James Wallace Black (February 10, 1825 – January 5, 1896), known professionally as J.W. Black, was an early American
photographer
A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs.
Duties and types of photographe ...
whose career was marked by experimentation and innovation.
[Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography, Volume 1. CRC Press, 2008; p.164+]
Biography
He was born on February 10, 1825 in
Francestown, New Hampshire
Francestown is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,610 at the 2020 census. The village of Francestown, population 201 in 2020, is in the center of the town.
History
Incorporated in 1772, Francestow ...
.
After trying his luck as a painter in Boston, he turned to photography, beginning as a
daguerreotype
Daguerreotype (; french: daguerréotype) was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process.
Invented by Louis Daguerre an ...
plate polisher. He soon partnered with
John Adams Whipple
John Adams Whipple (September 10, 1822 – April 10, 1891) was an American inventor and early photographer. He was the first in the United States to manufacture the chemicals used for daguerreotypes. He pioneered astronomical and night pho ...
, a prolific
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
photographer and
inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
. Black's photograph of abolitionist
John Brown John Brown most often refers to:
*John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859
John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to:
Academia
* John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...
in 1859, the year of his insurrection at
Harpers Ferry
Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It is located in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The population was 285 at the 2020 census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where the U.S. stat ...
, is now in the
National Portrait Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
.
In March 1860, Black took a photograph of poet
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...
when Whitman was in Boston to oversee the typesetting of his 1860 edition of ''Leaves of Grass''. Black's studio at 173
Washington Street was less than a block from the publishing firm of
Thayer and Eldridge
Thayer & Eldridge (c.1860–1861) was a publishing firm in Boston, Massachusetts, established by William Wilde Thayer and Charles W. Eldridge. During its brief existence the firm issued works by James Redpath, Charles Sumner, and Walt Whitman, bef ...
, who apparently commissioned the photograph to promote the 1860 edition.
On October 13, 1860, two years after the French photographer
Nadar
Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (5 April 1820 – 20 March 1910), known by the pseudonym Nadar, was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloon (aircraft), balloonist, and proponent of Aircraft#Heavier-than-air – aerodynes, h ...
conducted his earliest experiments in balloon flight, Black made the first successful aerial photographs in the United States in collaboration with the balloon navigator
Samuel Archer King on King's hot-air balloon, the ''Queen of the Air''. He photographed Boston from a hot-air balloon at 1,200 feet (8 plates of glass negative; 10 1/16 x 7 15/16 in). One good print resulted, which the photographer entitled ''Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It''. This was the first clear aerial image of a city.
Almost immediately, aerial reconnaissance would be put to use by the Union and Confederate Armies during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, though there is no credible evidence that aerial photography was successful.
Black later became the authority on the use of the
magic lantern
The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...
, a candlelight-powered projector that was a predecessor of today's slide projectors. By the late 1870s Black's business largely consisted of lantern slide production, including his famous images of the
Great Boston Fire of 1872
The Great Boston Fire of 1872 was Boston's largest fire, and still ranks as one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history. The conflagration began at 7:20 p.m. on Saturday, November 9, 1872, in the basement of a com ...
, published a photographic album titled ''Ruins of the Great Fire in Boston, November 1872''.
He died on January 5, 1896 and was buried in
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural cemetery, rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middl ...
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
.
Collections of his work
*
Boston Athenaeum
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most ...
*
Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonweal ...
*
George Eastman House
The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as ''George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film'', the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in ...
*
Historic New England
Historic New England, previously known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), is a charitable, non-profit, historic preservation organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is focused on New England a ...
*
Massachusetts Historical Society
The Massachusetts Historical Society is a major historical archive specializing in early American, Massachusetts, and New England history. The Massachusetts Historical Society was established in 1791 and is located at 1154 Boylston Street in Bost ...
*
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
References
Further reading
* In Memoriam: JW Black. Wilsons Photographic Magazine, March 1896
* Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography, Volume 1. CRC Press, 2008.
External links
*
Boston Public Libraryon Flickr. James Wallace Black Photographs
Cambridge Historical Societyon Flickr
Image gallery
File:Sarah Fuller by James Wallace Black c1860s.jpg, Sarah Fuller, c1860s
Image:John_Brown_portrait,_1859.jpg, John Brown John Brown most often refers to:
*John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859
John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to:
Academia
* John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...
, 1859
File:Aerial photograph of Boston, 1860.jpg, 1860 photograph of Boston taken by Wallace from a tethered balloon
Image:Walt Whitman, by Photographer James Wallace Black, Boston, March 1860.jpg, Portrait of noted American poet Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...
, by photographer James Wallace Black, March 1860
Image:1862 JW Black Photographist BostonDirectory.png, Advertisement, Boston Directory 1862
Image:GloryOfTheSeas 1869 byJWBlack PEM.png, Glory of the Seas in shipyard of Donald McKay
Donald McKay (September 4, 1810 – September 20, 1880) was a Canadian-born American designer and builder of sailing ships, famed for his record-setting clippers.
Early life
He was born in Jordan Falls, Shelburne County, on Nova Scotia's ...
, 1869
Image:1872 AfterFire Boston byJWBlack SmithsonianAmericanArt 1994.91.27 1a.jpg, After the Boston Fire, Washington Street. 1872
{{DEFAULTSORT:Black, James Wallace
American portrait photographers
1825 births
1896 deaths
Photographers from Massachusetts
Artists from Boston
Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery
19th century in Boston
19th-century American photographers