LC-USZC4-9355

Roger Fenton Crimean War Photographs

Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 20540-4730

Table of Contents

Background and Scope of the Collection

Summary

Roger Fenton, The valley of the shadow of death. LC-USZC4-9217

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

The Crimean War

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.

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.

Roger Fenton, Cornet Wilkin, 11th Hussars. LC-USZC4-9124

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.

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.

British Coverage of the War and Thomas Agnew's Enterprise

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's Background

Marcus Sparling, Roger Fenton in a Zouave uniform. LC-USZC4-9167

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.

Fenton's Crimean War Photography

Roger Fenton, The artist's van. LC-USZC4-9240

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).

Roger Fenton, [Officer of the 57th Regiment]. LC-USZC4-9216

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.

After the Crimean War--Fenton and His Photographs

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.

Arrangement and Access

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.

Ordering Reproductions

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.

Permissions and Credits

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.

Related Resources

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.

Selected Bibliography

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).

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