Photograph (Albumen Print, Cabinet Format) Purporting to be a Group of Scientists, by Hughes & Edmonds, London, c.1866

Albumen print mounted on card, cabinet format. Artificial composite photograph purporting to be a group portrait of five scientists seated and standing around a table, with instruments. The heads are taken from separate photographs (probably commercial cartes de visite), most of the rest, including the background, table-cloth, instruments, and most or all of the subjects' bodies appears to be non-photographic. The subjects are Faraday, Huxley, Wheatstone (standing centre at back), Brewster, and Tyndall (standing right). The instruments depicted are a small telescope, leyden jar, morse key (held by Wheatstone), ?galvanometer, magneto-electric machine, and aneroid barometer (on the backdrop centre). Vertical format. Faraday died in 1867, and the cabinet format was introduced in 1866, so although the image was probably created a little earlier the date of this version is about 1866/67. A larger version, presumably earlier, is 12098.