Photograph (?Platinum Print) of Nevil Vincent Sidgwick, by James Soame, Oxford, 1890s

Platinum print or gelatine print imitating the tones of a platinum print, mounted on card. Portrait of N. V. Sidgwick, head and shoulders, facing front, vignetted. Grey (pale black and white) colour.

Nevil Vincent Sidgwick (1873-1952), chemist, is the ultimate source of many of the Museum's photographs of Oxford chemists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is an early formal portrait of Sidgwick himself, whose receding hairline as a young man made him look older than he was. He graduated in chemistry in 1895 and in classics in 1897, was away from Oxford for several years, and took up a fellowship at Lincoln College in 1901, any of which might be the occasion for such an elegantly-presented formal photograph. The photographer James Soame was active in Oxford in the 1890s and 1900s, before entering into partnership to form the firm of Gillman & Soame, which still exists.