PHOTOGRAPHY THEN (1898-1913)

Photography, the amazing invention of the 19th century, was to the industrial revolution what the internet phenomenon is to the information age today.Its dramatic story began in the l830's in France and England and soon the U.S. The history of film and cameras, their inventors, technologies, breakthroughs, competition and triumphs is fascinating. You can read about it at these excellent web sites:

A History of Photography by R. Leggat.
Daguerre Society

But the exciting story of the Victorian era was the sudden availability of photography to the average person ...hobbyist, traveler or seeker of modern magic. Instead of wet glass plates, along came portable, affordable cameras with gelatin dry plates. In 1887 Hannibal Goodwin developed a pliable celluloid film. On the heels of that, George Eastman launched his box-shaped film-loaded apparatus, the "Kodak," which enjoyed a huge success. (To get your prints, you sent it, box and all, back to the factory.)

By 1897, there were small, folding cameras with bellows, and local processors had sprung up who developed and printed for you. Or you could do it yourself. For the first time ever, people on both sides of the Atlantic began to document faces and places of their everyday life, families and events.

Edward was one such enthusiast, but I don't know exactly what equipment he used. His children remembered his glass dry plates, and how he fussed and hovered over his camera under a black cloth. He had his processing done by a local studio. The best thing about his photos was his methodical record-keeping.

The Minnesota Historical Society has over 300 of Edward Fairbrother's images on file, many of them on the MHS website. keyword: Fairbrother, and check: Photos.You can order prints directly from them.

Some of the pictures in my Granddad's albums are over 100 years old and in good condition...a testament to good old black-and-white. Most of the original prints I scanned for this web site are 6-1/2" x 4-1/2". The Christmas tree prints from 1898 and 1899 are 3-3/4" x 4- 3/4" (and not very sharp). They seem to be from an earlier camera.