chicago: A.C. McClurg and Company: 1903: p. 217 (the † denotes it is a work of fiction, published since November 1, 1902, under the rules of the American Publishers’ Association. (from: Hathi Trust)Bottom: close-up detail showing autograph for CH White 02 at bottom left corner of representative photogravure plate from the Edition de luxe: from: PhotoSeed Archive

The Hunt is on

I consider myself a newbie collector, but one of the first things I put on my list 15 years ago when I first started out was one particular impression of Eben Holden rumored to have been illustrated by hand-pulled photogravures by White, the aforementioned famous photographer.

My curiosity had been piqued after seeing the volume listed in several bibliographies, typically stating the 1900 date. One such entry in author Christian A. Peterson’s Annotated Bibliography on Pictorial Photography did give me hope the work existed, even though finding one in the internet age would prove to be quite the challenge:

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, holds what is probably a unique copy of this book, comprised of the Lothrop text pages bound in leather, with an inscription by White and ten photogravure illustrations by him, including the portrait of Holden. (1.)

Because the novel had been such a success a century earlier, the reality of upwards of 500 vintage copies for sale on the web at any one time was daunting. My course of action however was simple, and eventually effective: send out a mass number of emails to every bookseller in the U.S. listing a copy from a suspect 1901 edition I had honed in on inquiring if it contained any photographic illustrations. 

Broadside advertising poster for Lothrop Publishing Company of Boston: 1897: artist: William Schumacher: American: (1870-1931) multiple-color lithograph printed on wove paper: 52.7 x 34.0 cm. Speaking of the beginnings of Eben Holden in the year 1897, author Irving Bacheller said “had unsuccessfully offered the first ‘Eben Holden’ as it then stood to two juvenile publications; but as I happened to be just starting off on a vacation at that time, I determined myself to see the Boston firm, which was the Lothrop Publishing Company. I met the editor, Mr. Brooks, at the Parker House, and told him the story as I had written it. He immediately saw the possibilities in it and declared I had a big thing if I could carry it out as it should be.” (excerpt: “The Critic”: Oct. 1904) vintage broadside (trimmed) from: PhotoSeed Archive

And so eventually luck prevailed. In 2007, a bookseller in Idaho finally said yes, and a bucket item was now on my library shelf. But that was not the end of it, as Alice would say, things got Curiouser and Curiouser!  Because collectors never stop looking, I soon stumbled upon a CT bookseller who knew exactly the significance of the White-illustrated impression, with an astronomical asking price. An excerpt from his description of the work stated:

Elusive and highly desirable work, absent from almost all museum and library collections devoted to photography, and one of only a very few photographically illustrated books produced by a leading member of the Stieglitz circle at the height of the Photo-Secession. (2.)

Top: detail: 1891 advertisement for The Estes Press (Dana Estes & Company) from “The American Bookmaker”. The woodcut shows the brand new Estes Press Buildings located at 192 Summer St. in Boston first occupied around 1890. The firm housed many different companies involved in the bookmaking process, including: “The celebrated engravers, John Andrew & Son have their studios in the upper story…”; J.S. Cushing & Co., (book composition) Berwick & Smith, (presswork) and E. Fleming & Co. (binding). These last three firms left Estes in 1894 and became part of the Norwood Press. (from: Hathi Trust) Bottom: detail: exterior photograph of Norwood Press from the 1897 volume “Boston Massachusetts” by George W. Englehardt. The original caption noted the firm was located “Fourteen Miles from Boston, on the New England Road” and “as a whole employing nearly three hundred hands.” This is where the Eben Holden Edition de luxe was printed. (from: Hathi Trust)

And so I sucked it in and didn’t purchase the second copy, which he told me he had originally purchased in Marlborough, NH.  Eventually he sold it to a European collection, but I’ve since visited him several times and made a few purchases over the years, something I highly recommend rather than doing everything through e-commerce.

But then lighting struck again five years ago, when I purchased a second copy which had been personally inscribed by the author in 1911 to John A. Dix, then governor of New York state.

Curiouser? The first copy, fourth edition imprint stated Two Hundred and Sixty-fifth Thousand, March 12, 1901 and the second copy was for Two Hundred and Seventieth Thousand, September 18, 1903.

Detail: Clarence H. White: American: “How much was that a yard ?” Hand-pulled photogravure plate printed by John Andrew & Son (image: 12.2 x 7.5 cm | support: 20.0 x 14.0 cm ) from: Edition de luxe impression of Eben Holden: Lothrop Publishing, Boston: 1903. The Library of Congress states the model at right is Ann Fulton and the woman examining the dress is the photographer’s mother Phoebe Billman White (1845-1920) : from: PhotoSeed Archive

Knowing the book now existed in multiple impressions with the Clarence White photogravures was perplexing to me at first, but I’m certain the inclusion of the White photographs was intended by the publisher Lothrop for a more discriminating audience, so its assumed they had the monetary incentive to publish more than the one impression-even with the fickleness and extra work necessary to bind an edition with hand-pulled gravures.

To this end, my research in preparing this post discovered 1901 to be the year Clarence White was first commissioned by the Boston publisher to illustrate a new edition of Eben Holden. The intended publication date of very late 1902 was designed to coincide with the lucrative holiday sales season. Even with the move to e-books in our modern age, publishers earn good money issuing ornate and extra-illustrated editions during this time of year catering to the once a year book buyer and bibliophile alike.

Known as the Edition de luxe, this edition of Eben Holden with the White photogravures priced at $2.00 somehow managed to miss the late 1902 holiday sales season. The curious fact of the inclusion of the imprint for March 12, 1901 on the limitation page and White’s signature including the year 02 on many of the 12 plates in the published work was basic economics for publisher Lothrop-they simply used existing leaves, including the old limitation pages from current stock when it was eventually released for sale to bookstores in 1903. 

Top: detail: 1896: advertisement for John Andrew & Son from the “Boston Blue Book”. (from: Hathi Trust) Bottom: detail: typical example of the firm’s engraved credit appearing at lower right corner of image margin on plate recto from the 1903 Photographic Times-Bulletin. The John Andrew firm was established in Boston in 1852. from: PhotoSeed Archive

This was by no means unprecedented by Lothrop, or other large publishing houses of the era, as they would have set aside a certain number of unbound sheets from a best-selling work for limited impressions featuring artwork.  The first illustrated edition of Eben Holden featured halftone photographs taken by Joseph Byron from the Broadway production of the same name hadn’t even debuted until Oct. 28 of 1901. This also used the March 12, 1901 imprint date. Known as the Dramatic Edition, it was described in the trade monthly The Bookseller:

“An illustrated edition of Eben Holden has been recently published called the Dramatic edition. It contains seven pictures of the play as it appeared in New York and a fine portrait of the author.” (3.)

Details: with manipulations in PhotoShop to highlight typography: In order to show Boston’s John Andrew & Son atelier printed the photogravure plates uncredited in the de luxe edition of Eben Holden, it is useful to analyze the script font typeface used for photographic plate titles. Column at left, top to bottom shows known examples from the Andrew atelier taken from the 1903 Photographic Times-Bulletin. Column at right shows plate titles from the Eben Holden volume. all from PhotoSeed Archive.

Published in 1903

Finally, with the eventual tenth imprint of the fourth edition stating Two Hundred and Seventieth Thousand, September 18, 1903, (6.) the makeup of the Edition de luxe was that of a small 8vo Octavo instead of the common edition, a 12mo Duodecimo. The inclusion of 12 fine, hand-pulled photogravure plates by White seen here is another matter altogether.  For one, other than White’s autograph-appearing often (and faintly) in the lower left hand corner of each plate image as CH White 02, the Edition de luxe  neglects to give him any printed credit  for the photographs nor the atelier who printed them.  This is very surprising for a special edition. Typically, there would at the very least be a separate illustrations page noting titles and page numbers at the front of a similar volume, but for whatever reason they were not included.

Stieglitz plays Go Between

With Eben Holden’s great success, the dramatization of the novel on the Broadway stage was logical for its day-especially since the Cinema was not an option because of the infancy of the medium. Lothrop’s piggy-backing of the work through this Dramatic edition, even by the “flop” standard of 49 performances, was but one way of keeping the work “fresh”- even a full year after initial publication.  At some point late in 1901, a result perhaps of someone seeing the play on Broadway or believing White’s work would lend itself nicely to a series of photographic illustrations, the Boston publisher-perhaps through an association with Fred Holland Day (who lived in nearby Norwood where the Norwood Press printed books for Lothrop) or Alfred Stieglitz in New York-gave White the commission for its second illustrated edition of the novel.

Clarence H. White: American: 1902: “She was still looking down at the fan”: vintage Platinum or gelatin silver print: Showing typical retouching by White, the models are Alfred Dodge Cole, (1861-1928) a professor of Chemistry and Physics at Denison University and his wife Emily Downer Cole. (1865-1957) They play the roles of William Brower and Hope, whom Brower eventually marries in the novel Eben Holden. The photograph was reproduced as a photogravure plate and included in the Edition de luxe. Curators at the Robbins Hunter Museum where this and other White photographs are held stated the photographer had taken family photographs of the Downer family on the lawn of the home in the late 1890’s and so he “would have been familiar with the house and furnishings from that commission.  It was common for Clarence White to ask acquaintances to pose for photographs, often in costumes that he would provide. The photographs for Eben Holden were staged with costumes from the Civil War era.”  Photograph courtesy: Collection of the Robbins Hunter Museum in the Avery Downer House, Granville, OH.

Ultimately, Stieglitz’s publishing background, connections and established relationship with White through his editorship of Camera Notes, his new involvement with Camera Work,  as well as his having his own work exhibited in an early salon of pictorial photography in Newark Ohio in late 1900 and other exhibitions made Stieglitz a believer in White’s potential as an illustrator:

“What is especially fascinating, however, is what occurs when White is commissioned, as he was in 1901, to take up literary illustration himself. Through the assistance of Stieglitz, White received the commission to illustrate a new edition of the novel Eben Holden by Irving Bacheller. ( 4. )

And much later, the photographer’s grandson Maynard Pressley White commented about a bit of reluctance on his grandfather’s part in dealing with Lothrop as part of his Ph.D. dissertation in 1975:

“The correspondence with Stieglitz concerning the illustrations for Eben Holden is revealing of his character as well as Stieglitz informed him that he suffered from no such timidity and would–and indeed did–handle the matter with the publishers, as it turned out, to the advantage of White.” (5.)

Clarence H. White: American: 1902? : vintage untitled Platinum or gelatin silver print: The model Emily Downer Cole (1865-1957) poses wearing a different dress than seen in the published Eben Holden photogravure “She was still looking down at the fan” taken on the same settee in the front parlor of the Downer family home. This was likely an alternate study Clarence White took for consideration for his series of Eben Holden illustrations. Photograph courtesy: Collection of the Robbins Hunter Museum in the Avery Downer House, Granville, OH.

John Andrew & Son: founded in Boston: 1852

In giving credit to White and the firm that printed his photographs as gravures, a bit of elucidation seems in order to set things straight. Upon close inspection of these plates along with many others by Boston’s John Andrew & Son from the same time frame, I feel confident giving the Andrew firm credit for printing them. This is based on a near exact match in the script font used for the plate titles in the de luxe edition of Eben Holden as well as those plates credited to the firm appearing in the Photographic Times Bulletin from 1902-04.

I’ve included examples of the font as a comparison with this post. Another exact match is the same plate paper was used for both publications: this is very revealing especially on the plate verso where a very fine stipple pattern can be seen on the paper surface of the cream-colored plate paper. Perhaps the strongest association with the John Andrew atelier and the Norwood Press (which printed the de luxe edition) emerged in my research on business associations with some of the individual companies that came together in 1894 when that press was formed. These included J.S. Cushing & Co., (for composition and typesetting) Berwick & Smith Co., (for presswork) and E. Fleming & Co. (for binding). Beginning around 1890, all of these firms along with John Andrew were under one roof as part of the brand new Dana Estes & Company publishing house buildings on Summer Street in Boston.

Clarence H. White: American: 1903: halftone: “Walking side by side to or from the school-house” was one of three photographs published to illustrate the Clara Morris story “Beneath the Wrinkle” published in the February, 1904 issue of McClure’s Magazine. (12.8 x 9.5 cm) published: p. 430. From: PhotoSeed Archive

With the move to Norwood in 1894, the Andrew atelier stayed behind in Boston at 196 Summer St. but continued to provide fine photo engraving work to the major publishing houses in Boston and New York. Known today for printing many of the photogravure plates beginning in 1907 for the monumental Edward Sheriff Curtis work The North American Indian, the firm sometime in the first decade of the 20th Century became a department of the Suffolk Engraving & Electrotyping Co. of Boston with offices at 394 Atlantic Ave.

Named after John Andrew, (1815-1870) a wood engraver born in England who immigrated to Boston where he worked with fellow engraver Andrew Filmer, the firm eventually made the transition to photo engraving, including the half tone and photogravure processes. Andrew’s son George T. Andrew succeeded his father at the business, located at 196 Summer St. An 1892 overview of the firm from the volume Picturesque Hampden gives some background:

JOHN ANDREW & SON COMPANY.
ENGRAVERS AND MAKERS OF FINE BOOKS, BOSTON MASS.

If we go back a few years, we find that in illustrating books and magazines wood and steel engraving were about the only methods available. Nor could steel engraving have any wide use on account of the great expense of printing. Ever since its start, in 1852, the firm, now styled the John Andrew & Son Company, has held a prominent place among illustrators, especially in work of the finest grades. Their reputation was made in the first place as engravers on wood, but the discovery of delicate chemical and mechanical processes has in later years led them to also take the photo-engraving and half-tone work which has at present such wide use and popularity. In this field they do work for some of the best magazines and books published in this country. In what they undertake they strive not so much to do the cheapest work in price as the best work in quality. Quite recently the firm has taken up the photo-gravure process in addition to those spoken of above. The industry we describe is not located in Hampden county, but the mention here is not inappropriate as the engraving of our pen and ink pictures was done almost wholly by this firm. Their address is 196 Summer street, Boston.

Detail: Cover for “Songs of All Seasons” by Ira Billman. The Hollenbeck Press, Indianapolis: 1904. Gilt-engraved stamped cloth: 20.4 x 13.6 cm: shown inset with representative photographs taken by Clarence White reproduced in halftone in the volume. Photo left: “The Book Lovers” (p. 181); top right: untitled man with statuette illustrating poem “The Twin Flower” (p.137); bottom right: “The Gloaming” (p. 199). Billman was Clarence White’s uncle and was “one of his earliest artistic influences in his life”: From: PhotoSeed Archive

Photographic Illustration: a New Outlet

A newspaper clipping, believed to be from the Newark Daily Advocate in the Clarence Hudson White clipping file at the Newark, OH public library, includes the following undated (but 1903) story discussing Eben Holden in passing while concentrating on a new commission that inevitably came from it: costume-piece photographs by White similar to those he did for Lothrop for author Clara Morris’s story published in McClure’s magazine in February, 1904 entitled “Beneath the Wrinkle“:

PICTURES    From Real Life by Clarence White
Forwarded On Order to a New York Magazine-Local Artist’s Latest Work.

Mr. Clarence White received a command last fall from the art department of McClure’s Magazine to illustrate Clara Morris’ new story, entitled, “Beneath the Wrinkle,” that will appear in that magazine presumably in the near future. Mr. White was to have been given all the time he wanted, but in view of the change of art editors, Mr. White was notified about three weeks ago that the illustrations would be required immediately. Mr. White at once notified the publishers that he would use all his efforts to complete them immediately, and would forward them when completed. Today the set comprising six, were forwarded and as equaly as clever and well executed as the ones made for the illustrating of the holiday edition of Eben Holden that was to have made its appearance last Christmas, but was not completed in time for that season. The ones now in progress are all local personages, done in quaint, old-fashioned garb and surroundings, recalling vividly to mind the characteristics in dress and decorations then in vogue. They show the fine and beautiful artistic temperament of Mr. White in his striking correct interpretation of dress and customs of the period in which the characters live. Mr. White deserves the honor the illustrations will surely bring to him, as he is always conscientious and painstaking in whatever he undertakes in his profession.

Left: Irving Bacheller, (1859-1950) American journalist and author, wrote the novel Eben Holden which sold over 1 million copies. This portrait with facsimile autograph by an unknown photographer appeared as the frontis (13.3 x 9.1 cm) to the Dramatic Edition of the book-the first illustrated edition featuring photographs of the Broadway stage production that debuted Oct. 28, 1901 and ran for only 49 performances. Right: ” ‘Fore your other arm gits busy, wont you wind the clock?” (14.1 x 8.4 cm) Actor E.M. Holland at left plays the role of Eben Holden, Lucille Flaven plays Hope and Earle Ryder as an American Civil War officer plays William Brower. The important New York commercial photographer Joseph Byron, (1847-1923) founder of the Byron Company (currently, the 7th & 8th generations runs Byron Photography) took stage photographs of the play at New York’s Savoy Theatre with plates published in the Dramatic Edition. from: PhotoSeed Archive

White Family Connections: Songs of all Seasons

During the time he received the commission for illustrating Beneath the Wrinkle in 1903, a more intimate family connection developed which allowed White the opportunity to take another series of photographic illustrations, 42 in all, published in 1904 within a slim volume of poetry titled Songs of All Seasons.

The author was nationally known poet Ira Billman, Clarence White’s uncle,  the brother of his mother Phoebe Billman White. In the volume Symbolism of Light: The Photographs of Clarence H. White published in 1977 which accompanied an exhibition of White’s work at the Delaware Art Museum and International Center of Photography, White’s grandson Maynard P. White, Jr. describes Ira Billman as a major influence on Clarence and Songs:

Among the gathering of aunts and uncles that gave meaning and context to the artist’s early life was Ira Billman, his mother’s brother. “Poetic” is the word most often used to describe White’s photography, and his Uncle Ira, a poet by avocation, was one of the earliest artistic influences in his life. …Billman’s work celebrates rural America; his poems are songs to people and to nature, and they are imbued with the deep religious sentiments of his Lutheran heritage, without being mawkish or even faintly cloying. What is important for the purpose of my discussion is that Clarence White made the photographic illustrations for Songs of All Seasons, and Billman dedicated the volume to him. (7.)

“To Governor John A. Dix with many good wishes from Uncle Eb an’ me Irving Bacheller N.Y. Feb. 22 1911.” This personal inscription by Bacheller to John A. Dix, then Governor of New York State, appears in a volume of Eben Holden with the imprint of Two Hundred and Seventieth Thousand, September 18, 1903, the actual year the novel was released for sale. In a 1901 newspaper article, Bacheller said the character Eben Holden was based on “a composite of my father and his hired man-a very jolly old fellow”. from: PhotoSeed Archive

Ninety-one poems and sonnets are included in the volume. Here, The Test,  a representative poem from the work:

The Test

Not what I felt will be the test
When song and fragrance filled the hour,
And all the sunshine of the blest
Unfolded me to perfect flower.

Not what I aid will be the test
When by sweet waters wound my way,
And white-haired, thoughtful hills all guessed
The word I was about to say.

Not what I did will be the test
When stunned by cry of human needs
I dreamed I was myself oppressed,
And woke to passion of great deeds.

Not what I chose will be the test
When first I saw one world in hand
Is worth two in the bush-the best
Of which it is to understand.

O! none of these will be the test,
But what God knows I would have done,
Had I been nurtured in the nest
Of one, I now condemn and shun. (8.)

Left: Clarence H. White: American: 1902: hand-pulled photogravure: (9.7 x 7.3 cm) in: Eben Holden: A Tale of the North Country: Boston: Lothrop Publishing. (1903) Appearing as the frontis portrait in the Edition de luxe, this unknown subject was the novel’s namesake: a fictional character who was a former farm-hand and main father figure for the newly orphaned William Brower serving as the narrator in the work. Right: Clarence H. White: American: 1902: halftone: (12.0 x 9.2 cm) in: Eben Holden: Harper & Brothers Publishers. (1914) Part of the Pine Tree Edition of Irving Bacheller’s (Collected) Works. This heavily manipulated portrait from the original photograph by Clarence White of Eben Holden published 11 years earlier also appeared as the frontis for the first volume in the Pine Tree series. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Pictorial Illustration for Photography a Growing Field

By 1904, esteemed critic Sadakichi Hartman, writing in Leslie’s Weekly, weighed in on the growing use of photography for book illustration:

“…and Clarence H. White, of Newark, O., has found a new opening for photography in the illustration of books. His illustrations for “Eben Holden” have attracted wide and deserved attention.” (9.)

Clarence H. White: American: 1902: “Illustration to “Eben Holden”” (1903) hand-pulled photogravure: (tipped image:19.7 x 15.0 cm | Japan paper support: 30.5 x 21.0 cm) in: Camera Work III. (1903) Two plates in the Edition de luxe of Eben Holden: “How much was that a yard ?” (seen in this post-CW IX: 1905) and this one: “Mother was living in the old home alone”-an interior portrait of the photographer’s mother Phoebe Billman White (1845-1920) were also published as photogravures in Camera Work. From: PhotoSeed Archive

And later that year, citing White’s involvement with Eben Holden while writing in the Photographic Times Bulletin, Hartman brought up the potential financial rewards possible for pictorial photographer in this new field:

“The only way to approximate a market value of pictorial prints is to investigate how much they might bring on the average, if offered for sale as illustrations. There is lately a decided demand for photographic illustrations, and consequently a certain standard price in vogue. The pictorialist, of course, and perhaps with some right, aspires to illustrator’s prices (i.e., $50-$100 for the full page of a magazine), but he has never reached it, with the one exception of Clarence H. White, who is said to have received several hundred dollars for his series of “Eben Holden” illustrations.” (10.)

Detail: “Tucked some cookies into my pocket” : Clarence H. White: American: 1902: hand-pulled photogravure plate (11.9 x 7.3 cm) included with Edition de luxe of Eben Holden (1903): Lothrop Publishing, Boston. The young orphan William Brower is possibly modeled here by the photographer’s son Maynard Pressley White (b. 1896) and his wife Jane Felix. (1869-1943) The scene shows Brower preparing to head out into the wilderness in a dog-pulled cart with Eben Holden at right. From the novel: “Our hostess met us at the gate and the look of her face when she bade us good-by and tucked some cookies into my pocket, has always lingered in my memory and put in me a mighty respect for all women.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

This additional source of significant money to Clarence White and his young family through these illustration commissions invariably gave him additional confidence in his abilities as a photographer and financial peace of mind to eventually make his way to New York City, leaving Newark in 1906. It is also not a stretch to infer White’s own life mimicked the storyline of hard work that can earn the “American Dream” found between the pages of Eben Holden. Although the critic for the New York Times reviewing the play at New York’s Savoy theater didn’t care too much for the acting:

“As an exhibition of dramatic craft “Eben Holden” is hardly worth serious consideration“…

he did, a few paragraphs later, write the production had a few redeeming qualities:

But, despite its defects, the play is wholesome; it is redolent of the woods and the fields, and it provides the opportunity for an evening of entertainment that need not be looked back upon with regret.  (11.)

No doubt Clarence White, had he been in attendance watching the play inside Newark’s Auditorium that 1904 November evening, would have agreed with these last sentiments of the big city critic, marveling and grinning to himself in the darkened hall while taking in the surreal juxtaposition that art imitating life can bring about.

Notes:

1. (White, Clarence H.) excerpt: An Annotated Bibliography on Pictorial Photography: Selected Books from the Library of Christian A. Peterson: Laurence McKinley Gould Library: Carleton College: Northfield, Minnesota: 2004
2. ABE listing: 120407. Besides multiple copies held by PhotoSeed, other known copies are in the Library of Congress, MOMA and Photogravure.com.
3. The Bookseller–Devoted to the Book and News Trade:  Chicago: January, 1902: p. 28
4. Peter C. Bunnell: Inside the Photograph: writings on Twentieth-Century Photography: Aperture Foundation: 2006: p. 47
5. Clarence H. White : a personal portrait: Maynard Pressley White: Ph.D. dissertation, University of Delaware, 1975: pp. 79-80
6. see Beaumont Newhall’s Photography: A Short Critical History, from 1938, lists Eben Holden with the White illustrations as being published in 1903 on p. 215
7. excerpt: see Symbolism of Light: 1977: p. 7
8. Songs of All Seasons: Ira Billman: Indianapolis: The Hollenbeck Press: 1904: p. 65
9. excerpt: Advances in Artistic Photography: Sidney Allan: in: Leslie’s Weekly: April 28, 1904: New York: p. 388
10. excerpt: from: What is the Commercial Value of Pictorial Prints?: Sidney Allen: in: The Photographic Times Bulletin: December, 1904: p. 539
11. excerpt: review: “Eben Holden” at the Savoy: The New York Times, October 29, 1901