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History of Science Museum

Photograph (Albumen Print, Photomicrographs) of Various Microscopical Objects, by R. L. Maddox, 1869

Inventory Number 12100


Item type
Object
Provenance
Royal Microscopical Society.
Primary inscriptions
Signed by means of a logo within the image: 'R. L. Maddox. MD | 18 Photo 69'. Printed on front of mount 'Explanation of the Plate.' and list of 13 captions, and immediately below photograph: 'Printed by R. Sedgfield. Norbiton.'.
Physical material
Paper
Dimensions
Height: 136mm Width: 96mm
Inventory No
12100

Description

Albumen print mounted on stiff paper, with printed border and caption, as if intended as a book or periodical illustration. The photograph shows 14 (intrinsically numbered 1-13, the diatom 10 being in two parts) photomicrographs, consisting of a botanical section, human blood corpuscles, a bone section, several parasites and fleas, and several diatoms. The photographer's logo is within the final image. Sedgfield is presumably the printer of the mount only. Mount foxed, and slightly damaged. Found associated with the much later photomicrographs of D. P. Knight, with which they have no obvious connection.

Richard Leach Maddox (1816-1902), a physician and microscopist, is celebrated in the annals of photography as the inventor of gelatine dry plate negatives, which he first proposed in 1871. See also 12101.