What’s on : Featured

“York’s First Photographs” – Exhibition in Museum Gardens and Library Lawn

Featured
Date
30 Aug 2019
Start time
8:00 AM
Venue
Museum Gardens
Speaker
N/A
"York's First Photographs" -  Exhibition in Museum Gardens and Library Lawn

Event Information

Throughout September and October, a number of large panels displaying prints of photographs taken in York 175 ago will be on display around Museum Gardens and the adjoining Library lawn. These very early photographs were taken at the1844 conference of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. We believe they are both the first photographs taken in York, and the first taken at a scientific conference.

These very early photographs were called calotypes. They were taken by the Scottish photographers D O Hill and R Adamson. They include nationally important scientists, people who were important to York and the YPS, and a couple of colourful characters – an ex whaling captain, and a Cornish coastguard (think of those stories of smugglers) who spent his off-duty hours collecting fossils and specimens of marine life. There is a wealth of information on the background to this project on this website. Click here to go to the relevant section

This display is a joint venture between the YPS, York Museums Trust, and York Explore, and all three partners will be staging a series of supporting events. To view a PDF of the full programme, which you can then download, click on York’s First Photographs

The portrait above is a calotype taken by David Octavius Hill (1802-1870) & Robert Adamson (1821-1848) and licensed from the National Galleries of Scotland.

Title:- ‘Henry Baines. Curator of the York Museum’

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/9309/henry-baines-curator-york-museum