Overview
Photoscopic pictures of English and Swiss sites by English photograph publisher, F. Frith & Co.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1870
Creator
- F. Frith & Co. (Organization)
Condition Description
In good condition.
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research.
Extent
.08 linear feet (4 photographs)Four photographs from "Friths' Photoscopic Pictures"; two are from the "Continental Views" series, the other two from "English Views". The "photoscopic pictures" were similar to "tissue" stereoviews, the albumen print is on a thin translucent paper backed by a sheet of hand-colored tissue paper. When backlit the albumen print is transformed into a brightly colored image. (Source: AbeBooks bookseller description, https://www.abebooks.com/photographs/PHOTOSCOPIC-PICTURE-TOWN-ALPS-Frith-Francis/31187245318/bd, accessed 2022 December 16).
Biographical / Historical
Francis Frith (1822-1898) was an English photographer and publisher who specialized in travel photographs. At one time F. Frith & Co. was the largest photographic publisher in the world; the firm initiated rapid factory-scale printing of glass plate negatives. After 1870, Frith devoted less time to the firm and took up service as a Quaker minister. (Source: Library of Congress Authorities entry number "n 79084320".)
Arrangement
Arranged as received.
Custodial History
The materials that make up this collection were formerly owned by Robert N. Dennis.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2023MH-3. Purchased from Tennyson Williams Books and Fine Art with the Harrison D. Horblit Curator of Photography Fund, 2022 November 15.
Genre / Form
Creator
- F. Frith & Co. (Organization)
- Title
- F. Frith & Co. Friths' Photoscopic Pictures, circa 1870 (MS Typ 1329): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2022 December 16
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03517
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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