Boston Camera Club

The Boston Camera Club is the primary amateur photographic organization in the immediate vicinity of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1881, it offers activities of interest to amateur photographers. It meets six times monthly and is open to the public.

Contents

History

Photography was introduced publicly in 1839.[1] For some decades practice was limited largely to professionals because it involved laborious wet-plate processes.[2]

Amateur photography in the United States received a major impetus in 1880 when Eastman Kodak introduced dry plates--glass plates with dried emulsion that were easier to handle than wet plates. In 1888, Kodak introduced flexible roll medium (first paper and soon film) and third-party processing. These innovations brought photography to the masses.[3]

Camera club photography typically used glass plates until the early 20th century, when the technical and artistic capabilities of film could approach that of glass. Outside processing was typically not permitted in clubs until the color photography era.

Boston Society of Amateur Photographers (1881)

The club known today as the Boston Camera Club was founded October 7, 1881 in Boston as the Boston Society of Amateur Photographers, thereby making it the second-oldest continuously extant amateur camera club in the United States.[4][5]

The club was founded by F. H. Blair, James M. Codman, W. C. Greenough, A. P. Howard, Lucius L. Hubbard, Frederick Ober, and John H. Thurston,[6] among whom Thurston had the most influential role. At first, temporary officers were elected.

The seven men were joined on November 18, 1881 by James F. Babcock (1844–1897),[7] William T. Brigham, Wilfred A. French[8] and William A. Hovey, at which time permanent officers were elected: Brigham president, Babcock vice president, and French secretary and treasurer.

The club first met temporarily at the offices of the Boston Sunday Budget, then regularly at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (then in Boston).

Boston Camera Club (1886)

As amateur photography in the United States became more widespread, in 1886 the club changed its name to the Boston Camera Club. On April 6, 1887, it incorporated in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts under the new name,[9] stating as its purpose the promotion of "the knowedge of photography in all its branches and the promotion of social intercourse among the amateur photographers of Boston and vicinity".[10][11]

50 Bromfield Street (1886–1924)

In 1886, the year it became the Boston Camera Club, the club established headquarters at 50 Bromfield Street, Boston.[12][13] The address may have been selected due to its being the place of business of both club founder John H. Thurston[14] and member Charles Henry Currier (1851–1938).[15]

The club had eight rooms:

"There is a well-selected library ...; a large exhibition gallery ...; a studio ... fitted with screens, cameras, and 2 of the finest Dallmeyer portrait lenses, also a fine double stereopticon; an enlarging room, with apparatus for making bromide enlargements, enlarged negatives and lantern slides by the use of an electric arc light; dark rooms ... [etc.]."[16]

The club occupied 50 Bromfield Street until 1924.[17]

Early 20th century difficulties

For reasons not yet researched, financial difficulties developed by 1913 and lasted through the 1920s. Membership dropped and meetings were much less frequent.[17]

During this period the club was kept alive by the financial and other efforts of Frank Roy Fraprie (1874–1951), Phineas Hubbard (club president from at least 1908-1913), Horace A. Latimer (1860–1931) and club founder John Thurston. Relinquishing 50 Bromfield Street in 1924, the club met for some years at Boston Young Men's Christian Union (YMCU).[18]

Horace A. Latimer bequest (1931)

In 1931, a bequest by club member Horace A. Latimer, an independently wealthy amateur photographer of some renown,[19] reinvigorated the Boston Camera Club.[20] With the funds, the club would soon purchase new headquarters. But first, it moved temporarily to 330 Newbury Street, Boston, which it occupied until 1934.

351A Newbury Street (1934–1980)

In 1934 the Boston Camera Club purchased a building at 351A Newbury Street, Boston with part of Horace Latimer's bequest. The club occupied three floors, which included a large and small exhibition gallery, library and kitchen.

Membership in the club grew again, reaching 286 members in 1946.[21] In that year, the club decided for tax purposes to sell its 351A building but remain in the building as a lessee.[22]

Growth continued, reaching 555 in 1959 — 492 regular, 51 associate, and 4 honorary members — a level the club maintained for some two decades. Besides post-war prosperity, the growth is attributable to the introduction of 35mm film by Kodak in the 1930s, and the single lens reflex (SLR) 35mm camera by Nikon, Pentax and others in the 1960s.

Brookline, Massachusetts (1980–present)

In 1980, the 351A Newbury Street building was sold and the club moved from Boston to the adjacent town of Brookline, Massachusetts. In 1997 it moved to its second and current Brookline location.

In the 1980s and 1990s membership again declined dramatically, a trend attributable to camera automation (for example autofocus and programmed exposure, which reduced the need for camera instruction), consumer video, and other factors.

Since 2000 membership has increased again to about 150 today, due in large part to the club's emphasis on digital photography.[23]

Prominent members

Because the Boston Camera Club was founded before amateur photography was widespread,[5] many early members were advanced practitioners, even noted photographers, if often better known in other fields.

Prominent club members have included Emma J. Fitz;[24] Maine photographic pioneer Emma D. Sewall (1836–1919);[25] two collaborators of Alexander Graham Bell, Prof. Charles R. Cross (1848–1921)[26] and camera shutter inventor Francis Blake, Jr. (1850–1913);[27] painter Sarah Jane Eddy (1851–1945);[28] astronomers Percival Lowell (1855–1916)[29] and William Henry Pickering (1858–1938); painter, photographer and Boston arts patron Sarah Choate Sears (1858–1935); Wilfred A. French, publisher and editor of Photo-Era; electric car manufacturer George Edward Cabot (1861–1946);[30] photographer and publisher Fred Holland Day (1864–1933);[31][32] photographic author and publisher Frank Roy Fraprie (1874–1951); Gloucester Fisherman's Memorial sculptor Leonard Craske (1882–1950); photographic educator Adolf Fassbender (1884–1980); painter Emil Gruppé (1896–1978); post-Secessionist photographer and watercolorist Eleanor Parke Custis (1897–1983);[33][34] and inventor of the photographic strobe Harold E. Edgerton (1903–1990).

Exhibitions and salons

The exhibition history of the Boston Camera Club is long and somewhat complex, with the club participating in four categories of exhibitions.

First, the club has held numerous exhibitions by its members, sometimes ambitious. In the 1890s, it engaged in a noted series of joint exhibitions with other clubs. Until perhaps the mid-20th century, it mounted exhibitions by noted outside photographers. And for half the 20th century it hosted an annual international photographic salon.

Early club exhibitions

Around 1883 the Boston Society of Amateur Photographers, as the club was first known, held its first exhibition at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an unusually large show of some 700 photographic prints. Annual member group shows were also being held around 1888 and continued for some years.[35][36]

In 1892 club members exhibited in the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association's triennial exhibition.[37]

In the club's seventh and tenth member exhibitions in 1895 and 1898, Emma Sewall received top award.[38] Sarah Jane Eddy and painter and Photo-Secession member Sarah Choate Sears were also in the 1898 show.

In 1900 the club held an exhibition by Fred Holland Day. In 1904 it exhibited at Day's Boston studios.[39] Also that year the club helped organize, and exhibited in, a photograph exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (the St. Louis World's Fair).

Photographic journal Photo-Era called the club's 1910 annual show its "best for many years".[40]

Joint Exhibitions of Photography (1887–1894)

The first outside exhibitions in which the Boston Camera Club participated were the so-called Joint Exhibitions of Photography, sponsored jointly by the Boston Camera Club, Photographic Society of Philadelphia, and Society of Amateur Photographers of New York.[41] The venue rotated annually between the three cities. The Boston club participated in the first seven exhibitions, from 1887 to 1894. At first, all three clubs shared in the preparation for every show.

In the first Joint Exhibition in New York in 1887, Joseph Prince Loud (club president 1897-1901) and Horace Latimer received the Boston club's only diplomas. In the third Joint Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1889, Boston was represented by Wilfred A. French, Horace Latimer (the club's only award winner), and William Garrison Reed.[42]

Beginning with the fourth Joint Exhibition in New York in 1891, collaborative preparation ended and each club individually ran the exhibit in the city in which it was held. In the 1891 Exhibition, Latimer exhibited the most prints from the Boston club.

The fifth Joint Exhibition, held at the Boston Art Club in 1892, included 18 prints by Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) and 45 by Boston member Francis Blake, Jr.

Of the sixth Joint Exhibition in Philadelpha in 1893, Stieglitz said, "It was, without doubt, the finest exhibition of photographs ever held in the United States, and probably was but once excelled in any country."[43]

After the seventh Joint Exhibition in 1894, the Boston Camera Club withdrew from the Joint Exhibitions, citing lack of manpower. Club exhibition activities for the next few years are now unknown. In the club's difficult years of the 1910s and 1920s there were probably no exhibitions.

Boston International Exhibition of Photography (1932–1981)

With the club's difficult years brought to an end by Horace Latimer's 1931 bequest, in 1932 the club launched an annual international competition, the Boston Salon of Photography.[44]

In 1953 the salon was renamed the Boston International Exhibition of Photography (although informally it continued to be called the Boston Salon). Also that year, the Frank R. Fraprie Memorial Medal was created in recognition of Fraprie's role, along with Latimer, in helping keep the club alive in the 1910s and 1920s.

With entries heretofore limited to black-and-white prints, starting in 1954 color slide entries were also accepted. From 1959 color prints were admitted as well. The 43rd and last exhibition, comprising color slides only, was held in 1981 as part of the club's 100th anniversary.

In discontinuing the annual exhibition, the club again cited lack of manpower, this time due to growth. While some hundreds of entries were received annually in the 1930s, the 1981 exhibition required a man-year of labor to process over 3,000 submissions.[45]

Judges in the exhibition's 50 years included Cecil B. Atwater (1886–1981, and club president from 1942 to at least 1944), A. Aubrey Bodine (1906–1960), Leonard Craske, Eleanor Parke Custis, Franklin I. Jordan (1876–1956), Adolf Fassbender (1884–1980), L. Whitney Standish (b. 1919),[46] John H. Vondell (d. circa 1967), John W. Doscher (d. after 1971) and Henry F. Weisenburger.[47]

Entrants included Croatian photographer Tošo Dabac in 1937; Bodine (who won the Fraprie medal in 1953, 1955 and 1959); 1940s pictorialist Rowena Fruth (1896–1983); Hong Kong photographic prodigy, actor and director Fan Ho (1937–)[48] (who first entered in 1954 at age 17); Wellington Lee (who competed from 1950–1981); and Mexican director José Lorenzo Zakany Almada[49] (who won the Boston Camera Club Medal in 1968).

Guest exhibitors

The club has hosted exhibitions by noted guest photographers. These have included Henry Peach Robinson (1830–1901) circa 1890; Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946); 150 photographs by Gertrude Käsebier (1852–1934) in 1896;[50] Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952) in 1899;[51] Clarence White (1871–1925) in 1899 (organized and hung by Fred Holland Day);[52] and Rudolph Dührkoop (1848–1918).[53]

In 1907 there were exhibitions by C. F. Clarke, Wendell G. Corthell, Frederick Haven Pratt[54] and Civil War photographs by Capt. D. Eldredge.[55]

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, U.S. camera clubs engaged in reciprocal exhibitions of each other's work. For example, in 1908 the Boston club exhibited works from the Buffalo Camera Club, the Capitol Camera Club of Washington DC, and the Portland (Maine) Camera Club.[56]

An exhibition by Edward Weston (1886–1958) was held in 1940;[57] Paul Gittings, Sr. in 1950; and work from 1843–1848 of David Octavius Hill (1802–1870) in 1953.

Recent exhibitions

The club's exhibition history for much of the 20th century has not been researched. In the past two decades the club has exhibited in Boston-area venues Boston City Hall (1993), Griffin Museum of Photography (1997),[58] Hynes Convention Center (2004) and elsewhere.[59]

Education and programs

The Boston Camera Club has sponsored lectures, educational courses and programs by distinguished members and outsiders.

In 1890 club member and camera shutter pioneer Francis Blake, Jr. read an important paper on shutters to the club.[60][61] In 1895, member Owen A. Eames presented his Eames Animatoscope, an early motion picture device.[62] In 1897, Friedrich von Voigtländer, head of the Austrian optical firm, spoke to the club. In 1904, prominent photographer Fred Holland Day presented the paper for which he was well known, "Is Photography a Fine Art?"

There were numerous other lecturers in the club's early years.[63]

Records of club speakers for the mid-20th century have not been studied. Late 20th century presenters included Marie Cosindas (1980s), John Sexton[64] (1994) and Frans Lanting (1997).

Boston-area professionals such as staff photographers of The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald and instructors in Boston's photography colleges have long been regular club presenters and competition judges.

Other activities

Around 1888 the club undertook the Old Boston project, in which it "made a survey of buildings and farms for local archives."[65] The project proved valuable, as many of the buildings photographed no longer exist.

During the 1890s club members pursued stereoscopy. Lantern slides, the forerunner of 20th century color slides, were a popular medium for visual presentation. The club also undertook field trips, as it does today.[66]

In the 1940s the club was active in "entertainment and instruction of disabled veterans of World War II ... sponsor[ing] a camera club at one of the large Army convalescent hospitals nearby".[67]

In the 1950s and 1960s the club had a movie group and owned a Bell & Howell movie projector.

Member achievements

A number of Boston Camera Club members are known for their photographic endeavors.

Inventor and club vice president Francis Blake, Jr. (1850–1913) whose 1877 microphone improved telephone communication[68] was a camera shutter pioneer who achieved exposure times of 1/2,000 second by 1890.[60][61]

William Henry Pickering (1858–1938), who discovered Saturn's moon Phoebe and advanced the cause of women in astronomy, was a noted astrophotographer.

Sarah Choate Sears (1858–1935) was named a Member of the Photo-Secession by Alfred Stieglitz.[69] In 1899 she had a solo exhibition at the club that included a portrait of Julia Ward Howe, and showed at the second Boston Arts and Crafts Exhibition.[70]

Three club members were well-known authors and publishers. The club's first secretary and treasurer, Wilfred A. French, was editor and publisher of Photo-Era.[8] Frank Roy Fraprie (1874–1951), one of the best-known photographic publishers in the U.S., was a prolific author.[71] Franklin I. "Pop" Jordan (1876–1956) was a photographic author and editor.[72]

Adolf "Papa" Fassbender (1884–1980), the German-born New York educator called a "one-man photographic institution", helped train thousands in photography over a career of 72 years.[73]

In 1896 a print by Horace Latimer (1860–1931) was in an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution. Two photographs by Latimer were published in Camera Notes, the official publication of The Camera Club of New York.[74]

In 1939 Arthur Hammond (1880–1962) won top prize from organizers of the New York World's Fair for his photo of the Fair's Trylon and Perisphere.[75]

Honorary members

The club recognizes through honorary life membership the accomplishments of noted Boston-area photographers.

Late honorary members include late-19th century art lecturer Antonie Stölle[76] and Cape Ann, Massachusetts artist, photographer and travel writer Samuel V. Chamberlain (1895–1975).[77]

Inventor of the photographic strobe Harold E. "Doc" Edgerton (1903–1990)[78] took the well-known Life magazine photographs of a bullet penetrating an apple and an impact crown of milk droplets. Less known are his night aerial strobe work in World War II, co-founding of defense contractor EG&G,[79] and undersea explorations with Jacques Cousteau.[80]

Arthur Griffin (1903–2001) was the best-known photographer of New England scenes in the mid-20th century.[81][82] H. Bradford Washburn, Jr. (1910–2007) was a noted mountaineer, aerial photographer and founder of the Boston Museum of Science.[83][84]

Current honorary member Lou Jones (1945–) is a Boston-based commercial, Olympic Games and jazz photographer, photojournalist and educator whose books include Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row (1996).[85]

Photographic societies

Club members Cecil B. Atwater, Eleanor Parke Custis, John W. Doscher, Adolf Fassbender, Rowena Fruth, Barbara Green, Arthur Hammond, Franklin I. Jordan, Charles B. Phelps, Jr. (1891–1949), L. Whitney Standish, John H. Vondell, Edmund A. Woodle (1918–2007) and Richard Yee have been Fellows of the Photographic Society of America (FPSA). Frank Fraprie and Allen G. Stimson (d. 1996) were Honorary Fellows.

Atwater, Doscher, Fassbender, Green, Hammond, Jordan and Yee have been Fellows of the Royal Photographic Society (FRPS) of Great Britain. Fraprie was Honorary Fellow.

Roydon (Roy) Burke (1901–1993) was, and Henry F. Weisenburger[47] is, a Master Member of the New England Camera Club Council (NECCC).[86]

As professional photographers, Arthur Griffin and Lou Jones have belonged to such groups as the American Society of Media Photographers (Griffin charter member,[82] Jones board of directors).

Museum holdings

The U.S. Library of Congress has major holdings of work of two Boston Camera Club members. "Photographs of middle class life in Boston, 1890s-1910s" is a collection of 523 photographs by Charles Henry Currier.[87] The Library also holds the largest share of photographs of Fred Holland Day.[88]

There are substantial institutional holdings of Francis Blake, Jr., Eleanor Parke Custis, Harold E. Edgerton, Adolf Fassbender, Arthur Griffin (by his Griffin Museum of Photography),[58] Emil Gruppé, L. Whitney Standish, H. Bradford Washburn, and others.[89]

Today

As it has for most of its existence, the Boston Camera Club meets weekly. Meetings are held at its 1773 Beacon Street, Brookline, Massachusetts headquarters every Tuesday evening from September to June. Additional Thursday meetings are held elsewhere. Guests are welcome free of charge.

Activities range from beginner to advanced, and comprise digital photography, education, print competitions (both digital and darkroom),[90] live portrait shoots and field trips. Outside speakers and competition judges are frequently invited.

The club communicates through its Web site[91] and newsletter, The Reflector, launched in 1938 and published electronically.

The Boston Camera Club is a member of the New England Camera Club Council (NECCC)[86] and Photographic Society of America (PSA),[92] through both of which it engages in inter-club competition.

The Boston Camera Club's sister club is the Cairns Photographic Society, Queensland, Australia, with which it holds competitions and other activities.[93]

Image gallery

Boston Camera Club publications and records

See also

References

  1. ^ The first photograph was achieved privately in France in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833). http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/wfp/heliography.html (accessed 5/2010). Photography was introduced publicly in Paris in 1839 by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851). See History of photography.
  2. ^ In wet-plate photography, chemicals had to be mixed and poured onto the plate minutes before exposure, in the dark. Outdoor photography typically required a portable darkroom wagon or tent. Long exposure times were often required. Cleanup was problematic.
  3. ^ Initially called Eastman Dry Plate Company, Kodak's film and processing innovations can be said to have created a new branch of photography, today sometimes termed vernacular photography.
  4. ^ The Boston Camera Club seems to have met much less frequently around 1913-1931, during which time a small group of volunteers kept the club going. The oldest continuously extant amateur camera club in the U.S. is the Photographic Society of Philadelphia (phillyphotosociety.com), founded 1862 and hence 19 years older than the Boston club. The first amateur camera club in the United States was the Amateur Photographic Exchange Club, New York City, extant 1861-1863 and revived twice in the later 20th century.
  5. ^ a b Patricia J. Fanning. Through an Uncommon Lens: The Life and Photography of F. Holland Day. University of Massachusetts Press. Amherst, MA. 2008. p. 66: "In 1880 there were fewer than 10 photographic clubs in the United States, most of which were populated by professionals."
  6. ^ Ronald Polito, editor. Chris Steele and Ronald Polito. A Directory of Massachusetts Photographers, 1839–1900. Picton Press. Camden ME. 1993. Thurston was a Boston photographic supplier. pp. 171, 176.
  7. ^ Babcock was a well-known Boston chemist and science lecturer who held several U.S. patents.
  8. ^ a b The son of daguerreotypist Benjamin French, Wilfred A. French, Ph.D. was a Boston photographer and photo supplier. He was editor and publisher, from no later than 1908 until 1921, of Photo-Era: The American Journal of Photography, one of the best-known journals in the field, to which he was also a frequent contributor. In 1899 Photo-Era stated it would be the official organ of the Boston Camera Club (and the Harvard University Camera Club). The effort seems to have been short-lived; announcements of Boston Camera Club activities ceased by 1910. Photo-Era. Volume 2, Number 2. January 1899. p. 203. Polito. pp. 63, 167.
  9. ^ Boston Camera Club. Notice of First Meeting. February 3, 1887.
  10. ^ Commonwealth of Massachusetts. "Religious, etc. Corporations / Certificate of Organization" under Massachusetts Public Statutes Chapter 115, Section 4 etc. February 25, 1887.
  11. ^ Boston Camera Club. "Constitution, By-Laws and Rules". 1896.
  12. ^ Boston Almanac and Business Directory. 1891.
  13. ^ King's How to See Boston: A Trustworthy Guide Book. 1895.
  14. ^ Polito. p. 171. From the late 19th to nearly the end of the 20th century, Bromfield Street was Boston's prime camera retail district.
  15. ^ Charles Henry Currier was a Boston jeweler, professional photographer, and club vice president from 1897 to at least 1903. Polito. p. 48. Also: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Charles_Henry_Currier.
  16. ^ The Photographic Times: An Illustrated Monthly. February 1901.
  17. ^ a b Boston Camera Club. Minutes.
  18. ^ The Boston Camera Club's meetings at the Boston Young Men's Christian Union (YMCU) at 48 Boylston St., Boston are not to be confused with the Camera Club of the Boston YMCU, founded 1908 and extant to at least 1921. Since the YMCU club had 82 members as of 1920 and held exhibitions of photography, it may have been the leading camera club in Boston during the years of the Boston Camera Club's eclipse. Photo-Era. Volume 44, Number 4. April 1920. p. 214.
  19. ^ Among Horace Latimer's interests were international travel photography and yachting photography. He was the only Boston Camera Club member published in Camera Notes, the official publication of The Camera Club of New York, of which he was also a member. http://www.bostoncameraclub.org/site/content/view/33/53 (accessed 6/2010).
  20. ^ State of Maine. Last Will and Testament of Horace A. Latimer. October 19, 1931. Latimer bequeathed an equal amount of money to the Portland (Maine) Camera Club. http://www.portlandcameraclub.org. In gratitude, the Boston Camera Club includes Latimer's work from its collection in all member exhibitions, for example: Horace A. Latimer. "Festive Barque, Sicily". Gum bichromate print. Circa 1920. Collection Boston Camera Club.
  21. ^ From an unknown date--probably the 19th century--and ending in the early 21st century, the club had regular and associate members. Associates were corresponding members who lived beyond a 25-mile radius of Boston and paid half dues. The club's 1946 breakdown for example was 211 regular and 75 associate members.
  22. ^ Boston Camera Club. Succession of 5-year leases, the earliest dated June 1, 1946.
  23. ^ The first discussion and vote by the club on whether to allow digital images in its competitions took place in June 1995.
  24. ^ "Miss Emma J. Fitz". In: Richard Hines, Jr. "Women and Photography". The American Amateur Photographer. Volume 11, Number 3. March 1899. pp. 122-123.
  25. ^ Abbie Sewall. Message through Time: The Photographs of Emma D. Sewall, 1836–1919. Gardiner, ME: Harpwell Press, 1989.
  26. ^ Charles R. Cross is believed to have taught the first electrical engineering course in the United States, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1882–1883.
  27. ^ Portrait of, and photograph by, Francis Blake in: Polito. Facing p. 497. Wealthy as a result of his telephone and other inventions, Blake is believed to have substantially helped the club financially in its early years.
  28. ^ "Miss Sarah J. Eddy". In: Richard Hines, Jr. "Women and Photography". The American Amateur Photographer. Volume 11, Number 3. March 1899. pp. 121-122. Eddy was a friend of Susan B. Anthony, and painted portraits of both her (1901 or 1902) and Frederick Douglass.
  29. ^ Clark's Boston Blue Book. 1895.
  30. ^ Club president, 1886-1890.
  31. ^ An interesting artifact is a photograph copy of a circa-1891 receipt for $15 membership dues from Fred Holland Day, signed by club treasurer F. Alcott Pratt. Collection Boston Camera Club. Fred Holland Day judged at least one exhibition at the Boston Camera Club, in 1906. Fanning. p. 157.
  32. ^ Polito. Op. cit. Entry for Norwood, Massachusetts. p. 397.
  33. ^ Jack Wright. "PSA Personalities: Eleanor Parke Custis, FPSA". Journal of the Photographic Society of America. Volume 11, Number 10. December 1945. pp. 549-550.
  34. ^ Eleanor Parke Custis, 1897–1983: Retrospective Exhibition, May 24 - June 21, 1986. James R. Bakker Antiques, 370 Broadway, Cambridge MA. Circa 1986.
  35. ^ "Boston Camera Club". New York Times. April 14, 1895. p. 13.
  36. ^ "Second Salon of the Boston Camera Club". Boston Daily Globe. May 13, 1906. p. 41
  37. ^ Boston Camera Club exhibitors were Francis Blake, Jr., Walter G. Chase, E. L. Drexel, Owen A. Eames, Sarah Jane Eddy, Wilfred A. French, John C. Holman, John C. Lee, James L. Little, George M. Morgan, Frederick Alcott Pratt and A. R. Wilmarth. Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. Report of the Eighteenth Triennial Exhibition. Boston. 1893. p. 175-181. http://books.google.com/books?id=0SwAAAAAMAAJ (accessed 10/2010). F. Alcott Pratt (1863–1910) was treasurer of the club from 1891-1893, nephew of Louisa May Alcott, and trustee of her literary estate. F. Alcott Pratt. "An Experience with Paper Negatives". The American Amateur Photographer. Volume 1, Number 6. December 1889. pp. 256-257.
  38. ^ W. Albert Hickman. "A Recent Exhibition: Tenth Annual Composition Exhibition, 1898. Boston Camera Club." Photo-Era. Volume 1, Number 1. May 1898. pp. 11-13.
  39. ^ Fanning. p. 138.
  40. ^ The club's 1910 show included prints by Sarah Jane Eddy, Frank Fraprie, Horace Latimer and Joseph Prince Loud. Photo-Era. Volume 25, Number 1. July 1910. pp. 48-49. Highlights from the show in: Volume 25, Number 2. August 1910.
  41. ^ Subsumed in 1896 into The Camera Club of New York.
  42. ^ In 1884, William Garrison Reed, treasurer of the club from 1886-1890, photographed sites in eastern North Carolina of interest to the 44th Massachusetts Regiment, in which he served in the Civil War. http://newbern.cpclib.org/digital/reed. He also played a role in the club's Old Boston project of photographing Boston's historic buildings. http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/sets/72157607471461913/comments (both accessed 1/2010).
  43. ^ Alfred Stieglitz. "The Joint Exhibition at Philadelphia". The American Amateur Photographer. Volume 5. 1893. p. 201. http://books.google.com/books?id=W13QAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA201 (accessed 2/2010).
  44. ^ "Catalogue of the Third (First International) Salon". Boston Art Club; Boston Camera Club. 1934. The title suggests the salon started in 1932 and had its first overseas competitors in 1934.
  45. ^ In the 1943 salon, the earliest for which records are readily available, the club received 699 prints from 172 entrants, from which 247 prints by 115 persons were selected for exhibition. By contrast, in 1981 3,291 entries were submitted by 788 entrants, of which 768 entries by 457 persons were selected.
  46. ^ L. Whitney Standish was club president from at least 1939-1946 (not continuous).
  47. ^ a b Henry F. Weisenburger (1924-), club member from 1954, president from 1965-1967 and 25-year finance chair, is one of New England's leading exponents of amateur photography.
  48. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0387293.
  49. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0951487.
  50. ^ Anthony's Photographic Bulletin. 1890.
  51. ^ Photo Era. Volume 2, Number 4. March 1899. p. 260.
  52. ^ Fanning. p. 149.
  53. ^ http://www.answers.com/topic/rudolph-d-hrkoop.
  54. ^ Frederick Haven Pratt (1873-1958) of Worcester, Massachusetts was a distinguished physiologist and, like Sarah Choate Sears, was named a member of the Photo-Secession by Alfred Stieglitz. Works of both are held by the New York Public Library. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830903502.html and http://www.the-aps.org/publications/tphys/legacy/1984/issue1/4.pdf (both accessed 6/2010). Fanning. p. 150.
  55. ^ American Amateur Photographer and Camera & Dark-room. 1907. http://books.google.com/books?id=CfdIAAAAMAAJ.
  56. ^ http://www.portlandcameraclub.org
  57. ^ American Photography. January 1941. p. 73.
  58. ^ a b Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, Massachusetts. http://griffinmuseum.org.
  59. ^ "Brookline Arts Center Welcomes the Boston Camera Club in a Member Showcase Exhibition". Brookline HUB. Tuesday, March 22, 2011 (accessed 4/2011).
  60. ^ a b Francis Blake, Jr. "Photographic Shutters". This paper read before the Boston Camera Club, April 14, 1890 was Blake's first public description of his achievements in high-speed photography. Massachusetts Historical Society. Blake papers. Volume 42. Published as: Francis Blake, Jr. "Photographic Shutters". American Amateur Photographer. February 1891. pp. 67-73.
  61. ^ a b Keith F. Davis. "The High-Speed Photographs of Francis Blake". The Massachusetts Historical Review. Volume 2. 2000, pp. 1-26.
  62. ^ http://www.victorian-cinema.net/when_chrono.htm (accessed 1/2010). This source states, "It is unlikely that projection was attempted." Eames was club treasurer from 1894-1896.
  63. ^ Early lecturers at the club included Charles Currier of the Pacific Coast Amateur Photographic Association and S. Henry Hooper in 1890, Philip Clarkson in 1906, animal photographer Ernest Harold Baynes in 1908, and H. R. Jackson in 1909. Respectively: "Camera and Dry Plate: Public Entertainment by the Boston Camera Club". Boston Daily Globe. February 17, 1890. p. 6. "Boston Camera Club". Boston Daily Globe. November 11, 1890. p. 4. "Color Photography: Philip S. Clarkson of New York Gives Interesting Talk and Demonstration at Boston Camera Club". Boston Daily Globe. December 7, 1906. p. 2. Photo-era. Volume 20. 1908. "Friends Played Joke: Got at Chief Petty Officer Jackson's Slides and Created Fun for Boston Camera Club". Boston Daily Globe. April 9, 1909. p. 6.
  64. ^ http://www.johnsexton.com.
  65. ^ Marsha Peters and Bernard Mergen. "Doing the Rest: The Uses of Photographs in American Studies". American Quarterly. Volume 29, Number 3. 1977. p. 281. Several prints, now at the Boston Public Library, can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/sets/72157607471461913/comments (accessed 6/2010).
  66. ^ Wilfred A. French relates an anecdote about noted Boston photographer James Wallace Black interacting with club members during a club excursion near Black's studio at 333 Washington Street in Boston in the 1880s. "Exposure Guides and Experience". Photo-Era, Volume 55, Number 5. May 1920, pp. 232-233, 262. http://books.google.com/books?id=mA0_AAAAYAAJ (accessed 10/2010). Polito p. 31.
  67. ^ Hillyer. Op. cit.
  68. ^ http://www.techantiques.com/blake_home_page.htm (accessed 5/2010).
  69. ^ Member was the lowest of the Photo-Secession's three ranks, beneath Associate and Fellow.
  70. ^ Photo-Era. Volume 2, Number 4. March 1899. pp. 260-261.
  71. ^ As head of the American Photographic Publishing Company, Frank Roy Fraprie was editor of the annuals The American Amateur Photographer and American Annual of Photography. http://books.google.com/books?id=De1IAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=related:LCCN02000709 (accessed 9/2010).
  72. ^ Franklin I. Jordan. "Pop Sez --". American Photography. Volume 44, Number 3. March 1950. p. 28.
  73. ^ Christian A. Peterson [et al.?]. The Pictorial Artistry of Adolf Fassbender. [International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum?]. 1994.
  74. ^ A photo by Horace Latimer was published in the October 1901 issue of Camera Notes, edited by Alfred Stieglitz; and his "Water Carrier, Cuba" was the frontispiece in October 1902.
  75. ^ Arthur Hammond. "Semi-Lunar". Silver gelatin print. Collection Boston Camera Club.
  76. ^ "Colored Lantern Slides: Fraulein Stolle's Reproduction of Famous Works of Art: Tones and Colors All Preserved: Process Discovered by Accident after Unavailing Study: Interesting Reminiscences of Work Abroad". New York Times. November 24, 1895. p.A20. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D05EEDC1139E033A25757C2A9679D94649ED7CF (accessed 1/2010).
  77. ^ http://www.escapesnorth.com/trail_art/bios.php?sec=art&bio=chamberlain (accessed 4/2010).
  78. ^ Roger R. Bruce, editor. Seeing the Unseen: Dr. Harold E. Edgerton and the Wonders of Strobe Alley. Exhibition catalog. Rochester, NY: George Eastman House; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994. With his strobes, Edgerton achieved exposure times of one-millionth of a second or faster.
  79. ^ EG&G, the 'E' in whose name represents 'E'dgerton, is now URS Federal Services.
  80. ^ http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Harold_E._Edgerton (accessed 1/2010).
  81. ^ Griffin had photographs on the cover of Life and Time, and the first color photos in The Boston Globe, The Saturday Evening Post and Yankee; published photograph books on New England in collaboration with well-known authors; and founded his Boston-area Griffin Museum of Photography. http://griffinmuseum.org.
  82. ^ a b Peter Skinner. "A Legend's Legacy: Arthur Griffin Gives $10,000 to ASMP Foundation". American Society of Media Photographers Bulletin (ASMP Bulletin). November 2000. pp. 6-7. http://www.asmp.org/pdfs/bulletins/2000/nov00.pdf (accessed 6/2010).
  83. ^ Roy Rowan. "On a Bungled Flight to Nowhere, They Sought a Chinese Mountain High: When a Ballpoint Pen Czar and a Hotshot Pilot Went Looking for the World's Tallest Peak, All They Found Was Trouble". Smithsonian. March 1998. About H. Bradford Washburn.
  84. ^ Katharine Wroth. "High Art: The Astonishing Life & Work of Brad Washburn". Appalachian Mountain Club Outdoors (AMC Outdoors). March 2004. pp. 26-33.
  85. ^ http://www.ncaaa.org/exhibitions/jones/exhibition4.html (accessed 5/2010). See also http://www.fotojones.com.
  86. ^ a b New England Camera Club Council (NECCC). http://neccc.org.
  87. ^ http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/054.html (accessed 10/2010). Also use: LC Control Number (LCCN) 2004681335.
  88. ^ The Library of Congress has 697 catalog entries on Fred Holland Day, most of them individual photographs. http://catalog.loc.gov.
  89. ^ The Massachusetts Historical Society holds photographs by Francis Blake, Jr., as well as his papers. http://www.masshist.org. An unknown number of works by Photo-Secession members Frederick Haven Pratt and Sarah Choate Sears are held by the New York Public Library.
  90. ^ Again in gratitude to Latimer's bequest, the Boston Camera Club's print division is the Horace A. Latimer Print Group.
  91. ^ http://www.bostoncameraclub.org
  92. ^ Photographic Society of America: http://www.psa-photo.org.
  93. ^ Cairns Photographic Society, Queensland, Australia. http://www.cpsinc.org.au

Further reading

External links