Women workers in Notman's studio

Abstract

Scattered among the 160 000 images made by the Notman photographic studio of Montreal between 1860 and 1880, and preserved today in the studio's picture books at the McCord Museum, are about two dozen portraits of women who worked for Notman's during that period.1 These portraits were retrieved by the staff at the Notman Photographic Archives who matched the names of women listed in the Notman wages books, retained from 1864 (the studio was established in 1856), with the names identifying each and every portrait made and printed by the Notman studio from 1856 and kept in albums. Many of the negatives, too, have been retained and are in the Notman collection. Their photographs harmonize well with those of the bourgeois women who were Notman clients, sharing poses, expressions, dress, coiffures and attributes. The women are situated in comfortable home-like environments. They pose alone, or as sisters, or as mothers and daughters (never as wives), with attributes of education and leisure, such as books, watercolour sketchbooks or, notably, photographs and albums. Their clothing is always elegant and occasionally sumptuous.     

Travel Reports and Photography in Early Photographically Illustrated Books

Abstract

Abstract A previous article¹ dealt with some of the first books illustrated by tipped-in photographs, or else by early photomechanical procedures, with subject matter drawn from the fields of microscopy, medicine and astronomy. The present essay is concerned with technically similar publications, on topics of a more social nature.     

Civil war stamp duty; Photography as a revenue source

Abstract

For a two-year period, between 1st August 1864 and 1st August 1866, American photographers were required to affix adhesive revenue stamps to their ‘sun pictures’. This stamp is discussed briefly in the standard books on the history of photography, for example by Taft¹ and Gernsheim² and, most recently, that by William Welling³. With the very sketchy information at their disposal, collectors and historians have used the presence of such tax stamps to aid them in dating old photographs. If a tax stamp appears on the back of a carte-de-visite, one can say with certainty that it was sold between 1st August 1864 and 1st August 1866, and this is about as far as the familiar sources go.     

Annotated bibliography of books on experimental design

There is now a large number of books on experimental design on the market. This review provides an annotated bibliography of some texts. They have been selected for their general interest and relevance to industry, and are based in part upon information provided by the authors. A summary table is included which indicates the major topic areas covered, the technical level, the emphasized field of application, and other pertinent information. The determination of which books to include and exclude is necessarily a somewhat arbitrary one. In general the guide is limited to those that deal principally with ‘design of experiments’; thus books that are mainly concerned with analysing experimental data and linear models have been excluded. Similarly, judgement was required in describing the books and in preparing the summary table. Further information on other books that deal with ‘design of experiments’ is available in my contribution on the same topic as printed in the Encyclopaedia of Statistical Sciences, Vol. 2 (Wiley, 1982) of which this survey is an edited version. It is reproduced by kind permission of the editors of The Encyclopaedia of Statistical Sciences, Samual Kotz, Norman Johnson and Campbell B. Read.     

Elizabeth Alice Austen: An American “original”

Abstract

At the founding of the Society for Photographic Education in 1962, a speaker remarked on the scarcity of books on photography. He noted that while secondary and minor figures in painting, sculpture and the graphic arts were subjects of art historical publications, even the major figures in photography were then barely known. His plea was both prophetic and ironic, for although a flood of books on photography and photographers has issued forth in the twenty-five years since that occasion, there are still no major works on a number of significant photographers. However, despite the fact that many of these publications have been hastily researched and poorly produced, in sum they have expanded our knowledge of photography in several directions: as biographical sources, as aesthetic expression and as social interpretation.     

Malraux's photography

Abstract

The extraordinary life of Andre Malraux (1901–76), novelist, soldier, statesman, and art essayist, continues to inspire critical re-evaluations and new biographies from scholars in various disciplines.¹ What arouses all this attention is perhaps Malraux's seemingly contradictory nature, a nature that spilled over into his novels and art books, not to mention into his status as a charismatic politician and committed intellectual.² Malraux as contradiction seems to be the point of one review of several biographies: ‘In the end [Malraux was], as someone once said of the Mexican general Santa Anna, “faithless to men, women, and causes”’.³ Indeed, even the most cursory reading of some of the highlights of Malraux's life makes it difficult to believe that this is the story of just one person.⁴     

Discourses on photography in mid-Victorian Britain

Abstract

What is photography? This question has been hotly debated ever since the birth of photography in the early Victorian period. Discussions have focused on the question whether photography is an art form or not. Authors of general histories of photography have tended to write histories of a long series of technological breakthroughs or of eminent photographers. Cultural, social and economic aspects of photography have yet to be thoroughly researched.¹ ‘There have been too many “rounded” views too soon’,² as A. V. Simcock argued in an essay review on several books published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary in 1989 of the invention of photography.     

Lyndall F. Urwick (1891–1983): British Management Authority and His Engineering Management Connection

ABSTRACT

This paper briefly outlines the life and contributions of one of the world's most remarkable figures in management of the twentieth century: the British management authority, Lyndall F. Urwick.

Urwick was influenced considerably by two engineers, American mechanical engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor and French mining engineer Henri Fayol. He was the first British director of the International Management Institute in Geneva. Later he was to set up one of the largest management consulting firms in Britain: Urwick, Orr and Partners. His early ideas on management were influenced by engineers including V. A. Graicunas. As a management consultant, he became associated with American industrial engineers such as H. B. Maynard and Lillian Gilbreth. Urwick was a prolific writer on management, with more than 200 books and papers to his credit. He became a widely known international management authority. The international recognition of Elton Mayo was due partly to Urwick.

Urwick's early acknowledgment of the considerable debt that the field of management owed to engineers received little recognition. He was early concerned about the importance of management training of young engineers but later stressed the difference but close connection between management and engineering. Urwick was an integrator of management concepts. His contribution and his relationship to engineering management are outlined.     

Hall of Fame

Abstract

Samuel Carter Hall, a writer of small talent but enormous output, had a finger in every journalistic pie of mid 19th-century England. Christmas albums, temperance tracts and travel essays flowed from his pen; at his own conservative estimate, he and his wife edited and wrote between them over 500 books, from Gems of British Poets to files of Women's Trials ¹. As parliamentary reporter, literary critic, journalist and editor of a bewildering succession of magazines and newspapers, he swam in the mainstream of public life.     

Literature and photography

Abtract

The fascination of Victorians with the medium of photography is undeniable and welldocumented. What remains intriguing is the speed with which the literary culture of the period engaged photography. Photography quickly became an integral part of the Victorian publishing industry. Photographically-illustrated books were issued at affordable prices. Photographs of authors, landscapes and sites related to literary texts were actively marketed. In this compelling and important book, Helen Groth analyzes the forms and uses of photography associated with Victorian literary culture and explains the motivation behind this astonishing alliance.     

Photography in Print

Abstract

This handsome catalogue documents the inventive partnership of text, graphic design, and photography, forged in the interwar years, as evidenced in the books, magazines, posters, and advertisements of the period. Advances in photomechanical reproduction technology made possible the proliferation of economical and attractive publications during this time. The vitality of this new illustrated press infused a wide range of voices including: capitalist Fortune magazine, Surrealist Minotaure, populist Picture Post, and propagandist SSSR na stroike. The history and significance of these, and other period publications, as well as the graphic designers, artists, and photographers involved in their production, is investigated in Fotographía Pública.     

The Industrial Base

Abstract

Images and Enterprise is one of the books in the Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology Series and, as such, is a study of the American photographic industry within the overall field of technology. It covers the period 1839-1925, and deals with technical, business and, to a lesser extent, social aspects. These are traced from the industry's disorganized, diffuse beginnings to the point where the market became dominated by a few highly organized, technologically oriented fmus. When the daguerreotype process was introduced in 1839, its practitioners and even their immediate suppliers were compelled to look to a number of sources for the necessary materials: cabinet makers supplied camera boxes, chemical firms the required elements and compounds, miniature-case makers produced containers for the finished pictures, and the brass industry manufactured the silver-coated copper plates. The need for general supply houses was not immediately perceived. Much had to be imported, and European producers played a big role during the early years in providing lenses, fine chemicals and plates for American users.     

Fullerene Research in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Fullerene Science and Technology, both the field and the journal, have observed considerable progress during the last few years. The field has continued to mature as witnessed by the many new and interesting results published in thousands of journal articles (1-3) and in a multitude of books and conference proceedings. The recognition of fullerene sciences as a self-containing field of research has been culminating in the awarding of the 1996 Chemistry Nobel Prize to Professors Robert S. Curl, Harold W. Kroto, and Richard E. Smailey.     

Total energy calculation of perovskite,BaTiO<Subscript>3</Subscript>, by self-consistent tight binding method

We present results of numerical computation on some characteristics of BaTiO3 such as total energy, lattice constant, density of states, band structure etc using self-consistent tight binding method. Besides strong Ti-O bond between 3 d on titanium and 2 p orbital on oxygen states, we also include weak hybridization between the Ba 6 s and O 2 p tates. The results are compared with those of other more sophisticated methods.     

Transfer characteristics and propagation effects of a multi-resonance ring resonator-based optical device

Abstract

We describe the linear and nonlinear optical transfer characteristics of a multi-resonance device consisting of two optical ring resonators coupled one to the other and to an optical waveguide. The propagation effects displayed by the device are compared with those of a sequence of fundamental ring resonators coupled to a waveguide.     

Julia Margaret Cameron

Abstract

Two new publications examine and celebrate the contribution of Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) to the history of photography. The books were published in conjunction with a travelling exhibition of Cameron photographs circulating to the National Portrait Gallery (London), the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television (Bradford) and the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles). Julian Cox, Assistant Curator of Photographs at the Getty Museum, and Colin Ford, founding head of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television (Bradford), compiled the catalogue raisonne and edited the accompanying essays appearing in Julia Margaret Cameron: The Complete Photographs. Colin Ford is sole author of Julia Margaret Cameron: A Critical Biography. These splendid publications significantly expand our understanding of Cameron and her photography.     

Power,autonomy and Weston's imagery

Abstract

Edward Weston (1886–1958) was a photographer, not a philosopher. But Weston had his metaphysical moments, engaging in some heady speculation about the world he photographed. He believed that reality had two distinct dimensions to it, one that was merely physical and perceived by the senses, and a higher, transcendental one that the mind alone understood. This was hardly an original position, and Weston drew heavily from philosophers who had preceded him, notably those 19th-century New England visionaries who came to be known as the Transcendentalists. He kept a collection of short, pithy sayings culled from those on whom he relied, and the words of Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson occupied a prominent place in the ‘grab bag’ of quotations that Weston copied on to Triscut box tops and other odd scraps of paper.     

Multifilamentary superconducting materials for large scale applications

The February 1971 edition of this journal carried a ten page article by the author and his colleagues reviewing the then ‘state of the art’ in multifilamentary superconducting composites.¹ At the time we attempted to cover in a fairly comprehensive manner the first decade of development of these materials since the construction of the first high field superconducting magnet.² Now more than another decade of development has passed and obviously the field can no longer be reviewed comprehensively in the same few pages. This article will attempt to give a brief overview of these materials from the point of view of one engaged in their development and supply for large applications. Hopefully, the references to books,^3,4 review articles,^5,6 and the proceedings of the various conferences^7–11 will serve as a source of further information for those who require more details.     

Penultimate Intermediates to C60 and C70

Abstract

Penultimate intermediates leading to C₆₀ and C₇₀ fullerenes contain one or two pairs of pentalene units and 32 to 55 kcal/mol less stable than the final products. Energy barriers of pyracylene rearrangements from these intermediates to the final products are computed to be 118 to 125 kcal/mol in height by MOPAC/AM1, which are comparable to those of preceding steps in the Stone-Wales rearrangement cascade.     

A scene in a library

Abstract

This essay concerns one photograph: the eighth plate in The Pencil of Nature, called A Scene in a Library, which originally appeared in the second installment of Talbot's inaugural book on photography (figure 1). I have already written extensively about A Scene in a Library — and given its title to a book on illustrated books.¹ But it is a photograph that, together with the text that accompanies it, has never ceased to intrigue me. I continue to wonder what Talbot's intentions were when he chose this photograph for his book. Why did he choose it over similar photographs that he had made and could possibly just as well have used? Why did he title it the way he did — A Scene in a Library — when we know that it was not actually taken in his library? Why and when did it occur to him to write the piece of text that accompanies the plate — which speaks of experimentation with the invisible end of the light spectrum? And what did he have in mind when he put the plate, the caption and the accompanying text together? For A Scene in a Library is remarkable — and exceptional — for the unaccountable way in which it puts text together with image. Almost all the other plates have text that bears on them fairly straightforwardly, either explaining how and where they were made or indicating possible uses for the photograph in question. Not so A Scene in a Library, which functions, rather, as a kind of clef de roman, and which has, as I hope to show, an emblematic status in The Pencil of Nature precisely because it is an exception.