New Bedford (MA-USA) Whalers on glass plate negatives

[Roboticspro]

I was able to pick these up at an art auction recently. I digitized them as I plan on donating them to a local maritime museum. Looks like mid to late 1800's from the clothing. Those wooden barrels would have contained the whale oil for processing; glad those days are over for most of the world, but not all....

Regards,

Edd

 

[AnalogueWendy]

Amazing!
Have you been able to date them?

 

[Ian Grant]

I was able to pick these up at an art auction recently. I digitized them as I plan on donating them to a local maritime museum. Looks like mid to late 1800's from the clothing. Those wooden barrels would have contained the whale oil for processing; glad those days are over for most of the world, but not all....

Regards,

Edd

Fuji have a Patent for using Whale Gelatin for film emulsion. I had a discussion with Ron Mowrey a retired Eastman Kodak employee some years ago and we both thought Fuji were probably using Whale instead of Bovine Gelatin for Acros.

Old plates & lantern slides are quite interesting. I was given a collection a couple of years ago, there almost no cars in the images, even a Royal Mail stage-coach. I have some details about the photographer, he lived next door to a friends father.

Ian

 

[Roboticspro]

Amazing!
Have you been able to date them?

Hi Wendy,

I will be attending a conference hosted by Historic New England in mid-November, so hopefully there will be some subject experts that I can show them to. I've also made contact with two maritime museums this morning, and they are interested in them. I have one more that I need to digitize, but it needs a lot of post-processing help (scratches, missing sections in parts of the emulsion), so that will take some time.

Regards,

Edd

 

[AnalogueWendy]

The return of whales to our oceans is one of humanity's few nature-centric achievements. I take a perverse pleasure in records of the former destruction. That is also a truly beautiful boat!

 

[Reginald S.]

..we both thought Fuji were probably using Whale instead of Bovine Gelatin for Acros.

All I cant tell is that Fuji definetively bought the finest gelaine from a german company, but then they cleaned the very cleaned gelatine again to meet their specs.

 

[Reginald S.]

I have one more that I need to digitize

Edd, what's about making prints of he plates?
Btw, I'm wondering why the corners are round. Is this the original design?

 

[Roboticspro]

Edd, what's about making prints of he plates?
Btw, I'm wondering why the corners are round. Is this the original design?

Hi Reginald,

I can make contact prints or enlarger-based prints (Adox or Ilford), or just send the digital files to my Pro-100's. The rounded corners are indeed the original design. They deserve a better home other than me...I just want to preserve the digital record for my family and grand-children.

Regards,

Edd