1842 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNALS

 

Version:  Nov. 24, 2020

 

Journals listed in alphabetical order:

                        The TIMES [London]

 

1842  TIMES:

NOTES:

            --Data has been gathered online using various word searches in the Times, which is somewhat hit-and-miss.  Sometimes relevant entries were missed with that search but found through other searches.  Thus one cannot rely on the Times word searches for complete accuracy.  There are likely to be inadvertent omissions.

            --Data has been organized by name or company title.  This is easier to research given multiple ads.

                        ~Names: 

                                    --When incomplete name published and full name is known, it has been

                                                provided in brackets.  Names in ALL CAPS. are in the

                                                photography business; those w/o caps are not photographers and

                                                their names might not have been indexed (e.g. if they were just

                                                selling a camera but not in the business).  

--When I searched avail. City and business directories, London

                                                Photographers A-Z, and Ancestry.com, and did not find full

                                                names, “[?]” has been noted.  If unknown or several poss.

                                                candidates, no data has been provided. 

--Names in want ads were sometimes pseudonyms. They may, or may not

            have been entered.  My judgement.

                                    --Initials only listed.  When poss. these have been searched.  If still

                                                unidentifiable, they are listed under “Initials Only” section

                                    --Occupations.  Opticians, jewelers, publishers, framers, stationers, etc.

                                                were also involved in the photographic business.  When someone

                                                is known to have a different occupation, that is noted.  When

                                                likely not a photographer but occupation cannot be ascertained,

                                                “nog” = “no occupation given” is used.  Non-photographers who

                                                were merely advertising to sell or buy photographic items have

                                                normally not been indexed in the master list of names.

                        ~Anonymous entries:  These ads usually have addresses.  Until they can be linked

                                    to a specific photographer or company, they are entered as anonymous. 

                                    The London Post Office Directory for 1856 (earlier one is 1851) has been

                                    useful as organized by streets with building numbers and names as well as

                                    business directory.  If a match could be made, it was referenced under the

                                    “Names” section; if only possible matches, then entry remains under

                                    anonymous with suggestion.

            --Addresses are in London or Middlesex unless noted.

            --Dates for ads are rendered as month/day/, i.e. “(1/3) = “Jan. 3”.  Many ads ran for long

                        periods of time. Only the first date an ad was located has been entered.  This may

                        not be the first true entry, only the first found.

            --Page numbers added only for articles, not for ads given their high volume.  Page #s can

                        frequently be located doing an on-line search.

            --Indexer’s discretion has been used in selecting which ads to index.  Want ads for

 equipment, studios, etc. normally entered only when they can be associated with

a specific person or relevant address.  Indexer’s prerogative.  Erred on data

capture side.

 

 

1842    TIMES [London]:

 

* DATA TAKEN FROM ONLINE SOURCE FOR 1842

 

              ANONYMOUS, c/o another person, or clearly not a photographer:   

 

             INITIALS, PSEUDONYMS ONLY:

                       

*          NAMES/TITLES from ADS:

                        BEARD, -- [Richard]:

                                    [NOTE:  See March 30 article, transcription below]

                                    --Royal Polytechnic Institution, Regent St.; 34 Parliament St.; 85 King

                                                William St. (7/16)

                                    --Daguerreotype process exhibited and explained at 2:00 each day (7/20)

                                    --Seeking investor to cooperate on an invention (12/23)

                        CLAUDET, -- [Antoine François Jean]:

                                      [NOTE:  See July 19 article, transcription below]

                                    --Royal Adelaide Gallery, Lowther Arcade, West Strand (2/16)

                                                [Note:  Houghton not mentioned]

                                    --New patented improved process for instantaneous daguerreotype

                                                portraits (2/16)

                                    --Has fitted up a convenient, comfortable and elegant room above the

                                                Gallery for taking portraits (2/16)

                                    --Price for single portrait in case, one guinea; groups of two one and a half

                                                guineas, family groups—two children for half a guinea) (2/16)

                                    --Process takes less than one second so can take dags. of infants, horses,

                                                dogs etc.  Has taken Her Majesty’s horses.  Backgrounds include

                                                landscapes and interiors. (6/8)

                                    --Portraits made of operatic personalities Rachel, Cerito, Guy Stephan, and

                                                Fleury (7/19 article)

                        COLLEN, -- [Henry]

                                    --29 Somerset St., Portman Square (5/21)

                                    --Miniature painter to the Queen; taking calotype portraits (5/21)

 

            [Royal Adelaide Gallery = see Claudet]

            [Royal Polytechnic Institution = see Beard]

 

NEWS STORIES:

            --The Times, March 30, 1842, p. 4:

                        “The Photographic Gallery in Parliament Street.  These rooms having now been

            thrown open to the public, we yesterday paid them a second visit, and were delighted to

            observe, in the number and quality of the sitters, a fair appreciation, on the part of the

            public, of the great improvements recently introduced in Photography to the ingenious

            and enterprising patentee.  Indeed the progress Mr. Bears has made within a few months,

            in bringing, we might say to perfection, this surprising discovery, must at once stagger

            the most credulous.  From the rough and somber outlines of the Daguerreotype he has

            attained perfect chiaroscuro, with all freshness, delicacy, and warmth of the most

            exquisitely painted miniature.  Not only does he “hold the mirror up to nature,” and

            transcribe the leading features and predominant expression with unfailing exactitude, but

            all the fleshy hues and tints, the play of emotion, the glow of breathing life in the “human

            face divine,” are all embodied in his portraits.  At this season of the year, when so many

            of our juvenile friends are enjoying their holydays [sic] in town, we would strongly

            recommend a visit to Mr. Beard.  They will not only be highly delighted with the

            numerous specimens in exhibition, but they will be enabled, for a trifling sum, to secure

            an elegant, finished, and what is or more importance, a correct likeness of themselves. 

            The suite of rooms which Mr. Beard has taken are very tastefully fitted up, and being in

            the immediate vicinity of Westminster Hall, we beg to bespeak in his favour the special

            patronage of Members of Parliament.”

 

            --The Times, July 19, 1842, p.3: 

                        “M. Claudet.—This gentleman, who takes likenesses in the daguerreotype on the summit of the Adelaide Gallery, is succeeding rapidly now the merits of his process become generally known.  The Queen Dowager has honoured him with a visit, and has had her likeness taken, and his collection of specimens is daily increasing.  A single instant will suffice for him to catch a perfect resemblance, but when he wants the light and shade to be contrasted with extreme sharpness, or, as the technical phrase is, when he requires the best “definition,” the person should sit for a few seconds, and a clear fully shadowed likeness is produced, which is quite equal to a fine mezzotinto.  For those who can bear a full light, a seat in the open air on the roof of the gallery is the best situation for a likeness, but for those whose eyes are too weak for such endurance, a little room with blue glass windows is provided.  The backgrounds of the portraits are painted on canvas, and are slid in grooves much in the same manner as the scenes at the theatre.  The necessity of giving a blue colour to the windows of the little room is owing to some curious properties of coloured light, which are, it seems, as yet inexplicable by any known optical laws.  Blue and white are the only lights that are capable of making any impression on the prepared silver plate, and therefore when a likeness is taken it must be either in the pure light, or in light admitted through a blue medium.  The laboratory, therefore, is illuminated by red and yellow glass, as the plate goes here after the likeness is taken, merely for the purpose of being washed, &c., and it is essential that no light should be admitted which would affect it.  It is understood that M. Claudet means to write a paper for the Royal Society on the different properties of light which have become known in the course of experiments on the daguerreotype, and thus furnish a collection of facts from which the scientific may deduce a law.  Even to those who do not desire a likeness, M. Claudet’s collection is well worth inspection, and his portraits of Rachel, Cerito, Guy Stephan, and Fleury, furnish a test of his merits to all the visitors of the opera.