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J. Henderson "Photography as an aid to the study of Archaeology" 
1868, 24 April 
  
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LL/36472 
  
J. Henderson "Photography as an aid to the study of Archaeology", The Illustrated Photographer, April 24th, 1868, p.139-141.
 
Photography as an aid to the study of Archaeology.
By J. Henderson.
 
Archaeology has been defined as the "science of teaching history by its monuments, that is, by every monument of man which the ravages of time have spared."
 
"By the study of the past we advance the interest of the present, and know how to make use of it for the benefit of the future."
 
This being the case, the reproduction, by means of photography, of objects of antiquity, is one among the numerous applications of our art, which is now receiving, as it deserves, no small share of attention.
 
A great deal may be urged in favour of the readiness with which copies of various objects may be made by hand, of their cheapness, durability, and the ease with which they may be multiplied; but against these may be set the absolute truthfulness which is inseparable from a photograph when taken under proper conditions ; the facility with which they also may be reproduced; the great advantage resulting from a stereoscopic combination of views ; lastly, with regard to permanence, the carbon and allied processes, and greater care in the production of silver prints, point at least in this direction, while the simplicity of our own collodio-bromide process commends itself for yielding excellent glass transparencies, which, when encased in Canada balsam, would seem to defy the ordinary wear and tear of time.
 
My attention was first drawn to the subject of my paper by reading a letter in the Times, in January last, wherein Mr. C. J. Stevens stated that he had been enabled to form certain conclusions from photographs of flint implements from gravel-pits at Malton, in reference to which a vexed question was raised.
 
In a letter to me from the Blackmore Museum, Salisbury, that gentleman says: "I had a flint hatchet photographed yesterday, but for such objects photography is not very useful, as the yellows come out too dark."
 
For matters of detail, photography is admirably adapted, or for mere form. Our museum is set apart for prehistoric archaeology and for weapons, and so on, in use by modern savages, as illustrating the collections; and photographs of rare forms of clubs, spears, ornaments, tools, weapons, &c, are useful and valuable to us. We also collect photographs of the Aborigines of various countries, and for this nothing is equal to photography, because artistic license is impossible. For dolmens, and other megalithic structures, photograph)" is a magnificent agent, likewise for sculptured stones of the early period.
 
Of course I do not now allude to any application of the art, as available for other than purposes of archaeology.
 
Our country archaeological societies employ photography largely in their work, and the Hampshire society also. Some photographs of the Roman city of Silchester were taken during a recent visit of that society to the spot.
 
Many important historical monuments are in inaccessible positions, which the artist has to visit hurriedly, filling up subsequently the details of his imperfect sketches. This photography does effectually on the spot.
 
Many objects of antiquarian interest are fragmentary, and from a mere portion the probable outline of the whole has to be deduced. Others, such as cinerary urns, bones, and implements, and also Roman frescoes, when exposed after ages of interment, rapidly crumble in our atmosphere, and are lost for ever. A sketch is often attempted by a rude draughtsman, where a photograph would render valuable aid.
 
The character, date, and evident use of objects, as in the foregoing instances, are frequently determined by the situation and other circumstances under which they are formed, and there our art is of great use.
 
I have, on a former occasion, referred to "Architectural Photography;" and now, in relation to the archaeological part of the subject I may add, that although the architect will learn more by making a careful sketch of an old building, yet you will very seldom find two sketches of the same subject which agree perfectly, while the time and skill necessary to copy the endless intricacies of detail, say in a gothic building, would be better spent in taking a few photographs of the same. Photographs show the difference in the courses of masonry, which often determine relative dates. They also show the juncture of work of different periods and later insertions, and in connection with this subject I may urge the desirability of photographing churches, &c, before and after restoration.
 
As illustrating and adding force to what I have said, I may remind you of what has been done by our own Government, by public and other bodies, and by individuals who have employed photography for the purposes 1 have named.
 
By command of her Majesty, photo zincography has been employed to reproduce in facsimile a selection of the national MSS. of England, from the Conquest to the reign of Queen Anne. Thus far 230 have been published, to which the Doomsday-book must be added. About 80 MSS. of Scotland are already in the hands of the public, and more of that country, and also Ireland, are to follow. By the same process, some municipal and other archives have likewise been copied.
 
The Ordnance Survey of Stonehenge and of Turusachan (Isle of Lewis) is accompanied with illustrative photographs.
 
In a communication received after the rest of my paper was written, Mr. C. J. Stevens, in speaking of the value of the Ordnance photographs of Stonehenge, refers to his remarks upon them in the Athenaeum: also to Mr. Parker's photographic illustrations of the "Antiquities of Wells;" and after enumerating photographs of Celtic and other relics (including those of the Swiss Lake-dwellings), he proceeds to say, "The stone axe from Malton, and the beds from whence it was derived, are chiefly known to archaeologists by the published photographs of them;" and concludes thus, "An artist is not necessarily an archaeologist, and he may slur over or misrepresent some trifling (to him) detail. I have a photograph of a church with the village cross, &c.; upon the latter, even the chalk scribblings of boys are shown no artist would have taken this; but in a strange country, and with all to learn about the antiquities and the people, such minuteness is invaluable." (1)
 
The India Office has published an important work, with photographic illustrations, "The Textile Manufactures and Costumes of the People of India," and the Indian Government has recently directed the whole of the ancient buildings of India to be photographed. (2)
 
The Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem has been the means of many valuable photographs being taken there; and the hon. secretary of the Palestine Exploration Fund also says, "We have already materials for almost an entirely complete and accurate map of the country and photographs of more than 300 spots and objects, large numbers of which have never before been taken."
 
There are catalogues of photographs of about 10,000 objects of antiquarian interest in South Kensington Museum, not to mention the numerous photographs taken of loan and other collections, and also at the British Museum.
 
While making a passing allusion to the use made of photography by our English and other antiquarian societies, I may mention that the Archaeological Society of Rome have proposed to photograph any antiquarian discoveries they make, and send copies to the Society of Antiquaries in London for publication. One account says, "Mr. J. H. Parker is proceeding with a collection of photographs of the ancient monuments of Rome and the Campagna, with a view to facilitate the researches of archaeological students, and demonstrate the successive styles of Roman construction during the periods of the kings, the republic, and the empire." At that date about 500 photographs had been so taken.
 
The mysterious remains of Egypt have attracted the attention of photographers from the first. Frith was early in the field, and was followed by Bedford, who also illustrated Palestine and Greece, &c. The Vicomte de Rouge in his mission to Egypt, in 1863-4, produced 6 volumes of hand copies of inscriptions and 220 photographs. Professor Piazzi Smythe lately took 166 photographs of the Pyramids (many for the lantern) and 50 stereo views. Most of them were taken "solely with a view to procuring aids to scientific inquiry." They were produced on glass slips 3ins, by 1in., exposed while in the bath, and they include 11 views in the interior of the great Pyramids by magnesium light. He prefers stereo views taken with two cameras, and very justly urges the taking of distant objects with the cameras placed widely apart. This, I think, we might often do with advantage, using one stereo camera, first taking one half, and then moving the camera and refocussing for the second half.
 
In this connection, 1 ought to mention the labours of Thompson among the ruins of Cambodia; Ferguson and Hope in Indian Architecture; and Svoboda at the Cave of Elephanta, likewise in Mesopotamia, and on the sitis of the seven churches of Asia. Helsby has illustrated some of the antiquities of South America; and a new work on Central America, by Squier, is, I believe, to be illustrated by 3,000 photographs; and anyone acquainted -with the elaborated monuments of that country will admit that by no other means could fair representations be given.
 
It would be tedious to enumerate the volumes bearing on antiquities which photography has illustrated, either directly by silver, or other prints, or as furnishing a groundwork for the woodcutter. In "Sinai Photographed; or, Contemporary Records of Israel in the Wilderness," Lord Lyndhurst suggested the application of photography, "as the only way so to certify their copies of the inscriptions as to silence evil." Noel Humphrey's interesting work on the "History of the Art of Writing" is cleverly illustrated by photography. Our art science has been employed to some extent in illustration of old coins and medals, also in copying old mosaic pavements on a reduced scale. Some time since, Mr. Rejlander turned his attention to the ancient brasses for which our country is so famous, and by superimposing rubbings on sensitised paper, obtained copies the same size as the originals. I am of opinion that negatives of the rubbings, reduced to a known scale, would yield equally useful and more convenient prints.
 
Of the numerous works of antiquarian interest, I will only mention "The Ruins of Pompeii;" but 1 may mention that at its counterpart in this country, "Uriconium," a photograph previously taken was useful in enabling 120 columns of a hypocaust to be restored utter they had been wantonly overthrown.
 
Some of the details at Iona, and upwards of 100 photographs at Melrose, have been taken, the latter embracing everything of constructive or ornamental interest ; and it is somewhat in this spirit that 1 would urge the copying, by photographic means, wherever practicable, of such works of antiquity as remain to our own day, as well for the purpose of study as for transmission, if possible (cither in the form of negatives or prints), to posterity, to whom the originals may be partially or entirely lost.
 
The portico of the Temple of Drudera, on the Nile, was added by Tiberius; but against this recent acquisition may be set the fact that Egyptian monuments, known to exist in the fourteenth century, are now no more. Of some treasures of antiquity, now lost, only rude representations have come down to us. For example, on the arch of Titus, at Rome, we have some of the sacred trophies from the Jewish Temple, and in this country drawings of the famed shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury only exist on a portion of an undestroyed window, and in a partly burnt manuscript.
 
Let me conclude in the words from the "Essays of Elia " Antiquity! thou wondrous charm, what art thou? that being nothing art everything! When thou wert, thou wert not antiquity, then thou wert nothing, but hadst a remoter antiquity, as thou callest it, to look back to with blind veneration, thou thyself being to thyself flat, jejeune, modern! What mystery lurks in this retroversion? or what half Januses are we, that cannot look forward with the same idolatry with which we for ever revert? The mighty future is as nothing, being everything; the past is everything, being nothing!"
 
1) I am indebted to Mr. Stevens for the permission to use his remarks, which were not intended tor publication.
 
2) Our illustration is from one of these photographs. It was taken from one of some forty-eight or fifty Dagobas, "covered with sculptures, and all the ornaments which these monuments possessed in the palmy days of Buddhism," as Sir James Fergusson remarks in a paper communicated to the Royal Asiatic Society in IS67. The principal figure is Buddha, seated on the great Naga snake.
 
[Footnote notations have been modified and placed at the end of the article to improve readability.] 
 
 
  
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