Roger Fenton Crimean War Photographs
Prints and Photographs
Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 20540-4730
Collection digitized? Yes. The photographic prints
have been digitized and are available in the Prints and Photographs
Online Catalog. View a selection of images | View
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Table of Contents
Summary
Roger Fenton's Crimean War photographs represent
one of the earliest systematic attempts to document a war through the medium
of photography. Fenton, who spent fewer than four months in the Crimea
(March 8 to June 26, 1855), produced 360 photographs under extremely trying
conditions. While these photographs present a substantial documentary record
of the participants and the landscape of the war, there are no actual combat
scenes, nor are there any scenes of the devastating effects of war.
The Library of Congress purchased 263 of Fenton's salted paper and albumen
prints from his grandniece Frances M. Fenton in 1944, including his most
well-known photograph, "Valley of the Shadow of Death." This
set of unmounted photographs may be unique in that it appears to reflect
an arrangement imposed by Fenton, or the publisher, Thomas Agnew & Sons,
and yet is a set of prints that was not issued on the standard mounts
sold by the publisher. It is possible that this collection is comprised
of a set of prints kept and annotated by Fenton himself.
Jump to: The Crimean War | British
Coverage of the War & Agnew's Enterprise | Fenton's
Background | Fenton's Crimean War Photos | After
the Crimean War
![Plan de la Chersonese](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109212405im_/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/ppmsc/09900/09971t.gif) |
Charles Alexandre Fay, Plan de la Chersonèse,
1867. (Map of the Crimean peninsula) |
The Crimean War (1853-1856) was fought primarily on the southern tip
of the Crimea, a peninsula extending into the Black Sea, barely connected
to Ukraine. It was the location of Russia's great naval base at Sevastopol,
the destruction of which was the primary objective of Great Britain and
France. In addition, Great Britain and France maintained a naval presence
in the Baltic Sea, which forced Russia to divert troops from the Crimea
for the defense of St. Petersburg.
There is no simple explanation for the cause of the Crimean War. The
motives and ambitions of a few individuals drew Russia into conflict
with several nations, cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of men,
and reshaped the political structure of Europe for the next fifty years.
Russia and Turkey became embroiled in a dispute over the Orthodox Church
in the Ottoman Empire after Turkey granted concessions to France that
appeared to infringe on the rights of Russia as the protector of the
Orthodox Christians. Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, perceiving the Ottoman
Empire to be in its twilight, also harbored ambitions to extend Russian
territorial boundaries towards the Mediterranean through the annexation
of Ottoman territory. Contributing to the belligerency of both Russia
and Turkey was the international support that each nation presumed it
could rely on.
![Théâtre des opérations](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109212405im_/http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/ppmsca/02100/02161t.gif) |
Charles Alexandre Fay, Théâtre des opérations,
1867. (Map of the Black Sea region) |
Concerns about the shift in the balance of power in Europe and the overt
motives of the tsar brought Great Britain, France, Austria, and even
Sardinia into the conflict. Of particular interest to Great Britain was
the maintenance of open trade or access routes to India and the East
which meant preventing Russian expansion to the Mediterranean Sea. One
could easily suggest that the Crimean War resulted from many misplayed
hands due to poor decisions based on shifting allegiances and insufficient
understanding of the different motives of each nation.
For some of the combatants, the commitment to the ideals of honor and
glory outweighed their preparation for the realities of war. By 1854
the British army had experienced close to forty years of relative peace.
Consequently, there were few battle-hardened veterans among the British
forces in the Crimea. During this time, drastic measures were taken to
reduce the cost of supporting a standing army. Most of the British army's
commanding officers last saw action during the Napoleonic Wars, in particular,
at Waterloo (1815), or had since purchased their commissions. Some British
units, at their commanding officers' expense, adopted flashy, brightly
colored uniforms. The officers of these units seemed to enjoy the pomp-and-circumstance
of the parade-ground more than they understood the mechanics of war.
The troops were, nonetheless, highly disciplined units. Overall, the
successful battlefield tactics of the Napoleonic Wars were still the
focus of the soldier's training. While the technology of weaponry was
improving, the standard conduct of war was slow to evolve. Recent engagements
involving the British in India, Afghanistan, and South Africa and the
French in Algeria had done little to alter the typical battle plan, although
the French were better prepared as a result of their campaigns in North
Africa.
![Plan des attaques](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109212405im_/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/ppmsc/09900/09972t.gif) |
Charles Alexandre Fay, Plan des attaques,
1867. (Map showing Sevastopol, inner harbor) |
As the war got underway in the Crimea, the Times war correspondent,
William Howard Russell, sent home dispatches about the glorious victory
at the Battle of the Alma (Sept. 20, 1854). However, the combined allied
forces, comprised mainly of French, British, and Turkish troops, were
unable to completely subdue a strategically positioned, albeit archaic,
Russian army. To the dismay of some, the invading armies failed to immediately
pursue the retreating Russian forces. It quickly became evident that
the failure to achieve the anticipated swift conclusion to the fighting
in the Crimea was not for lack of bravery. Rather, mismanagement and
disease, chiefly among the British forces, and to some extent the French,
prevented the swift prosecution of the war. Casualties in the aftermath
of Alma were due more to disease and the treatment of wounds than to
mortal wounds suffered during combat. And soon Russell's reports were
tempered with criticism.
![William H. Russell, Esqr., the Times special correspondent](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090109212405im_/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/ftncnwhtml/images/Russell.jpg) |
Roger Fenton, William H. Russell, Esqr.,
the Times special correspondent.
LC-USZC4-9183 |
As the landscape of war shifted from engagements on open battlefields
to the entrenchment of the siege of Sevastopol (Oct. 1854-Sept. 1855),
war correspondent William Howard Russell began a relentless attack on
the official conduct of the war. His accounts of the difficulties of
the soldier's life in Balaklava struck a responsive chord with readers
on the home front. Thomas Agnew, of the publishing house Thomas Agnew & Sons,
sensed a commercial opportunity. He proposed sending a photographer to
the Crimea to provide evidence that would mitigate the negative reports
appearing in the newspapers. Thomas Agnew's proposal was strictly a private,
commercial venture that needed only the sanction of the government to
allow it to proceed.
The British government made several official attempts to document the
progress of the war through the relatively new medium of photography.
In March of 1854 an amateur photographer, Gilbert Elliott, photographed
views of the fortresses guarding Wingo Sound in the Baltic Sea from aboard
the Hecla, the same ship that was to carry Fenton to the Crimea eleven
months later. Elliott's photographs, though praised for their clarity
in contemporary accounts, apparently have not survived. A more substantial
effort to photograph the war, lasting from June to November 1854, came
to a tragic end. Richard Nicklin, a civilian photographer, was lost at
sea, along with his assistants, photographs, and equipment, when their
ship sank during the hurricane that stuck the harbor at Balaklava on
Nov. 14, 1854. In the spring of 1855, contemporary to Fenton's time in
the Crimea, another government-sponsored attempt was made. Two military
officers, ensigns Brandon and Dawson, were hastily trained by London
photographer J.E. Mayall, after which they were sent to the Crimea. Their
photographs, retained for a number of years in official military files,
without distinction or notice, have subsequently disappeared without
a trace.
Roger Fenton was born in 1819 into a family of comfortable means. Large
landholdings, a banking enterprise, and other commercial ventures allowed
Fenton the freedom to pursue his own personal interests.
There is much conjecture about how and where Fenton spent his time
in the early 1840s. Around 1840 he began to study painting in the studio
of Charles Lucy, a member of the Royal Academy in London. It is generally
accepted that from 1841 to 1843 or 1844 he was in Paris and may have
studied painting at the studio of Paul Delaroche. He apparently made
frequent trips between London and Paris between 1843 and 1847, during
which time he married Grace Maynard (1843). Perhaps in response to the
additional responsibilities of beginning a family, or possibly realizing
that he lacked the necessary skills to become a successful painter, Fenton
completed his studies for a career in law and began practice as a solicitor
(ca. 1851).
One reason frequently given for the likelihood that Fenton studied at
the studio of Delaroche is that three of France's foremost early photographers
may have emerged from that studio. It has been suggested that Fenton
was introduced to photography either as an art form itself, or as an
aid to art, by Delaroche. Possibly as early as 1847, though more likely
around 1851, Fenton appears to have begun experimenting with photography
while continuing to paint. Between 1849 and 1851 he had three "genre" paintings
accepted by the Royal Academy, without any particular distinction. This
may have led him to make the final break with painting in 1851.
In 1852 Fenton journeyed to Russia to take photographs for civil engineer
Charles Vignoles, documenting the construction of a suspension bridge
over the Dnieper River in Kiev in Ukraine. While in Russia, Fenton photographed
buildings and views in Kiev, St. Petersburg and Moscow. He used the waxed-paper
negative process of Gustave Le Gray.
Early in 1854 Fenton began to photograph the British Royal family, making
frequent visits to various Royal residences, taking portraits as well
as tableaux vivants (living pictures staged by Royal family members of
works of art). Later that year he entered into an agreement with the
British Museum to photograph art and artifacts from its collections.
William Agnew, of the publishing firm Thomas Agnew & Sons, must
have proposed Fenton as the photographer for a commercial publishing
venture to the Crimea sometime before a hurricane claimed the life of
the official government photographer in the Crimea in November 1854,
for during the fall of that year Fenton purchased a former wine merchant's
van and converted it to a mobile darkroom. He hired an assistant, and
traveled the English countryside testing the suitability of the van.
In February 1855 Fenton set sail for the Crimea aboard the Hecla, traveling
under royal patronage and with the assistance of the British government.
While Fenton was in the Crimea he had ample opportunity to photograph
the horrors of war. He had several friends and acquaintances, including
his brother-in-law, Edmund Maynard, who were casualties of combat. But
Fenton shied away from views that would have portrayed the war in a negative
(or realistic) light for several reasons, among them, the limitations
of photographic techniques available at the time (Fenton was actually
using state-of-the-art processes, but lengthy exposure time prohibited
scenes of action); inhospitable environmental conditions (extreme heat
during the spring and summer months Fenton was in the Crimea); and political
and commercial concerns (he had the support of the Royal family and the
British government, and the financial backing of a publisher who hoped
to issue sets of photos for sale).
Whether there was an explicit directive from the British government
to refrain from photographing views that could be deemed detrimental
to the government's management of the war effort, perhaps in exchange
for permission to travel and photograph in the war zone, or whether there
was merely an implicit understanding between the government, the publisher,
and the photographer is not known. Fenton photographed the leading figures
of the allied armies, documented the care and quality of camp life of
the British soldiers, as well as scenes in and around Balaklava, and
on the plateau before Sevastopol, but refrained from images of combat
or its aftermath. This tactic may have given him access to information
and views that were otherwise off-limits to artists and war correspondents,
like William Howard Russell, who were critical of the British government's
leadership and military officers' handling of the war. In any case, while
personally witnessing the horror of war, Fenton chose not to portray
it.
Fenton made plans to photograph Sevastopol following the June 18th assault
on the Malakoff and the Redan, the Russian's primary defense works before
the city. When the assault failed, he decided it was time to return to
England. He sold the van, packed up his equipment, and by June 26th,
ill with cholera, sailed out of the harbor at Balaklava. Fenton was,
therefore, not present for the fall of Sevastopol (Sept. 9th) nor its
subsequent destruction, which was recorded photographically by James
Robertson.1 While Russia
retained control of the Crimea, the Allied armies achieved their primary
objective, the destruction of Russian naval power in the Black Sea.
Fenton's Crimean War photographs offer a wonderful record of a moment
in time. They are documentary in the sense that they constitute a reality
in a way only intimated by painting or wood engraving. They might also
be considered the first instance of the use of photography for the purposes
of propaganda, although they do not seem to have been exploited to this
end. Clearly they were intended to present a particular view of the British
government's conduct of the war. However, by the time they were exhibited
Sevastopol had fallen and the tide of war had turned.
|
Roger Fenton, The tombs of the generals
on Cathcart's Hill.
LC-USZ62-57972 |
The commercial venture that precipitated Fenton's photographic assignment
did not prove as lucrative as hoped. Sets of photographs went on sale
in November of 1855, two months after the fall of Sevastopol. By December
of 1856, the publisher, Thomas Agnew & Sons, disposed of their entire
holdings of unsold sets, prints, and negatives at auction. The vivid,
though understated, reality of war presented in the photographs may have
led to a negative reaction by the viewing public, which ignored the aesthetic
and technical qualities inherent in the photographs. When the Crimean
War ended, so did the interest in its photographic documentation.
On September 20th, 1855, an exhibit of 312 of Fenton's photographs opened
at the Water Colour Society's Pall Mall East establishment in London.
Thomas Agnew & Sons, Fenton's publishers, issued 337 photographs
on published mounts, individually or as parts of sets, between November
1855 and April 5, 1856. A "complete work," consisting of 160
of the photographs, was issued under the title Photographs taken
under the patronage of Her Majesty the Queen in the Crimea by Roger Fenton,
Esq. Another 159 photographs were issued in folios under the following
titles: Historical Portrait Gallery (30 photographs); Views
of the Camp, scenery, etc. (50 photographs); and Incidents
from Camp Life (60 photographs). Two sets of panoramas were issued, The
Photographic panorama of the plateau of Sebastopol (11 photographs)
and Photographic panoramas of the plains of Balaklava and valley
of Inkermann (8 photographs). These published sets do not account
for all the photographs said to have been printed.
In 1862 Roger Fenton gave up photography for good, auctioning off all
of his equipment. Roger Fenton died in 1869 after a brief illness. The
family fortune was all but depleted, his artistic endeavors lost, and
himself nearly forgotten as a leader in the development of photography
in England.
Later, historians of photography frequently
recognized Fenton's remarkable accomplishments (see, for example, the Selected Bibliography). During his brief
10 or 11-year career he did much to establish photography as an artistic
endeavor. To his portraits, costume studies, landscapes, architectural
views, and still life photographs he brought an aesthetic worthy of
high art. Through his early training as a painter he was able to bring
an artist's eye for composition to his photographs that set him apart
from other English photographers working at that time.
The photographs are arranged in numerical order according to numbers
handwritten on the versos of the items in a contemporary hand. It is
believed that the numbers reflect an order imposed by the photographer
or someone closely associated with the production of this set of photographs.
In many cases, the numbers correspond to those of the published set numbers
cited in the George Eastman House online records for Fenton photographs.
A concordance of transcribed titles and numbers is available in the appendix.
The concordance also includes, when available, the "published" number
as indicated in the online records of the George Eastman House Roger
Fenton Series (GEH), as well as the item numbers, when a one-to-one correlation
was possible, from the Roger Fenton Inventory, Harry Ransom Humanities
Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin (HRHRC).
A catalog record describes each photographic print and accounts for
variant numbering and titles where necessary. Color copy transparencies
have been made of each of the photographic prints and the color transparencies
have been digitized and linked to the catalog records. The records can
be searched in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html),
where images appear with the records. The Fenton Crimean War Collection
search screen (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/ftncnwquery.html)
makes it possible to view all of the Fenton Crimean War images, to search
within this particular set of records, and to select from lists of subject
and geographic headings used in the records.
For preservation reasons, original prints in the Roger Fenton Crimean War Photographs
Collection are no longer used for producing photographic copies. Color transparencies
were made of the prints, and the transparencies were digitized at a high
resolution that is sufficient for most publication purposes. Users may download
images themselves or can order copies through the Library of Congress Photoduplication
Service.
To order photographic copies made from the color transparencies, use
the LC-USZC... number listed in the Reproduction Number field in the
catalog record. To order photographic copies from existing black-and-white
copy negatives, use the LC-USZ6... number listed in the Reproduction
Number field in the catalog record. If no LC-USZ number is listed, no
copy negative exists and color transparencies or digital files must be
used for obtaining copies. Prices
for photographic copies can be found on the Photoduplication Service
web site (http://www.loc.gov/preserv/pds/).
To obtain copies from digital files through the Photoduplication Service,
use the number listed in the Reproduction Number field in the catalog
record. Prices
for digital imaging services are also available on the Photoduplication
Service web site.
As a publicly supported institution the Library generally does not own
rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not charge
permission fees for use of such material and cannot give or deny permission
to publish or otherwise distribute material in its collections. There
are no known restrictions on the photographs in the Roger Fenton Crimean
War Photograph Collection. Credit Line: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs
Division, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USZC4-1234]. Full rights and
restrictions information is available at: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/277_fent.html.
In the Prints and Photographs Division, Library
of Congress
Roger Fenton Photos
Fenton, Roger. "The Platoon Exercise, no. 3." Albumen
print, ca. 1860. Purchase, Rizzuto Fund, 1974 March.
Call number: PH - Fenton (R.), no. 375 (B size)
Fenton, Roger. "The Platoon Exercise, no. 6." Albumen
print, ca. 1860. Purchase, Rizzuto Fund, 1974 March.
Call number: PH - Fenton (R.), no. 376 (B size)
Fenton, Roger. The Works of Roger Fenton - Cathedrals.
Reigate, Frith, [186-?].
Call number: NA5461.F4 (P&P Case Z)
21 albumen prints of cathedrals published by Francis Frith. Disbound and individually
mounted, with a separate box of the original published "guard sheets with
descriptive letterpress" formerly inserted before each plate.
Popular Graphic Arts
prints relating to the Crimean War:
Day & Son. Sixteen lithographs including, "The
Valley of the Shadow of Death," "Highland Brigade Camp," "Siege
of Sevastopol," and "One of the Wards at Hospital at Scutari." W.
Simpson, del. London: Paul & Dominic Colnaghi & Co., 1854-1856.
Call numbers: PGA - Day & Son - [various titles] (B size) (All
have color film transparency reprodutions)
E.B. & E.C. Kellogg. "The Fall of Sebastopol
- Capture of the Malakoff Tower." Lithograph.
Call number: PGA - Kellogg - Fall... (A size); Reproduction
number: LC-USZ62-19365.
Books
Brackenbury, George. The Campaign in the Crimea
: An Historical Sketch. 2d series. illustrated by forty plates,
from drawings taken on the spot by William Simpson. 134 p. : plates.
London : P. and D. Colnaghi and Co., and Longman, Brown, Green and
Longmans, 1856.
Call number: DK214 .B79 1856 (Case X)
In the General Collections, Library of Congress
Popular press accounts can be found in the Illustrated
London News (AP4.I3) and the London Times (Newspaper
- available on microfilm) for the years 1854-1856.
Related Collections Outside the Library of Congress
(NOTE: The Library of Congress does not maintain these
Internet sites. Users should direct concerns about these links to their
respective site administrators or webmasters.)
George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film
Rochester, NY
http://www.geh.org/fm/fenton/htmlsrc/fenton_sld00001.html
An online collection of Fenton's photography, offering
a selection of 136 images, covering all aspects of Fenton's work (91
represent the Crimean War), with accompanying checklist. The titles cited
in the checklist are usually taken from the object mount and are often
the titles as published by Agnew & Sons in 1855 or 1856.
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
University of Texas
Austin, TX
www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/photography/
The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (HRHRC) has
a set of 312 prints published by Agnew & Sons, as well as two other sets
(19 prints total) of Fenton's Crimea photographs. The photographs were
given to the University of Texas by Helmut Gernsheim. The collection
of 312 prints appears to represent those exhibited by the publisher in
1855 (issued as published sets between Nov. 1855 and March 1856). Three
online collection level records describe the material; HRHRC also has
an unpublished inventory of individual photographs, entitled, "Roger
Fenton Inventory." The unpublished inventory states that "[t]hese
360 photographs, therefore, form the most complete and largest collection
in existence; they were bought from the Fenton family in 1947 and are
Roger Fenton's own set." The HRHRC list was "numbered by Gernsheim
with some additions. Underlined titles are Fenton's, parenthesis enclosed
titles are Gernsheim's." (Item numbers assigned by Gernsheim appear
to be the published numbers.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum
Los Angeles, CA
www.getty.edu/museum/
The J. Paul Getty Museum has several Fenton Crimean War
photographs. A review of a Getty exhibit of Fenton's "Oriental Suite" can
be found at: http://artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles1996/Articles0796/RFenton.html
The Royal Photographic Society
Bath, UK
www.rps.org/
The Royal Photographic Society has "780 albumen
and salt prints, the largest collection in the world, by Roger Fenton,
the Society's founder and first Secretary, including Moscow and Kiev
(1852), the Crimean War (1855), the Royal family, landscape, architecture
and still life (1860)." According to curator Pam Roberts, very few
of the RPS's holdings are of the Crimean War.
The National Portrait Gallery
London, UK
www.npg.org.uk/
The National Portrait Gallery is a good place to search
for portraits of some of the sitters in Fenton's Crimean War photographs.
Baldwin, Gordon. Roger Fenton: Pasha and Bayadere. Los
Angeles : J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996. Call number: TR652.B35 1996
A good source for background on Fenton (mostly post-Crimean
War) and the culture of realism in British Orientalism, as well as Fenton's
training as a painter and how he translated the "high art" of
painting to photography. Assists in understanding that, given the constraints
of photographic techniques at the time, Fenton sought to create, through
the poses in which he set his subjects, photographs that could be viewed
as paintings (paintings depicting military scenes being considered "high
art").
Fenton, Roger. Roger Fenton : Photographer of the 1850s : Hayward
Gallery, London, 4 February to 17 April 1988. [London] : South
Bank Board, 1988. Call number: TR647.F46 1988
A very good representative sample of the range of Fenton's
work from an exhibit at the Hayward Gallery, London, in 1988. Unfortunately,
not all the Crimean War photos are included in this volume, though does
include all eleven views issued as the Panorama of the Plateau of Sebastopol.
In her introduction to the Crimean War section of the exhibit, Valerie
Lloyd says, "...the photographs demand to be read' for the
detailed observations they provide. The Literary Gazette,
virtually alone, read the evidence most accurately: [...] it is obvious
that photographs command a belief in the exactness of their details which
no production of the pencil can do...." (p. 16) There is a glossary
in the back which discusses the photographic techniques available to
and used by Fenton, also included is a checklist of the exhibition which
identifies some of the photos as albumen.
Fenton, Roger. Roger Fenton : with an essay by Richard Pare.
Aperture masters of photography series, no. 4. New York, N.Y. : Aperture
Foundation, 1987. Call number: TR654.F4625 1987 [P&P]
Offers a small but nice selection from the range of Fenton's
career as a photographer, with an overview essay by Richard Pare. Fenton's "contribution
to the early history of photography is one of the most wide-ranging in
all aspects of the medium, technical, polemical, and most important,
aesthetic. [H]e was able to use what he had learned of composition and
organization of the picture plane in a way that was entirely suited to
the photographic method." (p. 6) Features a concise chronology in
the back.
Fenton, Roger. Roger Fenton, Photographer of the Crimean War:
His Photographs and His Letters from the Crimea, with an Essay on
His Life and Work by Helmut and Alison Gernsheim. London :
Secker & Warburg, 1954. Call number: DK214.F45 [P&P] [Frequently
cited as "Gernsheim"]
The essay on Fenton's life and work offers a good perspective
of the constraints Fenton was working under; the letters illustrate this
further and address aspects of the war not being photographed. Includes
85 photographs, six of which are by James Robertson and a few are by
other photographers. Not all are of the Crimean War. The Gernsheims may
have had the most complete collection of Fenton's Crimean War photographs "said
to include all of those issued on mounts by Agnew Brothers" (Vanderbilt, Guide
to the Special Collections of Prints & Photographs in the Library
of Congress, 1955, p. 57). One could conclude from this that the
titles used in this publication represent those as published in 1855/56.
The Gernsheim collection now resides at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research
Center, The University of Texas at Austin.
Gernsheim, Helmut. The rise of photography 1850-1880 : The
age of collodion. London : Thames and Hudson, 1988. Call number:
TR15 .G37 1982, vol. 2, pp. 92-99.
A section on the Crimean War under "Early War Photographs." A
rather hasty account presenting the generally known facts concerning
the early attempts by Szathmari, initial attempts made by the British
government, an account of Fenton's time in the Crimea, and the war photographs
taken by James Robertson and Felice Beato.
Gilbert, George. Photography: The Early Years : A Historical
Guide for Collectors. New York : Harper & Row, Publishers,
1980. Call number: TR15.G55 1980 [P&P]
Two chapters are of interest regarding Fenton's photographic
career: Chapter 2 - "The Calotype: the first photographs on paper" (the
salted paper print process used by Fenton); Chapter 7 - "The wet-plate
print: the photograph that opened the west" (the photographic process
used by Fenton). Appendix B - "Making calotype (salt print) paper" may
be of interest as well.
Green-Lewis, Jennifer. Framing the Victorians: Photography
and the Culture of Realism. Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University
Press, 1996. Call number: TR15.G69 1996
A study of photography in Victorian times, in particular,
how photography was seen and used by those who practiced the art. One
chapter and the beginning of another (p. 97-148) discuss Fenton's Crimea
photos in the context of the "culture of realism." Green-Lewis
presents the Victorian view of the role of photography as verisimilitude
achieved by taking the brush out of the artist's hand and replacing it
with a camera through which Nature creates an image. Drawings, watercolor
sketches, oil paintings depicting scenes of action, which photography
could not do, were necessarily impressionistic, therefore lacking the
veracity, the realism, imbued in photographs. That Fenton's photographs
fail to present a realistic view of war stems as much from the technical
limitations of the photographic processes as from the limitations imposed
by commercial and political demands. "[A]lthough startlingly unrevealing
of the war's hardships, the photographs provide us today with markers
of how the fact of the war itself was represented."(p. 101)
Hannavy, John. Roger Fenton of Crimble Hall. London
: Gordon Fraser Gallery, 1975, p. 44-64. Call number: TR140.F43 H36
[P&P]
Perhaps the only biography of Roger Fenton written to
this date, it offers the fullest account of his life (of which little
is known) and treats each aspect of his career in photography. Chapter
5 offers a useful, illustrated account of the war photographs, including
Fenton's own report to the Photographic Society "Narrative of a
Photographic Trip to the Seat of the War in the Crimea, By Roger Fenton
Esq." (p. 50-60). Fenton's account adds much that does not appear
in his photographs.
James, Lawrence. Crimea 1854-1856: The War with Russia from
Contemporary Photographs. New York : Van Nostrand Reinhold
Company, 1981. DK214.J35 1981 [Frequently cited as "James."]
James offers an overview of photography in the mid-1850s,
discussing briefly the several photographers involved photographing the
Crimean War. He presents the important points about the circumstances
which precipitated the Crimean War, the British, French, Turkish, and
Russian roles, and the strengths and weaknesses of the British and Russian
armies. Includes 85 photographs by Fenton, Robertson, and others.
Kerr, Paul. The Crimean War. London : Boxtree, 1997.
DK214.K47 1997
Collection of illustrated essays by several authors treating
all aspects of the Crimean War and reproducing many photographs by Roger
Fenton, James Robertson, and Karol de Szathmari, along with original
artworks by artists/illustrators stationed in the Crimea. Essays are
broad overviews highlighted with numerous quotes from the writings of
participants and observers. Features many one- or two-page sections devoted
to specific topics, such as: "The armies", "Wives and
warriors", "War reporting", and others.
Lalumia, Matthew Paul. Realism and Politics in Victorian Art
of the Crimean War. Ann Arbor, Mich. : UMI Research Press,
1984. N6767.L34 1984
Chapter 3 "The Crimean War 1854-56" and Chapter
6 "Photography" are of particular interest. Chapter 3 puts
British involvement in the war into perspective and chapter 6 treats
photographing the war and Fenton's role, both commercial and political,
in the enterprise. For another perspective, placing Fenton's photos into
the context of civilian concern over the conduct of the war, chapter
4 "The Popular Media" discusses the presentation of the war
through the popular press (the implicit role of Fenton's photographs
was to refute the negative reports appearing in British newspapers).
Milhollen, Hirst D. "Roger Fenton, Photographer of the Crimean
War" in A Century of Photographs, 1846-1946. Compiled
by Renata V. Shaw. Washington : Library of Congress, 1980, p. 18-23.
Call number: TR6.U62 D572 [P&P]
A brief introduction to the Library of Congress's Roger
Fenton Crimean War photograph collection.
Nolan, Edward H. The Illustrated History of the War Against
Russia. London : J.S. Virtue, [1857] Call number: DK214.N78
Comprehensive two volume history of the Crimean War with
engraved portraits, some after Fenton photographs, views of cities and
landscapes, battle scenes, and seven maps.
Trachtenberg, Alan. Reading American Photographs : Images as
History, Mathew Brady to Walker Evans. New York : Hill and
Wang, A division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989. Call number:
TR820.5.T73 [P&P]
Trachtenberg does not deal with the Crimean War, but
the chapter "Albums of war" offers corroborating support to
issues raised concerning the limitations of 19th century photography
and the photography of war. "[I]t is noteworthy that Civil War photographers
frequently resorted to stagecraft, arranging scenes of daily life in
camp to convey a look of informality.... However composed and staged,
they bear witness to real events."(p. 73).
Further Background on the Crimean War:
Barbary, James. The Crimean War. New York : Hawthorn
Books, Inc, 1970. Call number: DK214.B3 1970
Cadogan, George and Somerset J. Gough Calthrope. Cadogan's
Crimea. New York : Atheneum, 1980. Call number:DK215.C332
1980
Duberly, Frances Isabella. Journal kept during the Russian
War. London : Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855. Call
number: DK214.D81
Godman, Temple. Letters Home from the Crimea, ed. by
Philip Warner. Gloucestershire : Windrush Press, 1999. Call number:
DK215.G55 1999
As a member of the 5th Dragoon Guards, a cavalry unit,
Godman was among the first troops to leave England and among the last
to return in June 1856. He was both critical of and caught up in the
British military's purchase system, and his letters to his father are
filled with concern over promotion and the possibility of getting his
own troop, either by purchase or by advance. The 5th Dragoon Guards,
as part of the Heavy Brigade, made a gallant charge during the Battle
of Balaklava. It was the only real action Godman was involved in, but
as an adjutant officer he was kept very busy at the troop level with
official duties. He describes his own living conditions, with respect
to the privileges of being an officer, so that one gets the sense of
what camp life must have been like for the regular troops.
Gooch, Brison D. "A Century of Historiography on the Origins
of the Crimean War. The American Historical Review, (1956) 62: 33-58.
Gowing, Timothy. Voice from the Ranks : a Personal Narrative
of the Crimean Campaign. Edited by Kenneth Fenwick. London
: Folio Society, 1954. Call number:DK214.G64
Hart. Henry George. Hart's annual army list. London
: J. Murray, 1840- (annual) U11.G7 H3
A valuable source of names of soldiers, their ranks, and military units
to which they were attached. Used to identify many of the officers and
men photographed by Fenton.
Lambert, Andrew D. and Stephen Badsey. The Crimean War.
Dover, N.H. : A. Sutton, 1994. DK214.L42 1994 [P&P]
Presents the viewpoint of the published press through
excerpts from the Times war correspondent William Howard
Russell. These excerpts cover the full scope of the war, offering descriptions
of battles, the hardships faced by the Allied armies, criticism of the
conduct of officials both at home and in the Crimea, and good descriptions
of the landscape over which the troops traveled and fought. This is also
a good source for the names of many of the major participants, as well
as bits about their lives and deaths, as the case may be.
Palmer, Alan. The Banner of Battle : The Story of the Crimean
War. New York : St. Martin's Press, 1987. Call number:DK214.P3
1987
Rich, Norman. Why the Crimean War? A Cautionary Tale.
New York : McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1991. Call number:DK215.R53 1991
A very good, thorough analysis of the diplomacy surrounding
the Crimean War.
Royle, Trevor. Crimea : the great Crimean War, 1854-1856.
New York : St. Martin's Press, 2000. Call number: DK214.R69 2000
A comprehensive account including the diplomacy that
led to war, the Baltic campaign, the battles in the Crimea, and the final
peace negotiations, as well as some analysis of the long term implications
for the end of the 19th century and into the 20th. Contains minor flaws,
some derived from Palmer.
Tolstoy, Leo. Tolstoy : Tales of Courage and Conflict.
Introduced and edited by Charles Neider. New York : Cooper Square Press,
1999. Call number: PG3366.A15 N45 1999
Contains Tolstoy's "sketches" of the siege
of Sevastopol and related tales of his experiences as a Russian soldier.
Notes
1 Views by Robertson
and other photographers can be found in: Roger Fenton, Photographer
of the Crimean War: His Photographs and His Letters from the Crimea,
with an Essay on His Life and Work by Helmut and Alison Gernsheim (
London : Secker & Warburg, 1954); Lawrence James, Crimea 1854-1856:
The War with Russia from Contemporary Photographs (New York :
Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, c1981); Paul Kerr, The Crimean War (London
: Boxtree, 1997).
Prepared by: Woody Woodis, Cataloger. Last updated:
June 2002.
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