IMPORTANT COLLECTION OF GLASS PLATE NEGATIVES TAKEN FROM THE 1873 FIRST EDITION OF BRADFORD’S ARCTIC REGIONS

(DUNMORE, John and CRICHERSON George) BRADFORD, William. Collection of glass negatives taken from albumen photograph illustrations in Bradford’s Arctic Regions. London: circa 1873. 24 wet-plate collodion negatives (3 by 4 inches), housed in original fitted wooden case.

Collection of 24 vintage glass negatives taken from among the 141 mounted albumen photographic prints by John Dunmore and George Critcherson in Bradford’s Arctic Regions, possibly used to produce positive lantern slides for Bradford’s lectures.

Inspired by Elisha Kane and Lord Dufferin’s accounts of the Arctic, American painter William Bradford related his desire to explore the coast of Labrador to prominent New York art collector LeGrand Lockwood, who agreed to finance the outfitting of a reinforced sealing ship The Panther, and to back the entire expedition. The expedition took place during the summer of 1869 “solely for the purposes of art,” although Bradford and his companions did find time for hunting. The photographs of the expedition— the best of which are more than a match for the work of Ponting and Hurley taken in Antarctica 30 to 40 years later— are by John Dunmore and George Cricherson from the James Wallace Black Studio in Boston. Looking at the images it is easy to imagine the hardships that this pair of photographers must have endured. Using relatively primitive large format plate cameras in highly hostile conditions, they managed to capture the majestic beauty of the region. The photographs were used to illustrate Bradford’s monumental Arctic Regions (1873), considered a landmark in the use of photographs as book illustrations, with 141 tipped-in albumen prints. The images were also used by Bradford as inspiration for a series of large scale paintings he later created in his New York studio, one of which was commissioned by Queen Victoria. The Royal Institution also invited him to lecture. The purpose of this collection of 24 glass negatives is not known, though they seem to be made directly from the mounted albumens in Arctic Regions. They are the size of lantern slides, and therefore may have been used to produce positives for Bradford’s lecture series. Subjects include a map of the area explored, close-ups of The Panther with icebergs, crew members, polar bear hunts, isolated icebergs and rough terrain, and landscapes of shoreline villages. With “Ice Negatives” in pencil manuscript on the interior of the lid. See Grolier Truthful Lens 24; Gernsheim, Incunabula of British Photography (1984) 570; Horch, “Photographs and Paintings of William Bradford,” The American Art Journal 5:195-216 (1973).

Fine condition.