Morrison-Low, Alison D. (2009) Photographic collections at National Museums Scotland – a review
of the past quarter century. Studies in Photography, 2009. pp. 38-43. ISSN 1462-0510
Copies of Studies in Photography can be obtained from the Scottish Society for the History of
Photography; details can be found on the Society’s website: http://www.sshop.org.uk/ .
http://repository.nms.ac.uk/158/
Deposited on: 7 September 2010
1
Photographic Collections at National Museums Scotland – a review of the past
quarter century.
A.D. Morrison-Low, National Museums Scotland
When I arrived at what was then the Royal Scottish Museum in 1980, the
photographic collections fell to me, as one of four senior curators (in those days we
were called Assistant Keepers). This was because I looked after ‘optics’, meaning
specifically microscopes, and cameras have an optical component. However, I rapidly
discovered that some of our material collected earlier in the twentieth century was
really extremely significant – and one of the first papers I gave was to a certain
landmark conference in 1983, discussing our John Adamson calotype albums, which
were presented to the museum in 1942 by John Adamson’s son and grandson. 1
One of our first camera acquisitions was a gift: an unsigned early daguerreotype
camera [Fig.1], donated in 1925 by one James Adams of Dunfermline. (Virtually
nothing photographic had entered the collections in the nineteenth century, although
we did obtain a wooden camera, dissected to show how it worked, in 1899.) Despite
being unsigned, this metal instrument was probably made by the Edinburgh pioneer
camera-maker, Thomas Davidson, who made photographic apparatus for – among
others – David Brewster, and Hill and Adamson. 2 And in 1936, we were given a
world-class selection of extremely early and significant material, both images and
apparatus, by the grand-daughter of the originator of positive-negative photography
himself, William Henry Fox Talbot. 3 But other photographic items had accrued in an
ad hoc and not very organised way, so that the collection needed a bit of thought and
some structure.
2
Anyway, I did some thinking, took some advice, and we acquired some rather nice
pieces at auction in the early eighties: a Dubroni outfit, where the wet collodion image
is processed inside the camera; and a single-lens stereo camera outfit by Thomas
Ottewill of London [Fig. 2] which satisfactorily complements the earlier twin-lens
stereo camera by J. Dallmeyer that had been presented to the Museum in 1967. 4 As
early as 1981, a fine folding wooden camera retailed by the Dundee maker George
Lowden, with lens by Andrew Ross had come to us in the Arthur Frank Collection of
Scientific Instruments. 5
By the time the Scottish Society for the History of Photography was founded in 1983,
the collecting policies between ourselves and the National Galleries of Scotland had
been hammered out: National Museums Scotland [NMS] collects (essentially)
apparatus and images relating to techniques, while the National Galleries collects
images. But in fact, my department (now named ‘Science and Technology’, although
it has had other permutations of this title since it was first formed in 1901) in NMS
also collects images as products of various technological processes, and this gives me
rather more scope in my collecting. In the 25 years which have passed since the
foundation of this Society, the Scottish national collections of photographic
instruments and apparatus have been boosted by two particularly significant
collections: the ‘Kodak’ collection, and the Howarth-Loomes collection, besides
innumerable small but no less important gifts and acquisitions.
The so-called ‘Kodak collection’ was made up of over 500 redundant cameras which
had been handed in by their owners to Kodak in exchange for their new product,
3
[Page 40]
the Disc camera [Fig.3], launched in 1982. NMS has subsequently acquired further
examples of the Disc camera for the collection, all mysteriously in mint condition. 6
The new film format proved unpopular, principally because the image on the negative
was only 11 mm by 8 mm, leading to generally unacceptable grain and poor definition
in the final prints. By the end of the 1990s, the Kodak Disc format had long
disappeared. In the first flush of enthusiasm of their ‘new lamps for old’ scheme, the
Kodak Museum (then based at Harrow, under the wise curatorship of Brian Coe) took
the first group of cameras acquired in this way, with the London Science Museum
(whose photography curator then was John Ward) obtaining the second selection.
Both of these groupings (together with their enormous and definitive main
collections) are now to be found at the National Media Museum at Bradford, while
the third selection – mainly of post Second World War material, and for the greater
part those at the cheaper end of the market – came to National Museums Scotland,
and forms the basis of the late twentieth century camera collection. The ‘Kodak
collection’ contains a particularly good range of Polaroid cameras [Fig. 4], one of the
few firms manufacturing cameras in Scotland at this, or indeed any, period. 7
This ‘Kodak collection’ contains a whole variety of popular post Second World War
cameras, and as such meant that NMS had acquired in one 500-part gift the social
history of the camera from about 1945 to 1982. However, it did not solely contain
items from the cheaper end of the camera market (as one might have expected, given
its origins), but ranged from that to more expensive 35mm material which
complemented what was already there – in the collection by now were a number of
representative Leicas [Fig 5], 8 together with examples of other efforts to break into
4
this market through imitation – examples of the Contax I, made by Zeiss-Ikon in
Germany, the British Periflex, the Russian FED and the American Argus ‘Model A’. 9
Later 35mm cameras could be somewhat cheaper – the Russian ‘Zorki 4’, the ‘Pet’,
made in Hong Kong by Halina, and two British plastic contenders, the Kodak Auto
Colorsnap 35, and the Ilford ‘Sprite 35’. 10 Since 1983, NMS has also acquired some
really rather superior 35mm cameras – and expects to find more coming its way with
the advent of the digital age. 11 However, the ‘Kodak Collection’ also contains many
items at the less expensive end of the economic spectrum. Remember the Kodak
Instamatic, which used 35mm roll film? The Kodak Pocket Instamatic, which used a
cassette of roll film? Or Kodak’s unsuccessful attempt to break into Polaroid’s instant
market in 1976 with the EK4? All of these are represented in the national collection. 12
There are, nevertheless, some important landmark items in the collection. Thanks to
careful discussions with John Ward of the London Science Museum, and a detailed
reading of Brian Coe’s marvellous books on the history of the camera, NMS has
examples of the first folding plastic camera – the British-made Rajar No 6, made of
moulded
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black bakelite, and produced in 1929; the later British-made, British-designed Purma
Special, with its gravity-loaded shutter, also made of bakelite, dating from 1937; and
the greatly-admired Art Deco inspired design by Walter Dorwin Teague, the Kodak
Bantam Special of 1936 [Fig. 6]. 13 Post-war, perhaps only the Ilford 35mm ivorypainted aluminium cast Advocate II of about 1953 can compete in elegance with
these. 14
5
NMS managed to acquire examples of the short-lived and strike-bound Dundeemanufactured 35mm 3D Nimslo camera – in fact, one is currently on display in our
‘Scotland: A Changing Nation’ gallery. After a series of persuasive telephone calls I
travelled to Dundee by train, crept into the Timex factory at the back door to avoid a
picket-line, and was on the next train back to Edinburgh with one complete example,
another dismantled version showing how it worked, and the rather strange image
produced by the lenticular printing process. 15 By definition, NMS’s collecting
continues until yesterday and recent acquisitions include a couple of early digital
camera systems, one by Kodak, the other by Casio. 16
At the start of this report, the Howarth-Loomes Collection was mentioned. 17 I could
have easily spent my entire allotted time exploring the delights of this wonderful and
varied treasure trove. Bernard Howarth-Loomes and his wife Alma put together a
magnificent and enormous collection of principally stereoscopic material, including a
number of unusual viewers [Fig. 7], and this came to NMS in 2003 shortly after
Bernard sadly died. However, the Howarth-Loomes Collection is by no means
exclusively stereoscopic in its content, and covers the entire range of nineteenthcentury photography. There are some marvellous stereo daguerreotypes, some
outstanding ordinary daguerreotypes, including some made into jewellery, and it also
includes a whole-plate scene of Niagara Falls by Platt D. Babbitt [Fig. 8]. 18
In the Howarth-Loomes Collection, there are large numbers of ambrotypes and
tintypes, both positive processes, in various permutations, and in fairly substantial
numbers. There are considerably more cartes-de-visites, for instance, the famous
Robert Howlett portrait of the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, taken against the
6
chains of the Great Eastern. 19 There is also a substantial amount of pre-photographic
equipment: there are, for example, a couple of Claude Lorraine glasses, several
kaleidoscopes and a number of devices that move or deceive the eye into believing a
false ‘reality’, such as zograscopes, polyrama panoptiques, praxinoscopes, zoetropes
and phenakistascopes. 20 Not only are these unusual pieces in first-rate condition, but
there are associated contemporary prints and ephemera, the social documentation
which rarely survives and which has taken dedicated and unceasing collecting to draw
together.
I shall just end this outline report of the NMS collection with a couple of ‘star’ items
from the Howarth-Loomes Collection: ‘Alfred, Lord Tennyson’, by Julia Margaret
Cameron [Fig. 9], and an example of ‘The Onion Field’ by George Davison [Fig.
10]. 21 We have by no means completed the preliminary listing, the Howarth-Loomes
Collection is so large. We estimate that there are at least ten thousand stereo images
which need to be catalogued: this may take us another twenty-five years (we hope
not!), but
[Page 42]
at least these days with digitisation and the judicious use of volunteers, we have ways
of making it all – in due course – accessible.
As you may know, National Museums Scotland is currently partly closed: the Royal
Museum Project is a £46.4 million initiative to transform the magnificent Victorian
building and its facilities into something splendid for the twenty-first century public.
This project is now underway, with around half of the museum complex and displays
currently closed, including the Victorian main hall. The plan is that it will be
transformed into a world-class venue, re-opening in 2011. Collections have been
7
moved in the meantime to the National Museums Collection Centre off-site at
Granton in north Edinburgh, where they may be consulted after making an
appointment to view.
So please bear with us – normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!
References
1
The albums have inventory numbers NMS.T.1942.1.1 and 1.2, for which see A.D.
Morrison-Low, ‘Dr John and Robert Adamson: an early partnership in Scottish
photography’, Photographic Collector, 4 (1983), 199-214, subsequently republished as
‘Brewster, Talbot and the Adamsons: the Arrival of Photography in St Andrews’,
History of Photography, 25:2 (2001), 130-141.
2
NMS.T.1925.16: see Morrison-Low, op. cit. (1), above; also, A.D. Morrison-Low,
‘Instrument making and early photography’, Photohistorian, the Newsletter of the
Royal Photographic Society, No 149 (January 2007), 29-37.
3
NMS.T.1936.21-.38, .85-.108, .114, and T.1937.90: discussed by Larry J. Schaaf,
‘“Do not burn my history”: the physical evidence of W.H.F. Talbot’s creative mind’,
in Bernard Finn (ed.), Presenting Pictures (London, 2004), pp.129-145. Some of
these items are also discussed in A.D. Morrison-Low, ‘“Tripping the Light Fantastic”:
Henry Talbot and David Brewster’, Studies in Photography (2002-2003), 83-88.
4
The Ottewill & Co. camera (T.1981.20) and the Dallmeyer item, number 495
(T.1967.176), were both illustrated in A.D. Morrison-Low and A.D.C. Simpson, ‘A
New Dimension: a Context for Photography before 1860’, in Light from the Dark Room,
edited by Sara Stevenson (Edinburgh, 1995), pp.15-28.
5
T.1981.41, discussed along with other items from Lowdon’s workshop, in T.N.
Clarke, A.D. Morrison-Low and A.D.C. Simpson, Brass & Glass: Scientific Instrument
Making Workshops in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1989), 146-151.
6
These are the two original formats, the 4000 and the 6000 (T.1982.185 and
T.1982.186) presented by Kodak Ltd; the 8000 (T.2007.115) and the 3600
(T.2008.20): discussed by Brian Coe, Kodak Cameras: the First Hundred Years
(Hove, 1988), 261-65.
7
NMS has 35 different Polaroid cameras in the collection, including the pioneering
Model 95 of 1948 (T.1977.69), the Model 20 Swinger of 1965, which was aimed
successfully at the popular market (T.1983.73), and the more expensive leathercovered SX-70 of 1972 (T.1983.74): see Brian Coe, Cameras: From Daguerreotypes
to Instant Pictures (London, 1978), 177-188.
8
Leica I, 1929 (T.1983.51); Leica II, 1937 (T.1977.42); Leica IIIa, 1935 (T.1977.52):
for the story of the firm, see Gianni Rogliatti, Leica, the First 50 Years second edition
(Hove, 1979); for some among the many discussions for collectors, see Paul-Henry
Van Hasbroek, The Leica: A History Illustrating every Model and Accessory
(London, 1983); Dennis Laney, Leica Collectors Guide (Hove, 1992).
9
Contax I, made first in 1932 (T.1982.3) in Germany: see D.B. Tubbs, Zeiss Ikon
Cameras 1926-1939 (Hove, 1977); the Periflex, made about 1955 (T.1982.17): see
J.E. Lewis, It’s by Corfield, it must be good: the Periflex Story (Norwich, 1985); the
8
Russian FED of 1937 (T.1979.25) and the American Argus Model A of about 1936
(T.1982.42), and other Leica imitations in NMS’s collections: see HPR, Leica Copies
(London, 1994), and Roger Hicks, A History of the 35mm Still Camera (London and
Boston, 1984), and Coe, op. cit. (7), 111-122.
10
The Zorki 4, made from 1956 (T.1982.298) was apparently the first of the Zorki
cameras to be exported in large numbers to the West: see
http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Zorki_4 ; the Halina ‘Pet’ was made around 1962
(T.1982.243): see http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Halina_Pet; the UK-made Kodak Auto
Colorsnap
35
dates
from
1962
to
1964:
see
http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Kodak_Auto_Colorsnap_35; and the Ilford ‘Sprite 35’ came
from a company that began in 1879, and the name still exists today, although no
longer based in the Essex town from which it takes its name:
http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Ilford.
11
For instance: an example of the Nikon F, made around 1960 (T.1987.10); an Asahi
Pentax ‘Spotmatic’, 1964 (T.1989.67); and Olympus AM-100, 1987 (T.2003.107) and
a Ricoh 35mm ZF (T.2005.59).
12
There are far too many examples of these in NMS’s collection to
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list individually here (typing the words ‘Kodak’ and ‘camera’ into the inventory
provides 242 hits); all are individually described in great detail by Coe, op. cit. (6).
13
The Rajar No 6 (T.1982.84), the Purma Special (T.1981.47) and the Kodak Bantam
Special (T.1982.142) are all described by Coe, op. cit. (7), 107, 129-131, and 128-9.
14
The Advocate Mark II camera (T.1982.20) had a larger lens and flash
synchronisation, unlike its predecessor, the Mark I: see Andrew J. Holliman, Faces,
People and Places: the Cameras of Ilford Limited 1899 to 2005 (Newark, 2006), 6482.
15
The Nimslo camera (T.1983.32, .33 and .34) was devised by Jerry Curtis Nims and
Allen Kwok Wah Lo of Georgia, United States, hence the name of the camera and its
process: http://camerapedia.org/wiki/Nimslo.
16
The Kodak Professional DCS Digital Camera System was manufactured in 1991
(T.2003.153), and the Casio QV-8000SX LCD digital camera and accessories
(T.2006.27) dates from around 1999.
17
The sole description of the Howarth-Loomes Collection across all its components to
date remains B.E.C. Howarth-Loomes, Victorian Photography: a Collector’s Guide
(London, 1974), Bernard Howarth-Loomes’s assessment of his collection some thirty
years before his death in 2003. Since the book’s publication he and his wife Alma
devoted much time and effort to adding to the collection, centred on stereoscopy, but
containing much more. Recently, the National Monuments Record (based in
Swindon) which holds copies of all stereo cards with English subjects from the
Howarth-Loomes Collection, published Ann Saunders, Historic Views of London:
Photographs from the Collection of B.E.C. Howarth-Loomes (Swindon, 2008): NMS
staff have been listing the collection’s contents since 2003.
18
Platt D. Babbitt (1827-72) ran a photographic studio at Niagara Falls for many
years: http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=2841.
19
Copies of the Howlett images from the Howarth-Loomes Collection were lent to the
London Science Museum’s exhibition ‘Fame and Fortune’ in May 2006 to celebrate
the bicentenary of the great engineer.
9
20
For a general history of these devices, see, for instance, Laurent Mannoni and
Werner Nekes, Eyes, Lies and Illusions: the Art of Deception (London, 2004), or
Barbara Stafford, Devices of Wonder: from the World in a Box to Images on a Screen
(Los Angleles, 2001).
21
For Julia Margaret Cameron, see Julian Cox and Colin Ford, Julia Margaret
Cameron: the Complete Photographs (Los Angeles, 2003); this example, an albumen
print dating from 1869, was illustrated in Howarth-Loomes, op. cit. (17), 60. For
George Davison, see Roy Flukinger et al., Paul Martin: Victorian Photographer
(London, 1977), 33-34, Margaret F. Harker, The Linked Ring: the Secession
Movement in Photography in Britain, 1892-1910 (London, 1979), 31, 149-50 and
Beaumont Newhall, The History of Photography from 1839-to the Present (London,
1982), 144. The photogravure of ‘The Onion Field’ was produced for Camera Work
XVIII, 1890.
1. Brass daguerreotype camera, unsigned, but by Thomas Davidson, Edinburgh,
c. 1840. National Museums Scotland. © National Museums Scotland.
10
2. Single-lens stereo camera outfit, by T. Ottewill & Co., London, c. 1857. National
Museums Scotland. © National Museums Scotland.
3. Kodak Disc cameras: 4000, 6000 and 8000, c. 1982-84; 3600, c. 1986-88. National
Museums Scotland. © National Museums Scotland.
11
4. Polaroid Model 95 camera, c. 1948; Polaroid Swinger Model 20, c. 1965-70;
Polaroid SX-70, c.1972. National Museums Scotland. © National Museums
Scotland.
5. Small-format 35mm camera, Leica 1, by Ernst Leitz, Germany, 1929. National
Museums Scotland. © National Museums Scotland.
12
6. Kodak Bantam Special camera, c. 1936-48. National Museums Scotland.
© National Museums Scotland.
7. Hirst & Wood ‘Natural’ stereoscope, patented 1862. Howarth-Loomes
Collection, National Museums Scotland. © National Museums Scotland.
13
8. Platt D Babbitt, Niagra Falls, whole plate daguerreotype, 1853-c. 1870.
Howarth-Loomes Collection, National Museums Scotland. © National Museums
Scotland.
9. Julia Margaret Cameron , Alfred, Lord Tennyson, albumen print, 1869.
Howarth-Loomes Collection. National Museums Scotland. © National Museums
Scotland.
14
10. George Davidson, The Onion Field, photogravure, 1890. Howarth-Loomes
Collection, National Museums Scotland. © National Museums Scotland.
15