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Description: | Among the historic images held by the RPS are Fox Talbot's (1800-1877) portrait of his wife, Constance, a salted paper print taken in October 1840 and believed to be the first portrait ever taken on paper; and Joseph Nicephore Niepce's (1765-1833) Cardinal d'Amboise, heliograph on pewter, 1826. There are also photographic portraits of all the leading British photographers since Fox Talbot.
In detail, the collection comprises four elements:
Firstly, negatives on paper (late 1830s-1850s), large format negatives on glass (1850s-1890s), quarter plate negatives on glass (1890-1930) and negatives on file base, much nitrate, some safety film, 35 mm film strips, etc.
Secondly, monochrome and colour photographic prints on paper dating from 1830 to the present day.
Thirdly, positive images on metal, glass and film (non-negative, non-print material), loosely grouped as positive images on glass, metal and other media, including a large collection of experimental colour photography, the largest group is lantern slides from early pre-photographic painted subjects of the 1850s to black and white slides of the 1950s, and autochromes.
Fourthly, a substantial collection of equipment, ranging from early experimental equipment pre-dating the announcement of the discovery of photography to the modern day and comprising some 6,500 objects.
Major collections of the work of particular photographers are numerous, just a few are: three of the few surviving heliographs by Nicephore Niepce and one inked print dated 1826/7; over 200 paper negatives and positives by Fox Talbot, plus prototype cameras and equipment, letters, notebooks, etc; 350 salt prints b David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson from the mid 1840s, as well as their reflecting mirror; 780 albumen and salt prints, the largest collection in existence, by Roger Fenton; 'The Two Ways of Life', 1857, by Oscar Gustav Rejlander, a rare combination photograph printed from 32 different glass negatives; 100 photographs and large format glass negatives by Henry Peach Robinson; the world's largest collection of portrait and genre photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron, 780 in total from the 1860s and 1870s; and many more.
This is one of the foremost photographic collections, including both equipment and images, and containing items from the earliest days of photogrphy to the present day. The emphasis is on British photography, both technical and aesthetic; British 19th century photography; and British, European and American Secession and international pictorial photography from the turn of the 20th century to the present day. There are major collections of portraiture, travel photography and the history of colour photography. | Subjects: | Photographic equipment Photography | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | Address: | The Octagon
Milsom Street
Bath,
BA1 1DN | FAX: | 01225 448 688 | Telephone: | 01225 462 841 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:2933 | Go to resource |
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