Andrew Dickson White Architectural Photographs Collection

Mieusement. Coutances Cathedral detail.
Séraphin Médéric Mieusement, Coutances Cathedral (detail), ca. 1874-1890. Albumen print photograph. 15/5/3090.00368. Andrew Dickson White Architectural Photographs Collection, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
Historic Photographic Processes
Overview
Andrew Dickson White began collecting photographs for his architectural library in the 1860s, amassing images in the 1880s. Very early photographic processes such as the daguerreotype or the calotype (both of which generally date from the 1840s and 1850s) are not represented in the collection. Rather, most of the photographs are either albumen prints or early gelatin silver prints and are mounted on board or in albums. The majority were produced by commercial photographic studios as unmounted architectural or touristic photographs, and were mounted by a third party before reaching the Department of Architecture at Cornell. Read about some of the collection’s highlights.

W J Stillman signature, detail

William James Stillman, The Acropolis: Propylaea(detail of signature), 1869. Albumen print photograph. 15/5/3090.00286. Andrew Dickson White Architectural Photographs Collection, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
 
Photographers Represented

 
 

Abdullah Frères*
Wilhelm Aurisch
Fratelli Alinari†
James Anderson
Edouard-Denis Baldus†
Antoine Beato
Francis Bedford
Henry Bedford Lemere*
Guillaume Berggren
Bisson Frères*
Félix Bonfils†
Abel Briquet
Giacomo Brogi*
F. H. Bödeker
Georges Brun
C. N.
Tancrède R. Dumas
Harry C. Ellis
Fairchild Aerial Surveys
L. Fiorillo
Francis Frith*
Henry Fuermann
Wilhelm Hammerschmidt
Silas H. Holmes
Incorpora
G. Jagemann
Lina Jonn
Georg Koppmann
Gustave Lancelot*
Juan Laurent†

 

Léon & Lévy
Fay Sturtevant Lincoln
Lindahl
McLaughlin Aerial Surveys
Dr. E. Mertens & Co.
Séraphin Médéric Mieusement†
Romualdo Moscioni
Moulton-Erickson Co.
Carlo Naya†
Neurdein Frères*
R. Newall and Son
Notman Photo Company
John Brampton Philpot
S. E. Poulton
Paul Robert
Anselm Schmitz
J. Pascal Sébah*
Axel Sjöberg
Franklin W. Smith
Giorgio Sommer
William James Stillman*
Francis G. O. Stuart
Harold Taylor
Joseph Trompette
Irving Underhill
James Valentine*
J. Enrico Van Lint
C. H. Whitaker
George Washington Wilson
X. Phot.
Zangaki Brothers*

 

* = over 25 images

† = over 100 images
Details
Highlights of the Collection History of the Collection
Photographic Processes: Further Reading:
The Albumen Print Brief Bibliography of Works on Photographic Processes and Technology
The Gelatin Silver Print Internet Resources
The Cyanotype
For information about copyright issues and securing permission to publish digital reproductions of images from the A. D. White Architectural Photographs Collection, please consult our Copyright & Permissions Page

The A. D. White Project is funded by a grant from the
Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
and by a gift from Mr. Patrick A. Gerschel.

The participation of the Cornell Insititute for Digital Collections
has been funded by a gift from Mr. Arthur S. Penn.
 
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