On 23 April 1712, a young Mark Catesby landed on the shores of Virginia seeking out new animals and plants that were not native to… Read More »52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 18: the Catesby Conundrum
Printing out paper, or “P.O.P.” in photo-specialist jargon, constitutes the progression of the photographic print medium following the reign of the albumen print. Strictly speaking,… Read More »52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 17: P.O.P.! (or, printing out paper!)
This very pretty little prayer book was probably part of a book of hours originally; these contained simplified versions of church liturgy to facilitate private… Read More »52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 16: the Office for the Dead with other devotional works
Hieroglyphic Bibles became en vogue in late 18th century England as a means for teaching Bible stories to a new audience: children from poor and… Read More »52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 15: “A new hieroglyphical Bible, for the amusement & instruction of children” (1794)
In 1850 the albumen print process was invented in France by Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Evrard. Used almost exclusively in combination with glass plate negatives, the clarity and… Read More »52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 14: rotten egg whites usher in the modern era of photography — the Albumen Print Process
This week’s illustrations come from an album of watercolours of St Andrews compiled by John Cook in 1797. It contains the usual views which one… Read More »52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 13: John Cook’s unusual perspectives …
On the 15th of May, 1617, King James VI & I landed at Port ‘Seatown’ (now Seton) to begin what would be his only homecoming… Read More »52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 12: the typographical beauty of “The Muses welcome” (1618)
The first photographic print medium was known as the salted paper print and was invented by the English scientist William Henry Fox Talbot. Publicly announced… Read More »52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 11: Imbedded in the fibres: The Salted Paper Print
On 27 July 1822 – 190 years to the day before this post is written – Thomas Moody set off from Paris to begin a… Read More »52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 10: the Moody Journal, romantic and beautiful
This week’s illustration post comes straight out of a very close-knit circle of Renaissance Italian humanists working in the 16th century, however the story begin… Read More »52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 9: Piero Valeriano’s menagerie of symbols (Hieroglyphica, 1556)
The term “calotype” is from the Greek kalos meaning beautiful. It is the name given to Fox Talbot‘s negative process. The name is often mistakenly… Read More »52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 8: the Calotype Negative
“Drawings made by a black fellow at Corowa New South Wales June 1886. His name I do not know. By the whites he goes by… Read More »52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 7: ‘Drawings made by a black fellow at Corowa New South Wales June 1886’
