Unidentified photographer
1869
Figure of a Young African, (Sierra Leone), To illustrate Mr. Lamprey's Method of Measuring the Human Form.

Journal illustration
Internet - Original source ill-defined
J.H. Lamprey, 1869, On a Method of Measuring the Huuman Form, for the use of Students in Ethnology, The Journal of the Ethnological Society, Ethnological Notes and Queries, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 84-85 [Illustration between pages]
 
Collectors of photographs illustrative of the races of man, have experienced the greatest difficulty in questions of comparison of measurement of individuals by some common standard. Latterly a plan, simple and answering the purpose, has been put in practice by myself, which I submit to the Society for the approval of fellow-workers, with the hope of obtaining valuable suggestions of improvement in details not yet complete.
 
A stout frame of wood, seven feet by three, is neatly ruled along its inner side into divisions of two inches; small nails are driven into these ruled lines, and fine silk thread is strained over them, dividing the included surface by longitudinal and latitudinal lines into squares of two inches every way. Against this screen the figure is placed, the heel fairly on a line with one of the strings; the iron prop to support the object is pressed firmly in its place at some distance from the background; for, by this means better defined outlines are secured than if the man stood directly against a solid screen on which lines might have been scored. By means of such photographs the anatomical structture of a good academy figure or model of six feet can be compared with a Malay of four feet eight in height; and the study of all those peculiarities of contour which are so distinctly observable in each group, are greatly helped by this system of perpen dicular lines, and they serve as good guides to their definition, which no verbal description can convey, and but few artists could delineate. The photographs are produced on a large scale, and my portfolio already contains a collection of specimens of various races.
 
Photographers on foreign stations would greatly assist us if they adopted the same plan; and encouraged by the general expression of opinion as to the value of the method by the Society, I shall take steps to disseminate the photographs amongst collectors who may cboose to apply for them, or desire to communicate with me in furtherance of the method.
 
LL/113397