Technology keeps evolving. Today, if you want to record an image of something interesting, all you have to do is reach in your pocket, whip out your phone, and click. In a instant, you can have a high-resolution, full-color photograph and share it with the world via the internet. Making photographs has never been faster or easier. This was not always the case.

In the earliest days of photography, from about 1839-1860, the predominant technology was the Daguerreotype. It was a brilliant development, but required a good supply of natural light as well as special techniques, cameras, chemicals, and long, motionless poses by the photographer’s subjects. With all those requirements, most photographers made their Daguerreotypes indoors, in improvised or designed-for-purpose studios.

But by the time of the American Civil War, 1861-1865, there were other photographic techniques, including albumen silver prints and tintype photographs that were less expensive and permitted the use of shorter exposure times and lighter and “more portable” equipment, such as this:

Unnamed photographer, Wagons and camera of Sam A. Cooley, U.S. photographer, Department of the South, United States, circa 1860 – 1865. Library of Congress. As always, be sure to click the image to open a higher-resolution version of the image in a new window.

Sam A. Cooley, U.S. photographer, and his team

This image gives us a glimpse of what it took to make photographs in the field during the war. While the maker of this photograph is not explicitly named, I think it’s safe to assume it was a member of Sam A. Cooley’s “U.S. photographer” team, the rest of whom are featured in the photo itself.

Based on this photo, Cooley’s team presumably comprised the photographer himself and at least five assistants, perhaps six, assuming one of them was in charge of taking this photo with a second camera. Cooley’s group also included two Black teamsters, either free northern men or possibly formerly-enslaved southern men, that had signed on for service with this official government photography unit. All the men are dressed in civilian clothing, including typical casual/work attire and hats of the era.

I’m no expert in the history of photography, but I believe the big camera, poised on its tripod at the right of the image, is probably a glass-plate, collodion process camera, similar to the gear used by the famous Civil War photographers Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner.

The camera, the glass plates, and the chemicals for preparing the wet plates and developing the images, would have traveled in the wagon on the right, along with a few members of the group. To the left is another vehicle, a more sporty, two-wheeled carriage. I assume Sam A. Cooley traveled in this, perhaps with a chief assistant and their driver.

Looking at early photographs

The Wikipedia article on collodion process photography has this helpful bit of information for the modern viewer of old photographs:

As with all preceding photographic processes, the wet-collodion process was sensitive only to blue and ultraviolet light. Warm colors appear dark, cool colors uniformly light. A sky with clouds is quite difficult to render, as the spectrum of white clouds contains about as much blue as the sky. Lemons and tomatoes appear shiny black, and a blue and white tablecloth appears plain white. Victorian sitters who in collodion photographs look as if they are in mourning might have been wearing bright yellow or pink.

Something to keep in mind when you look at Jonathan Clark House era photographs!

Coming up

That’s all for today. I’ll be back soon, with more Clark House news, history, and a very cool 1830s map of the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada, as we continue our search for Jonathan Clark’s roots. See you soon.