The Wilson Centre for Photography deposits magnificent collection at the Bodleian Libraries

The Bodleian Libraries are pleased to announce that through the generosity of Michael and Jane Wilson, the Wilson Centre for Photography in London has entrusted its outstanding collection of photographic albums and photographically illustrated books to their care. The collection is to be made available to scholars, photographers and others.

The deposit, consisting of over 1,000 items from the 19th and early 20th centuries, contains rare salt prints from the dawn of photography made by some of the earliest photographic practitioners. The items include masterpieces of travel photography from across the globe, photographs held in Victorian scrapbooks and family albums, together with early outstanding examples of photographically illustrated books. The photographs in the Wilson Collection are renowned for being of exceptional quality, and outstanding in their range and depth.

Under the direction of the Bern and Ronny Schwartz Curator of Photography, Dr Phillip Roberts, the Wilson Collection deposit contributes to the expanding photography collections of the Bodleian Libraries. Photography collections inspired a rich programme of events and exhibitions hosted by the Bodleian in 2023, including three major exhibitions on the beginnings of photography – A New Power, Bright Sparks, and Natural Magic – and an honorary fellowship and lecture series by photographic artist Garry Fabian Miller.

The deposit will represent a major resource for researchers and scholars interested in utilising the Bodleian’s enormous research potential across a wide range of topics, including early photographic history, global history, anthropology, travel and climatology.

The Bodleian’s photography collections include:

• The personal archive of William Henry Fox Talbot
• The archives of Helen Muspratt and Daniel Meadows
• 19th century collections: Julia Margaret Cameron, Calvert Richard Jones, Richard Beard, Antoine Claudet, Richard Spiers, Sarah Angelina Acland, and Henry Taunt
• 20th century collections: Chloe Dewe Matthews, Markéta Luskačová, Paddy Summerfield, Martin Parr, JA Mortram, Pamela Chandler, Edgar Huang, Bryan Heseltine, and Dafydd Jones
• The Hyman collection of 20th-century British photography
• The Henry Minn Collection of topographic views of Oxford
• Royal Greenwich Observatory Astronomical Plate Archive
• Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey’s collection of photobooks

A precious resource of early photography

A significant part of the Wilson Collection comprises examples of early photography, including rare salt prints, photographic albums, and scrapbooks. The deposit of these items in the Bodleian’s holdings provide a new opportunity for the study of photographic materials that are either previously unknown, or incredibly rare.

One of the remarkable characteristics of the collection is the presence of a large number of salt prints, for example contained in an album made by early photographer Fallon Horne, portraying his family, friends and home. Salt prints are one of the very earliest photographic processes and are incredibly fragile and rare. The Fallon Horne album will contribute a further 100 salt prints to the Bodleian’s existing holdings, expanding the collection considerably. Despite Fallon Horne being a relatively unknown photographer who was predominantly associated with the rise of commercial photography, the quantity and quality of his work suggest a significant contribution to the development of early photography, which academics and experts will have the opportunity to explore thanks to the Wilson Collection.

Another highlight, is a key document of early photography known as the “Hamilton Gray album”, named after the Scottish cleric John Hamilton Gray, but now thought to have been assembled by his wife or daughter (whose names are not currently known). The Gray album is an important testimony of a time during which photography was gaining popularity in Scotland. The album is a handmade scrapbook containing an eclectic mix of photographs, clippings, sketches and coloured-in images, including previously unknown prints by the important early photographic pioneers David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson.

The collection features a book of photography by Hugh Owen, a Bristolian photographer who broke Talbot’s patent to develop a career in commercial photography. In 1851, Owen was one of several photographers to capture the Great Exhibition, tasked with taking photographs of the winning entries to the exhibition for posterity. However, he was taken with many objects in the exhibition and ended up prioritising photography of the exhibits he liked the look of - rather than just the winning ones. As a result, many of the photographs contained in this book have never been published, providing a new perspective on the Great Exhibition.

Documenting the world in the Victorian era

The deposit contains several remarkable examples of early travel photography and British photographic literature. In the 19th century, it was in fashion among European photographers to travel around the world and capture images of curiosities and landmarks on-site with their cameras. These were later developed and then pasted into large-scale books to feed people’s curiosity, as for many photography was the only way to see what was beyond the borders of Europe, or even the British Isles.

The Wilson Collection is rich with such examples, including a rare copy of the large format book Views of Greece and Egypt (1862) by CG Fountaine, an elephant folio album featuring 36 photographic views of Egypt and Greece, two countries that were very popular in the public imagination at the time. The book includes views of ancient ruins and several examples of archaeological sites pre-excavation, the most remarkable of which is a photo of the Sphinx still half buried in the sand.

Other examples of early travel photography in the archive include a series of photos by Samuel Bourne, an English photographer who had studios across British India, prints by Francis Bedford and John Edward Saché, and photographs from across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific. The collection includes some of the earliest photographic views of the Egyptian Pyramids, Greek Temples, and the Hajj in Mecca.

Exploration and anthropology

Another major section of the collection is dedicated to photographs of areas of the world less well visited by early photographers. Some of the most interesting examples can be found in William Bradford’s magisterial volume Arctic Regions (1873), one of the largest photobooks of the 19th century in which photos of the landscapes and people of Greenland are inserted within the narrative of the travellers’ journey through the region. These images are also a useful record of what the region looked like at the time and could be of particular interest to climate researchers.

Alongside the interest in nature and landscapes, these photos also show an anthropological interest. While the images of Greenlandic Inuit in Arctic Regions – as well as the accompanying text – paint a rather negative picture of the relationship between Europeans and Inuit that is heavily tainted by the colonialist gaze, a collection of striking portraits of Indigenous Alaskans shows something quite different. The photos, taken by HG Kaiser and Beverly Bennet Dobbs, who had local studios in Alaska, portrayed the subjects beautifully, almost like movie stars.

The deposit is currently being catalogued and will be made available to researchers in early 2024.

Michael G Wilson OBE says:

Following forty years of collecting works from the history of photography, we are delighted that many of the albums, books and photographs from the Wilson Centre for Photography will now be cared for by the Bodleian Libraries, an institution which provides excellent access to scholars and the wider public. In the coming years, we look forward to further collaborations, exciting discoveries, and fresh perspectives from the Bodleian and its community.

Dr Phillip Roberts, inaugural post-holder of the position of Curator of Photography at the Bodleian Libraries, says:

The Wilson Collection offers an amazing insight into a medium that was growing in confidence and spreading. In the latter half of the 19th century photography travelled around the world. From the ruins of the Mediterranean civilisations, to British India, Southeast Asia, Japan, the Pacific Islands, the American West, and Alaskan gold towns, photographers popped up everywhere to capture life, landscapes, and people. Among the European tourists, entrepreneurs, colonial administrators, and anthropologists, we also find local people taking up photography for themselves. The Collection features lesser known figures like the Abdullah Brothers of Constantinople, Ouyang Shizhi of the Shanghai Pow Kee Studios, and Seiichi Takebayashi of Hokkaido. This is a powerful resource to help us understand the growth of global modernity, colonial exploitation, and photography’s role in all of this.

Richard Ovenden OBE, Bodley’s Librarian, who himself is a historian of photography, says:

The masterpieces from the Wilson Collection are an unrivalled resource for studying and appreciating the greatest photographs and photographers from the first century of the new art/science. The Wilson Centre has been wonderfully welcoming to researchers and institutions for many years, and the Bodleian, now entrusted with this astonishing collection, the fruit of Michael’s singular vision, looks forward to continuing that great work, and in inspiring students, encouraging researchers, and in enabling the serious understanding of photography’s great contribution to civilisation through its earliest proponents. We are immensely grateful to Michael and Jane for their vote of confidence in our mission.

For further information, interview requests, or to visit the Wilson Collection, please contact Flint Culture via bodleianlibraries@flint-culture.com