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.

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.

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 then 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.

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.)

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.”

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. 

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:

“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 as Living History

At least in America, should we care enough or have reason to experience firsthand places bringing the past alive, our only contact with historical letterpress printing can indeed be found. 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?

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.” 

“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. At several of which I worked for, 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.

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.)

 

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.

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.

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.) 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Historical Biography: Charles Andrew Hellmuth  1887-1945

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Concord Hymn

“By the Rude Bridge That

Arched the Flood,

Their Flag to April’s

Breeze Unfurled,

Here Once the Embattled

Farmers Stood,

And Fired the Shot Heard

Round the World.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson  1837

Bad luck. At least for one distant relation. On official battle cry orders, the second soldier to die on April 19, 1775— the very moment which started the American Revolutionary War—was my direct cousin, private Abner Hosmer, not quite 21 years old, a member of the Acton, MA Minute Men.

Today, April 19, 2025, we, now the American nation, pay tribute to his fellow Massachusetts townsfolk—those approximately 400 colonial soldiers who went into battle against 96 British Regulars at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. It was their bravery that began the epic conquest and eventual success to cast off their English king in becoming a new nation and free republic.

The last time I visited Concord was in my childhood. The Hosmer line sprouts from my maternal side, and I’m sure my mom was her usual stern yet patient New England self in trying to explain the significance of our ancestor and what happened in this place. But no. I remember the bridge and perhaps a vague memory of someone dressed in a tricorn hat, but that is all that registers now, thinking back. But 50 years forward to the present? A load of difference.

And, as one of those descendants, I will not mince words now. I’m scared for our country and ashamed of what is happening in the name of it. But what I saw in Concord yesterday was downright beautiful.

 

In what has become a long-time annual tradition, a group of Acton, MA and other local town residents gather and march behind the Minute Men bearing that old town’s name: the annual Isaac Davis Trail March. The Acton group are American Revolutionary War reenactors who celebrate that fateful day by marching at dawn nearly seven miles to the Old North Bridge in Concord. They are led by a gentleman playing the role of Captain Isaac Davis, “the leader of the Acton Minute Company who sounded the alarm shots to rally his men to come to his house and prepare to head off for Concord,” according to the company’s website.

 

This year, due to events surrounding Concord’s direct 250th anniversary role in “The Shot Heard Round the World,” and the massive amount of people expected on town streets, many of which will be closed due to a parade and other Patriot Day Weekend events, the Acton company made the decision to do the trail march a day early.

So let me end with this, while getting back to that “beautiful” statement thing I mentioned a few lines ago. The 100 or so townsfolk following along yesterday—to my eye—were from all walks of life, nationalities and genders, along with a Boy Scout troop thrown in for good measure. Basically, the American Melting Pot, in real life, practicing their Constitutionally-protected right to assemble while keeping in marching step to the flute and drummer ahead of them playing a spirited rendition of the White Cockade, the traditional Scottish folk song. And, as luck would have it, at the conclusion of several musket volleys over the Old North Bridge, I ran into a fellow Hosmer descendant from another line of the family. A hug for both of us, and not bad luck at all 250 years later.

A little over seven years ago, this archive finally acquired the monumental European portfolio Nach der Natur, (After Nature) published in Berlin in early 1897.

Composed of 32 sumptuous hand-pulled photogravure plates, I learned it was considered a cornerstone to any important collection of artistic photography when first reading about it almost 25 years ago. And, as persistence can sometimes pay off, a Dresden antiquarian bookseller listed the folio, along with other titles, appearing in my inbox in March of 2017. The portfolio itself is the artistic historical record for Berlin’s 1896 Inter­national Exhibition of Amateur Photography (Internationalen Ausstellung für Amateur-Photographie) held in the Reichstag building, the German government’s legislative headquarters, which had newly opened two years prior in mid 1894.

Approximately 580 exhibitors took part from around the world, with one reviewer commenting that other than the scientific entries, in terms of mounted photographs: “there may have been several thousand of them”. The exhibition had the support of Victoria, Empress of Germany and Queen of Prussia, the first born child of Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha: a chip off the proverbial block per chance? It’s well known Albert had a passion for employing early photography to document the British Royal family.

Due to this work being an important influence on the perception of photography as art in the public discourse during the last years of the 19th century, I’ve dedicated some time in pulling contemporary reviews for the exhibition, and have further translated the entirety of the letterpress for the portfolio, along with acknowledgements, etc. from editor Franz Goerke and the main portfolio essay penned by Richard Stettiner. I will continue my thoughts at the conclusion of this post on the importance of the photogravure plates from this work and how it influenced Alfred Stieglitz in America, with the baton first taken up by Goerke- an important proponent of the photogravure process. Goerke had shown a series of mounted photogravures at the exhibition- logically continuing his favored reproduction process by assembling Nach der Natur as a remembrance of it. But first, some contemporary excerpts laying out differing perceptions of the 1896 Berlin exhibition by the German photographic press:

Observations: The German Photographic Press (translated)

Photographische Mitteilungen, Berlin: October, 1896: reviewer Paul Hanneke:

⎯  On September 3rd, the international exhibition for amateur photography opened in the new Reichstag building. The choice of location is certainly a very fortunate one, because as a sight in Berlin, it already exerts a certain attraction on the public. The rooms made available for the photography exhibition are on the first floor and are large enough to be able to arrange the numerous pictures etc. received in a clear order. Unfortunately, the lighting conditions are sometimes quite unfavorable, so that some beautiful pieces do not really come into their own. The exhibition itself is richly represented by all parts of the world, namely Austria, England, France and Belgium, which are countries that have participated heavily and are distinguished by their outstanding achievements, especially in artistic terms.  (1.)

Wiener Photographische Blätter, Vienna: November, 1896: reviewer Ludwig David:

⎯ Respectfully withholding commentary for work shown at the exhibition by his own club: “the Vienna School has taken its place with honor”, David gives overall thoughts and then offers criticism for individual works at the exhibition from their respective countries, England, France, Belgium, etc: “The exhibition was divided into several sections in order to keep the representations of artistic photography and those serving scientific purposes separate. The fact that the exhibition was housed in the stately, wide rooms of the new Reichstag building ensured that it was well attended, as many people were enticed to get to know the interior design and the beauties of this new building. The large number of visitors, around 26,000 people, can also be attributed to the keen interest shown in the exhibition by Berlin’s upper class.

⎯  All of the pictures that were not for scientific purposes, there may have been several thousand of them, were housed partly in the corridors, which receive their scant light from the courtyards of the building, and partly in a large domed structure that connects these corridors and has a skylight. In these rooms there was room for all the pictures that are understood under the somewhat cumbersome and tasteless name of “amateur photographs.” There was no separation of the pictures of an artistic nature from the majority of pictures that do not claim this designation.”

⎯  From America, David singles out William Boyd Post, Clarence Moore, C.R. Pancoast, Charles I. Berg, Emma Justine Farnsworth, A. Eidenmüller (St. Paul) and Alfred Stieglitz: …“a well-known master whose fame was not first established at this exhibition. Most of his pictures are no longer new either. “A wet day, with its drastic rainy mood is outstanding; “Scurrying home“, two old Dutch women walking through the countryside, is picturesque, a splendid picture printed in sepia.

⎯  It must be said of the exhibition itself that it has fully fulfilled its task of giving a picture of the current state of photography. The arrangers, who had to deal with an enormous amount of material, deserve credit for having handled this task in a skilful manner: among others, Dr. Neuhauss has done particularly well for the scientific department of photography, and Mr. Franz Goerke for the artistic department. The light in the exhibition room was not sufficient in all places, the pictures were often too close together and hung much too high. It would also have been advisable to separate the pictures with a painterly effect from the works that were not of the same quality and to have the admission and award jury for this section comprise only recognized artists.” (2.)

Photographische Correspondenz, Vienna & Leipzig: October, 1896: Unknown reviewer(s):

⎯  Would you like a picture of the international exhibition for amateur photography in Berlin? If you call a horse a crocodile, you have used a nomenclature that is just as correct as calling this exhibition an amateur exhibition, assuming that you assume that the amateur does photography for pleasure.

It would actually be time to divide amateur photographers into two classes: amateurs who turn to the subject out of scientific interest and pursue serious studies for their own development, and dilettantes who only engage in photography per diletto, for pleasure and to pass the time. Even with this classification, the name of the exhibition would hardly be correct, because it contains universal material in which the specific arts and crafts play a large part; it shows the enormous expansion of photography in our time, of which portrait photography is only a very small individual case. Due to this versatility, one could say that the exhibition is filled with the work of professional photographers.

⎯ There is hardly an area of ​​art and science that does not have a connection with photography. This explains the lively interest shown in this technique even in the highest circles, and which finds its most striking expression in the fact that Her Majesty the Empress Frederick has granted the exhibition her patronage.

⎯ The exhibition not only gives a picture of art and science, no, it gives a description of the world in pictures, which ranges from the mists of emerging worlds to the tiniest creatures that treacherously gnaw at the health of our bodies; and those who are prevented by unfavorable circumstances from following their urge to travel far away will find satisfaction here, because Mother Earth is presented to them from the snow-covered peaks of the highest mountains to the deepest shafts of the burrowing miners, from the islands of the South Seas circling the globe to the west, to the magnificent landscapes of California.

⎯ On the whole, the practice of platinum and pigment processes predominate. Matte collodion paper is also often used, but cannot compete with the first-mentioned processes in terms of artistic impression, not least because of the bluish cold tone of the background, which is one of the disadvantages of stencil-based photography. Pictures with a glossy surface are only found in small numbers and least of all where the artistic effect of the picture is important.

⎯ We now enter the round domed hall, which has an international character. We would like to call it the fermentation vat of the exhibition, because here it ripples and foams and struggles for new means of expression and creates bubbles, some of which disintegrate, while others condense into core points around which new structures arrange themselves. Here you can hear the professional photographers cry out in horror, and yet they should be able to explain why a considerable number of visitors describe these works in particular as painterly and virtuosic. Does the secessionist idea have any justification alongside the traditional art forms? It undoubtedly deserves to be examined for its causes, its nature and its relationship to the traditional. It is the absolutely unfamiliarity that has a repulsive effect on the professional photographers here. They are used to looking at the world through photographic glasses and do not believe that it looks completely different in reality. But photography is old enough that these glasses will need new lenses that are a bit sharper. A picture that is hung on the wall must not be too small and must have a different, less decorative character than a picture that is kept in an album for intimate viewing. For this reason, the large pictures at the exhibition are so much more effective than the small pictures that one has to look at with a trained eye. (3.)

Compatriots in Photogravure: Franz Goerke & Alfred Stieglitz

And who was responsible for these “sumptuous hand-pulled photogravure plates” contained in Nach der Natur? The Photographische Gesellschaft in Berlin. As I’ve noted elsewhere on this site, the proper name of this atelier is The Berlin Photographic Company. Established in 1862 in Berlin, Germany with retail and distribution branch offices located in New York, London and Paris, this large art publishing house was founded by the brothers Christian “Albert” Eduard Werckmeister, (1827-1873) an engineer and chemist, and “Friedrich” Gustav Werckmeister, (1839-1894) a painter and etcher. The concern was collectively owned and run by their younger brother Emil Werckmeister. (1844-1923) The majority of their efforts concerned the reproduction and sale of engravings and notable oil paintings by master artists in the collections of major museums and collections throughout Europe, with the permanent process of photogravure a specialty of the house.

The establishment of fine photogravure production in Europe, including the earlier noteworthy efforts of Walter L. Colls in London for his Linked Ring Salon folios and Photo Club de Paris folios by Charles Wittmann in Paris set a very high bar for the future published efforts of Franz Goerke in Berlin and Alfred Stieglitz in New York.

After his publication of Nach der Natur, Goerke, (1856-1931) an important exponent of German art photography, took on the project of being editor and publisher for Die Kunst in der Photographie, (The Art of Photography) published in Berlin from from 1897-1908. Many of the hundreds of fine photogravure plates making up the run of DKIDP beginning with 1897 can be found in this archive. A founder along with others in 1889 of the Free Photographic Association in Berlin, Franz Goerke’s promotion of photography as art is summed up as part of his Preface to Nach der Natur:  

“The seed has been sown by this exhibition. May it bear rich fruit. Above all, it should convince those who still see artistic photography as a useless and pointless game that there is a deep and serious desire in amateur circles to raise photography to the status of art and to place it alongside other arts.”

An amateur photographer himself, Goerke’s passion as publisher and editor certainly piqued the interest of Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) in New York, a self-taught amateur photographer whose formal education included mechanical engineering, beginning in October, 1882, when he enrolled in the all male Technical University of Berlin (Technische Hochschule) and later photochemistry at the same institution- taught by Hermann Wilhelm Vogel. (1834-1898) An authority on orthochromatic photography, Vogel became a mentor to the young Stieglitz, and he later founded the Deutsche Gesellschaft von Freunden der Photographie (German Society of the Friends of Photography) in 1887.

At the conclusion of his university studies and Continental wanderings, Stieglitz returned to the US in September, 1890 at the passing of his sister Flora. At the urging of his father Edward, he soon became involved with the business venture of photoengraving: first at the struggling Heliochrome Company in lower Manhattan, which he eventually restructured. Taking on his two former Berlin roommates Louis Schubart and Joseph Obermeyer as partners, this concern was rechristened the Photochrome Engraving Company. Photogravure was a specialty, but Stieglitz soon became involved in other ventures-first co-editing the American Amateur Photographer in 1893, ultimately rising to sole editor in January, 1895, the increased workload among his other interests giving him “the opportunity to disentangle himself from the Photochrome Engraving Company”. (4.) Even without having a direct hand in his own atelier, by the time he received his copy of the Nach der Natur portfolio in late 1897, his obvious delight and respect for the photogravure plates executed within by the Photographische Gesellschaft in Berlin under Goerke’s mindful watch gave him obvious delight. This in turn gave him reason to author a review of the portfolio in the pages of the new publication Camera Notes, the journal of the New York Camera Club. Paraphrasing, his reaction to the quality of these plates proclaimed photogravure: “the most perfect of all photographic reproduction processes.” (5.)

The review in its entirety: “Nach der Natur” is without doubt the most elaborate and beautiful publication which has yet appeared in photographic literature.

The series of photogravures which form the bulk of the book, include pictures by the chief medallists of the Exhibition. Among the familiar names we find: Henneberg, Alexandre, Hannon, Farnsworth, Stieglitz, Le Beque, Bremard, Baynton, Esler, David, Boehmer, etc. The text, which serves as an introduction to the pictures, is an essay, which tries to prove that pictorial photography may be an art. Even if all the pictures selected may not prove the case most of them are perfect gems. The photogravures, as such, are beautiful specimens of the most perfect of all photographic reproduction processes.

The library of every photographic club should include this important work, as those interested in pictorial photography will find every phase of it well represented. A copy has been procured for the Camera Club Library.  A.S. (6.)

Stieglitz would go on to publish his own portfolio of fine photogravures: Picturesque Bits of New York and Other Studies in 1897, (N.Y.: R.H. Russell) the same year Nach der Natur appeared. On the other side of the Atlantic, Goerke’s  own Die Kunst in der Photographie, which should be considered the most important European publication directly inspiring the fine photogravures that soon appeared under the editorship of Stieglitz’s Camera Notes, would in turn lead him elevating the process to its apogee in the US: his groundbreaking and seminal venture Camera Work, published between 1903-17.

⎯ David Spencer  October, 2024

 

1.  Excerpt: Paul Hanneke: Internationale Ausstellung für Amateur – Photographie zu Berlin , Photographische Mitteilungen, Berlin: October, 1896: pp. 205-209/ continues: pp. 219-224; 235-37.

2. Excerpt: Ludwig David: “Die künstlerische Richtung auf der internationalen Ausstellung für Amateur-Photographie in Berlin,” Wiener Photographische Blätter, Wien: 3:11 (November 1896), pp. 201–215

3.Excerpt: “Berliner Nachrichten. September 1896.”, Photographische Correspondenz, Vienna & Leipzig: October, 1896: from unknown reviewer(s): (article signed: “Von der Hasenhaide”) pp. 471-477

4. Julia Thompson: Stieglitz’s Portfolios and Other Published Photographs: Alfred Stieglitz Key Set, NGA Online Editions, accessed September, 2024

5. Camera Notes, New York: Vol. 1, issue III: January, 1898

6. Ibid, p. 85

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.

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.

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.

“And I never saw that love did any harm anywhere or was complained about O my brothers when you understood it: 

For that’s about all life comes to anyhow—comes to the love we can put into it:

I just give you what I’ve got, dear comrades.”   -Horace Traubel

In this 200th anniversary year of American poet Walt Whitman’s birth, articles and exhibitions abound, celebrating the continuing relevance of America’s “Bard of Democracy”. But who was largely responsible for initially preserving, and thus memorializing for a larger audience this most important literary voice? A gentleman by the name of Horace Traubel. (1858-1919)

Three years ago I had the good fortune of purchasing a heraldic roundel portrait of Traubel, the one featured above taken by a fellow Philadelphian, pictorialist photographer Allen Drew Cook. (1871-1923) 

Best remembered as the literary executor and biographer extraordinaire of Walt Whitman, Horace Traubel was also a magazine publisher and committed socialist who held the poet’s hand on his deathbed and compiled nearly two million words over the last four years in daily conversations with him, later transcribing and publishing in his lifetime the first three volumes of what would become his nine volume opus: With Walt Whitman in Camden. (completed 1996)

Unlike Whitman, whom The Guardian newspaper notes in an article published this year “was also the 19th century’s most photographed American writer”, (1.) there are only a smattering of photographs featuring Traubel-most being credited to Cook. By and large, Horace Traubel is a figure in American letters most people have never heard of.

But concerning the roundel portrait of Traubel, what a difference between it and the staid portraits published during his lifetime! The seller described it thus: “Vintage Risque Photo Handsome Shirtless Man w/ Love Poem c. 1910 Gay Interest”. If you are a collector like me, the proverbial eye roll is something experienced practically every day in the course of searches for new treasure. To wit: if it’s a photo depicting two men together- or for that matter, two women- a seller might add the descriptor of “Gay Interest” to the listing. This is laughable on the face of it, as to my mind there is often a complete disconnect between reality often taking over the minds of sellers intent on rewriting photographic evidence for the sole purpose of making a quick buck.

But not always. Fortunately for me, and unbeknownst to the seller, I had a hunch who the sitter of this portrait was. My offer accepted, I only later determined “gay interest” was only the tip of the iceberg.

After some sleuthing, I discovered this portrait had seemingly been published only one time in 1919: as the dust-jacket illustration to a limited-edition posthumous work on Traubel written by his biographer David Karsner, a close friend who describes him as part Karl Marx and Jesus of Nazareth, and “in possession of a point of view which issues a labor-conscious ‘warning and challenge.” (2.)

But unlike the aforementioned staid portraits, which always show him wearing a shirt or jacket- this profile view was unusual for the time in which it was made- 1910-bare-shouldered, and thus sans shirt. When I finally made out the signature of the person this particular print was dedicated to-personally inscribed by the sitter on the print surface recto to someone named “Wiksell” in the upper left corner, it all came together. For on the inside cover of the folder in which this portrait appears (when purchased it was framed) Traubel has inscribed several lines- a love poem, if you will, confirming the  sellers hunch, “For Percival Wiksell- 1910” :  

You don’t know me? I do not wonder: I dont know myself: I am at a loss about myself: 

You ask: who are you? and I shake my head : I look at you and say nothing:

I come to you but I could not tell why: I have something for you but I could not tell what:

Out of me some flower will blossom out of my seedthrow some harvest will come. – Horace Traubel

 (From Optimos:  “I Just Give You What I’ve Got”- 1910)

The recipient, Gustave Percival Wiksell, (1863-1940) was a Boston dentist who served as president of the Walt Whitman Fellowship from 1903-1919. So devoted was this disciple to the master that he went to the length of replicating the now famous pose Whitman took from a now lost 1854 daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison made into an engraving and used as the frontispiece illustration for the 1855 & 1856 editions of Whitman’s masterpiece Leaves of Grass.

Wiksell’s papers are now in the Library of Congress in Washington and he was known to have eulogized Horace Traubell at his funeral in 1919. More than one Traubel scholar lays out the evidence that Wiksell and he were more than good friends, but I will leave that for your own further inquiries.  (further attribution can be found in a cutline with this post)

Five years ago on July 4th, America’s birthday, I published a post featuring several vintage likenesses of Walt Whitman- “Oh Say Can you See?” and his importance to capturing the enduring spirit of our country. In this, Traubel certainly will never be magically rediscovered as the good gray poet’s literary successor (none other than H.L. Mencken derided his  poetry as “dishwatery imitations of Walt Whitman, around whom Horace, in Walt’s Camden days, revolved as an humble satellite.”) (3.) But his ideals as one spreading love as written in the lines at the top of this post-a socialist ideal in the vein of Whitman- are surely honorable and needed in the fractured American present. Instead of cleaved partisan camps and tribes seemingly taking over our national conversation, how about a bit more love comrades? Socialism has nothing to do with that last word, by the way. Instead, let’s celebrate the ideals of our national melting pot, and give all her citizenry power to the truth of  her motto: “E Pluribus Unum” – Out of Many, One.

Just what Horace would have wanted.

Notes:

1. Excerpt: The Guardian (online): Julianne McShane: “Walt Whitman: celebrating an extraordinary life in his bicentennial”: June 12, 2019. One hundred thirty photographic portraits of Walt Whitman have been identified to date.

2. Excerpt: Online resource Poetrybay: Fall, 2009:  commentary on Traubel by Karsner. 

3.  Excerpt: Review: “Optimos” : “Novels for Hot Afternoons”: H.L. Mencken: The Smart Set: July, 1911.