Reading 5

Reilly, J. M. (1986). "Chapter I: The History of Photographic Printing in the 19th Century." Care and Identification of 19th-Century Photographic Prints. Eastman Kodak Company. (page 1-13)
ISBN: 0-87985-365-4

Supplementary reading: Nelson, Kenneth E. "A Thumbnail History of the Daguerreotype." The Daguerreian Society. (http://www.daguerre.org/resource/history/history.html)

After reading "Chapter IV: Identification of 19th-Century Photographic and Photomechanical Print Processes" from Reilly's book, I felt I needed more historical context for the various photographic and photomechanical processes he describes. Basic knowledge of the history of photographic and photomechanical processes is useful for any archivist working with photographs, since familiarity with the processes themselves and the times during which they were most popular can potentially assist an archivist in determining the date of an image and may be a factor in how the archivist will care for and handle that image. This chapter provides a good, brief overview of the major photographic printing processes in the nineteenth century. I also supplemented it by reading a brief article on the history of daguerreotypes, since these are not covered in detail in Reilly's book.

While there was a great deal of overlap in the times during which the various photographic processes Reilly describes were used, he provides the following rough timeline for the most significant photographic print processes: salted paper prints, 1840-1855; albumen prints, 1855-1895; gelatin and collodion printing-out prints, 1895-1905; gelatin developing-out prints, 1905-1960; chromogenic color prints, 1960-present.

In 1839, William Henry Fox Talbot created the photogenic drawing process, which provided the basic technology for the silver printing-out papers used in the nineteenth century. Such printing-out papers are distinct from developing-out papers in that, unlike the latter, the creation of the visible image and exposure were simultaneous while developing-out papers required a chemical treatment to create the final image. Talbot improved on the photogenic drawing process, transforming it into the salted paper print process by creating negatives in the camera of either paper or glass which could then be used to multiple positive images. He also introduced a "fixer" which made the final print more stable and photographers began to add extra sizing to the papers used for photographic prints in order to improve the image quality.

The albumen print, which was developed by Louis Desire Blanquart, was a silver paper process which used egg whites to size the paper. This improved the contrast and density of the print and gave it a glossy surface. The process was further refined with the introduction of gold toning, and some photographers used tinted albumen paper or burnished the print to give it an even glossier surface. Further advances to the process in the 1880s and 1890s included the introduction of a baryta layer which provided a buffer between the light-sensitive coating and impurities in the paper and improved the contrast of the prints.

Since all silver print papers, including albumen prints, have a tendency to fade and discolor over time, nineteenth century photographers explored a number of other processes. Carbon prints, which were made with pigments suspended in a bichromated gelatin, were more stable than albumen prints, but the process of creating them was too time-consuming and complex to replace silver papers. The platinotype process "is based on the light sensitivity of certain iron salts which, when irradiated, reduce platinum compounds to metallic platinum" (8). These prints had good image quality and were very stable, but the process was too expensive to replace silver papers. The cyanotype or "blueprint process" was developed in the 1840s and produced images which were fairly stable and inexpensive to produce, but their blue color limited their popularity.

Bromide developing-out paper was developed in the 1880s, but many photographers found them too sensitive and they were primarily used by "amateurs and... firms which made a specialty of enlargements" (11). As such, they did not challenge the dominance of albumen and other printing-out papers.

Gelatin and collodion printing-out papers, which became popular in the 1880s, ultimately replaced albumen paper as the primary type of photographic printing material. The two papers were similar, but collodion printing-out papers produced images of higher quality and with better stability and ultimately became the dominant paper in the production of photographs. Contact-speed developing-out papers became more popular in the 1890s, and sales of these papers surpassed the sale of printing-out papers in 1905.

Overall, this chapter provides a good, but brief, overview of the photographic printing processes of the nineteenth century. It would be more helpful if it included at least a cursory discussion of daguerreotypes, tintypes, and ambrotypes and their relationship to nineteenth century paper prints.