Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy Vie Wilson. Hey. This
Speaker 1: is a follow up to our episode on Louis de Game,
Speaker 1: But unlike most of our two partners, these two episodes
Speaker 1: are intended to each stand on their own, So if
Speaker 1: you haven't listened to that one yet, you should be
Speaker 1: fine in this one. Similarly, if you're like I don't
Speaker 1: want to hear about Robert Cornelius, you could skip it.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna miss anything from the gear story. I
Speaker 1: hope you do listen, though. Um I periodically see this
Speaker 1: image of Robert Cornelius circulate on Twitter, where people discuss
Speaker 1: how hot they think this man was, and he does
Speaker 1: look mighty dashing in that image. But the fact that
Speaker 1: this photo exists is in and of itself, really pretty astonishing.
Speaker 1: Cornelius was smart and inventive in ways that do not
Speaker 1: often come up in brief social media mentions. Yes, he
Speaker 1: absolutely innovated in photography, but he also did some pretty
Speaker 1: interesting work with lighting fixtures of all things. So today
Speaker 1: we're going to cover how this man and some similarly
Speaker 1: minded colleagues in Philadelphia started experimenting with the gears process
Speaker 1: as well as other aspects of his life. Robert Cornelius
Speaker 1: is born March first, eighteen o nine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: His parents were Christian and Sarah Cornelius. Christian had emigrated
Speaker 1: to the U s from Amsterdam in seventeen eighty three
Speaker 1: and had started a lighting and chandelier business. As a kid,
Speaker 1: Robert attended private schools and showed a natural interest and
Speaker 1: proficiency in chemistry. Gerard Truce, who had been one of
Speaker 1: the founders of the American Philosophical Society and part of
Speaker 1: the New Harmony Indiana Oa Nite community that we covered
Speaker 1: during one of our live shows, was his chemistry teacher.
Speaker 1: As Robert started working in the family business in the
Speaker 1: early eighteen thirties, Roberts chemistry studies served him well because
Speaker 1: he became an expert in metal plating, in particular. In
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty two, at the age of twenty three, Robert
Speaker 1: married a young woman named Harriet come Ley, with whom
Speaker 1: he had eight children, three sons and five daughters. Those
Speaker 1: children were Robert, born roughly two years after the wedding.
Speaker 1: Sarah Ann Charles born in eighteen thirty nine, John Constance, Harriet,
Speaker 1: Fanny and Helen. And aside from those years of birth
Speaker 1: that I just mentioned, the exact dates of birth are
Speaker 1: unknown for the rest of the children. By autumn of
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty nine, at a time when Robert had settled
Speaker 1: into both his career in lighting and his family life,
Speaker 1: information about Louis Degare's photo process was made available to
Speaker 1: the curious minds of the United States. This ran in
Speaker 1: multiple papers under the header on photography in the National
Speaker 1: Exette of Philadelphia. The article opened with quote, the art
Speaker 1: of transferring the outline of an object or the shades
Speaker 1: of a picture to chemically prepared paper, simply by the
Speaker 1: action of solar light, has attracted, especially in France and England,
Speaker 1: the attention of scientific men. It goes on to say
Speaker 1: that there have been a number of articles about it,
Speaker 1: and that now there's a Frenchman who quote has studied
Speaker 1: the art with success. This article continues, quote His explanation
Speaker 1: of the process is very simple and maybe understood by
Speaker 1: anyone who has the taste and inclination to make an experiment.
Speaker 1: Although in its infancy we have seen specimens of drawing
Speaker 1: by the photographic mode perfect in outline and shades. Either landscapes,
Speaker 1: flowers or figures may be copied with equal facility, and
Speaker 1: as the occupation calls not for an artist's skill, anyone
Speaker 1: may make the attempt. This article is lengthy and in
Speaker 1: spite of touting its own simplicity, and it goes on
Speaker 1: to describe exactly how this all works, first with a
Speaker 1: general overview and then a step by step description. The
Speaker 1: general description reads quote, when silver is dissolved in nitric acid,
Speaker 1: a colorless solution of lunar caustic is produced, which, when
Speaker 1: evaporated to dryness and exposed to light, becomes dark, the
Speaker 1: color depending on the intensity of the light and the
Speaker 1: time it has been exposed. Accordingly, paper besmeared with the
Speaker 1: solution is darkened, but if any object be put on
Speaker 1: it so as to prevent the transmission of light, the
Speaker 1: parts covered will remain white or be tinged according to
Speaker 1: the density of the object. Hence the art of photography.
Speaker 1: The next several columns of this article, uh which him
Speaker 1: it takes up many columns in the paper, are as
Speaker 1: we said, dedicated to discussion of each step, which they
Speaker 1: lay out as one methods of preparing the paper. Two
Speaker 1: methods of taking the impressions, three preservation of the impressions,
Speaker 1: and then there is an additional section titled method of
Speaker 1: taking impressions in which the light and shades are not reversed. Basically,
Speaker 1: all of this was all images for the most part,
Speaker 1: initially had been reversed of what you would actually see
Speaker 1: in reality, but people had worked out how to fix
Speaker 1: that problem. And all of this right up was not
Speaker 1: prepped by Degear, but by a man named Andrew Pife,
Speaker 1: the vice president of the Society of Arts Edinburgh, and
Speaker 1: it is an edited version of a paper that he
Speaker 1: read at the Royal Society of Arts in Edinburgh. When
Speaker 1: papers like the National Gazette and the American Daily Advertiser
Speaker 1: ran this story about Degear's work on October thirty nine,
Speaker 1: Philadelphia readership took notice, and it was not all good notice.
Speaker 1: There were readers who did not even believe the reporting.
Speaker 1: That just did not seem possible that an image could
Speaker 1: be captured that way. The article mentioned that it took
Speaker 1: a full hour to capture an image with the new process,
Speaker 1: and plenty of people thought that was ridiculous. Yeah, you'll
Speaker 1: actually see some variations in that like, while this article
Speaker 1: said that there were other things that were like no,
Speaker 1: like thirty minutes, you know, maybe less, maybe more. But
Speaker 1: for men like Cornelius, this was a really interesting topic.
Speaker 1: For one, he, like a lot of men of industry
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, just was simply interested in emerging technologies. But
Speaker 1: for another, it offered a new potential business opportunity at
Speaker 1: a time when Robert Cornelius, like a lot of business owners,
Speaker 1: was trying to regain stable footing after the eighteen thirty
Speaker 1: seven financial panic had caused a dip and revenue. But
Speaker 1: before we get to Cornelius's experiments with photography, we have
Speaker 1: to talk about another man who was very excited about
Speaker 1: the Advertiser's story, and that was Joseph Saxton. Saxton was
Speaker 1: a little bit older than Cornelius. He was born on
Speaker 1: March twenty two in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. He started working in
Speaker 1: his father's nail factory as a young boy, but he
Speaker 1: got tired of it. He had apprenticed with a clockmaker
Speaker 1: starting at the age of twelve, and that became his career.
Speaker 1: He did well for himself in that job. It led
Speaker 1: to him making the belfry clock for Independence Hall when
Speaker 1: he was still a young man in his twenties. But
Speaker 1: though his education had been vocation specific and related to clockworks,
Speaker 1: he was fascinated with all things scientific. Saxton is usually
Speaker 1: credited with creating the first photograph made in the US.
Speaker 1: That was an image of the state arsenal in Philadelphia
Speaker 1: High School that was taken from a window high above
Speaker 1: the street at the U. S. Mint in Philadelphia, which
Speaker 1: was where Saxton worked. He was a constructor and curator
Speaker 1: of the Mints weighing apparatus, and that was taken on
Speaker 1: October eighteen thirty nine. That was only the day after
Speaker 1: that Dagara type story had run in the papers. The
Speaker 1: various components needed for that photo were largely improvised by Saxton.
Speaker 1: A description of his first effort, written decades later described
Speaker 1: what he used. Quote a seedlets powder box with a
Speaker 1: few flakes of iodine answered for a coating box, while
Speaker 1: a cigar box and burning glass were improvised for a camera.
Speaker 1: An iron spoon served to heat mercury to develop the plate.
Speaker 1: But Saxton was just getting started. That first image tested
Speaker 1: the waters. He wanted to upgrade the materials he was
Speaker 1: using and refine it all, and for that he turned
Speaker 1: to Robert Cornelius. This wasn't because Cornelius was also interested
Speaker 1: in photography. It was because of his expertise with metals
Speaker 1: that he had gained through his work in the lighting business.
Speaker 1: Saxton wanted Robert Cornelius to make silver coated copper plates
Speaker 1: for him to use for his dagara types, and in
Speaker 1: producing these plates, Cornelius found himself wanting to do his
Speaker 1: own imaging experiments. And we're going to talk about that
Speaker 1: very famous and history making photograph that came out of
Speaker 1: Cornelius's interest in photography in just a moment, but first
Speaker 1: we will pause for a sponsor break. It is not
Speaker 1: known exactly what date Cornelius took the photograph that became
Speaker 1: famous as the first photographic self portrait. He took it
Speaker 1: behind the family lamp shop sometime in October or November,
Speaker 1: so still very soon after the information onto gears process
Speaker 1: was shared in the press. The outdoor set up in
Speaker 1: the sun enabled him to minimize the needed exposure time.
Speaker 1: He simply set his camera a box which was fitted
Speaker 1: with an opera glass down on a stable surface, and
Speaker 1: then he took the lens cover off and he sat
Speaker 1: still for several minutes and then he put the lens
Speaker 1: cover back on and that was that. When he developed
Speaker 1: the photo using the Dagara type process, he had the
Speaker 1: first self portrait photo made in the US. So this
Speaker 1: photo itself has a certain charm. It's the one we
Speaker 1: mentioned at the top of the episode that sometimes shows
Speaker 1: up on lists of historical hotties. Cornelius has touseled hair,
Speaker 1: He stares directly a the lens, and he does look
Speaker 1: a bit like he walked out of a historical romance novel.
Speaker 1: It's not the exact right time period, but I'm going
Speaker 1: to describe it as Mr Darcy emerges from the mist.
Speaker 1: That is a percent what it looks like to me
Speaker 1: as well. I think that's why everybody is like he's beautiful.
Speaker 1: So he's not quite centered in the image, which shows
Speaker 1: him from his lower chest where his arms are crossed
Speaker 1: up to the top of his head. On the left
Speaker 1: side of the picture. The details are a little blurred.
Speaker 1: It looks like maybe overexposure. This photo was important because
Speaker 1: it proved that portraiture was completely possible, and that was
Speaker 1: something that detractors claimed was not realistic because of the
Speaker 1: length of time the subject had to sit still and
Speaker 1: just a few weeks after this photo was made, and
Speaker 1: having made additional ones, Cornelius gave a presentation on his
Speaker 1: photographic work on December six, thirty nine at the American
Speaker 1: Philosophical Society and the Franklin Institute. He showed his photos
Speaker 1: and he talked about his process, and as a consequence,
Speaker 1: he very quickly began to gain a name for himself
Speaker 1: in this new field. The expertise that he was developing
Speaker 1: and sharing through such lectures also launched a new business
Speaker 1: venture for Cornelius. He partnered up with a man named
Speaker 1: Paul Beck Goddard, who was a doctor, a surgeon, and
Speaker 1: a chemist, to open a business Indo Garatype Portraiture in
Speaker 1: eighteen forty in their studio on Eighth Street, which will
Speaker 1: sometimes see written as eight Street depending on what source
Speaker 1: you look at. The pair advanced photography in a couple
Speaker 1: of different ways. One of the innovations which was achieved
Speaker 1: by Cornelius was the lighting setup. He attached a mirror
Speaker 1: to one of the windows which was oriented to reflect
Speaker 1: off of another mirror that was positioned to light the subject,
Speaker 1: and he tempered the glare of the natural sunlight with
Speaker 1: another piece of glass. This one with a lilac film
Speaker 1: over it. This setup, which was all oriented so that
Speaker 1: the subject could look directly at the camera, set the
Speaker 1: standard for portrait photography. Cornelius also took photos, for example,
Speaker 1: of a street view in eighteen forty and that was
Speaker 1: advanced and that it did not flip the image the
Speaker 1: way most agia types did. He once again had used
Speaker 1: a mirror or another reflective surface we don't know for
Speaker 1: certain to create what looked like a true to life image.
Speaker 1: Another innovation came from Goddard's tweaking of the chemical makeup
Speaker 1: of the plate preparation solution and adding bro mean to
Speaker 1: the iodine that was already used. Goddard shortened the needed
Speaker 1: exposure time significantly. With his formula, it took just seconds
Speaker 1: to capture the image. That was a huge step forward,
Speaker 1: and it seems that Cornelius and Goddard recognized the potential
Speaker 1: commercial advantage of their new process. There was one that
Speaker 1: they didn't initially share with the wider field of photography enthusiasts. Instead,
Speaker 1: the business partners purchased all of the Roman along the
Speaker 1: East coast that they could so that their faster process
Speaker 1: could not be replicated by other people. We should know
Speaker 1: as well that whether Goddard was the first to come
Speaker 1: up with this idea is really a matter of debate.
Speaker 1: European experimenters were proposing similar chemical tweaks to the process
Speaker 1: to speed things up at about the same time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's one thing when you talk about photography history, they're
Speaker 1: almost always multiple people working on a process change at
Speaker 1: the same time. So you do find some conflicting literature
Speaker 1: about who did water came up with? What are right? Up?
Speaker 1: In the papers about the Cornelius portrait Studio noted that
Speaker 1: sometimes people were not so happy with their likenesses. It
Speaker 1: stated that Cornelius and his partner Quote are now occupied
Speaker 1: at their establishment corner of Ledge Alley in eight Streets, Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: in taking likenesses, which are about seven by five inches
Speaker 1: in neat metallic guilt frames, and are taken for five dollars.
Speaker 1: As the likenesses are true, the owners are very often
Speaker 1: too little flattered by the sun to be pleased with
Speaker 1: his painting. But as the French are said, to a
Speaker 1: friend of mine who complained that he had made him
Speaker 1: look like an assassin, the heliographist might reply, sir, that
Speaker 1: is not my fault, but the same article which appeared
Speaker 1: in the Botanico Medical Recorder of Columbus, Ohio, that also
Speaker 1: described how the process was pretty quick and easy for
Speaker 1: the sitter. Quote. When the operate t is seated in
Speaker 1: his chair and subjected to the light transmitted through the
Speaker 1: purple glass, you would suppose all Mr Cornelius wished was
Speaker 1: to make the fellow look blue. But he will be
Speaker 1: relieved from such apprehension very soon, as it is only
Speaker 1: necessary to sit about a minute till the sun has,
Speaker 1: by its powerful pencil transfixed every lineament of your features,
Speaker 1: with all their beauties and blemishes and imperishable lines, upon
Speaker 1: the plate of silver. Before the person, and about four
Speaker 1: ft in front of him, is a bureau, on the
Speaker 1: top of which is a mahogany tube or box six
Speaker 1: or seven inches square and eighteen inches long, open at
Speaker 1: both ends. In the end next to the person to
Speaker 1: be represented is fixed a double convex lens, about the
Speaker 1: size of a common burning glass, but which the figure
Speaker 1: of the face and bust is diminished to the proper
Speaker 1: size for the plate of silver on which the likenesses
Speaker 1: are to be fixed. When the person is seated, the
Speaker 1: strong light is thrown from the mirrors through the purple
Speaker 1: plate upon the face and bust, and reflected thence and
Speaker 1: through the lens and box, and is transmitted to the
Speaker 1: plate of prepared silver fixed at the other end of
Speaker 1: the box. Half a minute or more is sufficient to
Speaker 1: trace imperishably the delineation on the plate. I feel like
Speaker 1: it took less time than it took to read that, yes,
Speaker 1: which is what made me laugh and why I wanted
Speaker 1: to include the whole thing, because I love that Everyone
Speaker 1: keeps talking about it's so simple, and then they take
Speaker 1: thirty five sentences to describe this simple thing. I'm like,
Speaker 1: is it though? That right of though, was not alone
Speaker 1: in reassuring potential visitors to the Cornelia Studio that the
Speaker 1: process of having your photograph taken was both easy and painless.
Speaker 1: In June of eighteen forty, a brief article, a genuinely
Speaker 1: brief article from the Philadelphia Chronicle, was reprinted in the
Speaker 1: Tennessee and and that mentioned the studio being open and
Speaker 1: available for customers and touts quote, nothing could possibly be
Speaker 1: more true than these representations of the human face divine,
Speaker 1: for they transferred to the plate the exact image of
Speaker 1: the sitters living as they rise. The mode, too, is
Speaker 1: as simple as the results are accurate. All you have
Speaker 1: to do is place yourself in an easy, well cushioned chair,
Speaker 1: assumed the position in which you desire to be perpetuated,
Speaker 1: and look steadfastly at a given object for the matter
Speaker 1: of half a minute. In your features, expression, everything connected
Speaker 1: with your countenance are caught and stamped with a vigor
Speaker 1: and solitude that are unsurpassable. Also in June eighteen forty,
Speaker 1: Cornelius ran his first advertisement for the studio, which read
Speaker 1: quote da Guara type likenesses are. Cornelius, having completed his
Speaker 1: arrangements for producing miniatures by the daguerrotype process, respectfully invites
Speaker 1: the public to his rooms northeast corner of Eighth Street
Speaker 1: and Lodge Alley, where specimens of the art can be seen.
Speaker 1: Miniatures from life or copies of busts, portraits, etcetera will
Speaker 1: be made of the usual size or for medallion's breastpens, etcetera.
Speaker 1: The first customer was a man who had helped the
Speaker 1: studio get going, John McAllister, Jr. He was an optician
Speaker 1: and had given Cornelius his camera lenses when he first
Speaker 1: started experimenting with photography. There's one thing that we should
Speaker 1: mention here. We keep calling at the Cornelius studio, although
Speaker 1: we have also said that Paul Beck Goddard was Robert
Speaker 1: Cornelius's partner, and he was, but he was a silent partner,
Speaker 1: assisting with the chemical makeup of their process, but then
Speaker 1: staying out of the day to day business. We should
Speaker 1: also note that their portrait studio was not the first
Speaker 1: in the US, although it was the first infill Aadelphia.
Speaker 1: The distinction of the first in the country goes to
Speaker 1: Alexander Walcott and John Johnson, who opened a studio in
Speaker 1: New York City in March of eighteen forty, just a
Speaker 1: couple of months before the Cornelius and Goddard venture. And
Speaker 1: just a moment we'll talk about the reputation for quality
Speaker 1: that Robert Cornelius gained for his photographic efforts, and we
Speaker 1: will cover that right after we hear from some of
Speaker 1: the sponsors that make stuffumis and history class possible. The
Speaker 1: frames for photographs that were mentioned in the description that
Speaker 1: we read before the break may have been away for
Speaker 1: Cornelius to integrate his family business into his new venture.
Speaker 1: Those frames were unusual in the world of early photography,
Speaker 1: and they may have been produced in the lamp factory.
Speaker 1: But over time the metal frames were phased out and
Speaker 1: Cornelius started using the same types of frames that other
Speaker 1: early photographers used, which was sort of a floor old
Speaker 1: design leather casing there was much lighter than the brass
Speaker 1: frames that he had started with, but each of his
Speaker 1: portraits had a studio label on it that was metal
Speaker 1: that read de Guero type Miniatures by our Cornelius, eight
Speaker 1: Street above Chestnut, Philadelphia. The word Cornelius was doing was
Speaker 1: written up in various papers for its quality. Then the
Speaker 1: public ledger of Philadelphia the following appeared on marchty quote,
Speaker 1: this much admired art seems to be rapidly approaching perfection.
Speaker 1: Among those who have been most successful in these attempts
Speaker 1: is Mr Robert Cornelius of this city. We saw a
Speaker 1: likeness yesterday which had been taken in just about thirty
Speaker 1: seconds time. The operation is said to be by no
Speaker 1: means troublesome or tiresome. Mr Cornelius has also taken a
Speaker 1: number of views of buildings in this city, among them
Speaker 1: as one of the Mason Hall St. John's Church in
Speaker 1: thirteenth Street, The Western Exchange Hotel, and the entire view
Speaker 1: of the city of Philadelphia. These views are publicly exposed
Speaker 1: in his saloon at the corner of Lodge Alley and
Speaker 1: Eight Streets for the inspection of visitors, and visitors did
Speaker 1: indeed visit the studio to see these images, and portrait
Speaker 1: bookings were popular with Philadelphia's elite. Remember that five dollars
Speaker 1: was no small sum in eighteen forty but bookings were
Speaker 1: steady and had to be made a week in advance,
Speaker 1: with the caveat that an overcast day would be caused
Speaker 1: for cancelation. Cornelius's work became so well regarded as some
Speaker 1: of the best photography being done in the US that
Speaker 1: selections of his images were sent to France to show
Speaker 1: how much experimentation on this side of the Atlantic had
Speaker 1: innovated the entire field. In eighteen forty one, Cornelius moved
Speaker 1: to a new location in Market Street because it offered
Speaker 1: better lighting. This meant he didn't usually have to cancel
Speaker 1: appointments if it was overcast. He seemed to be succeeding
Speaker 1: in his business. The paper described him as being run
Speaker 1: down with his customer. That means like overrun, not that
Speaker 1: the not that the business looks shabby, and this was
Speaker 1: busy enough to have opened a second studio. He decided
Speaker 1: to close his portrait business just a couple of years
Speaker 1: after it opened, and that shift away from photography wasn't
Speaker 1: necessarily because portrait business was lagging, although it is a
Speaker 1: little bit unclear how profitable it actually was even with
Speaker 1: that high price. But Cornelius was also eager to work
Speaker 1: on alternative fuels for lighting. In the early eighteen forties,
Speaker 1: whale oil was still the most common fuel for lighting
Speaker 1: a lamp. Gaslight had been introduced several decades earlier, and
Speaker 1: it was growing in both accessibility and popularity, but it
Speaker 1: had not become the standard, and Robert Cornelius saw an
Speaker 1: opportunity to do for lamp light what he had done
Speaker 1: for photography by moving it forward. He invented a device
Speaker 1: called a solar lamp. Isn't quite what you may think
Speaker 1: of when you think about technologies that are today labeled
Speaker 1: as solar. It wasn't solar power. It was just brighter
Speaker 1: than other lamps, and it did have a different fuel
Speaker 1: source than other lamps. Cornelias, who as we have said,
Speaker 1: worked in the lamp in chandelier industry his whole career.
Speaker 1: Applied for a patent on this lamp, which had a
Speaker 1: rounded light deflector like other solar lamps, but his also
Speaker 1: had way more options for fuel than other lamps of
Speaker 1: the day. His solar lamp worked with lard oil, far
Speaker 1: less expensive than whale oil, and that was not all.
Speaker 1: You could put solid lard in it as a fuel
Speaker 1: to burn, and in a pinch, you could even use
Speaker 1: grease leftovers from cooking. Uh. If you want to see
Speaker 1: a picture of this, the National Museum of American History
Speaker 1: has one in its collection and you can find pictures
Speaker 1: of it online. During his first years away from running
Speaker 1: the portrait studio, Cornelius also still took photos on occasion,
Speaker 1: but that waned over time. Maybe one of the reasons
Speaker 1: that Robert Cornelius didn't pursue his photography is more of
Speaker 1: a hobby after eighteen three was that there were lots
Speaker 1: of other such studios opening up all around the city.
Speaker 1: Even as early as eighteen forty. He had to compete
Speaker 1: with a studio that opened right across the street from
Speaker 1: his shop that was run by J. E. Watson. By
Speaker 1: eighteen forty three, there were so many others. Additionally, his
Speaker 1: family lighting business, Cornelius and Company, had become really successful.
Speaker 1: That took up a lot of his time. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I read one statistic that by eighteen forty three
Speaker 1: there were ten photography studios, which doesn't sound like that
Speaker 1: big a number, but that was still just, you know,
Speaker 1: a few years after after this whole thing had started,
Speaker 1: so it had grown quite quickly. Cornelius obviously was a
Speaker 1: man of insight, and just as he had seen the
Speaker 1: potential of the Dagara type and how it could be used,
Speaker 1: he was also always working on new approaches to lighting,
Speaker 1: even when those approaches endangered his previous inventions and made
Speaker 1: them obsolete. Because of that desire to innovate, he actually
Speaker 1: introduced the first kerosene lamp in each seen five. The
Speaker 1: American Gaslight Gallery has a Cornelius kerosene lamp in its collection.
Speaker 1: But though he was first to figure out a kerosene
Speaker 1: lighting apparatus, Cornelius did not corner that market. Another device
Speaker 1: by a different inventor, Johann Stupor, enabled customers to keep
Speaker 1: their existing oil lamps. Stupor's invention was an attachment burner
Speaker 1: that converted oil lamps to kerosene fuel. This is a
Speaker 1: lot more economical option than replacing all of the oil
Speaker 1: lamps in your house, so buyers typically chose that. Cornelius
Speaker 1: tried to keep up with the kerosene market by inventing
Speaker 1: his own conversion burner for using on existing oil lamps,
Speaker 1: but he was just kind of too slow. He was
Speaker 1: behind the trend at that point, and he couldn't regain
Speaker 1: market share. In eighteen seventy seven, after having changed the
Speaker 1: name from Cornelius and Company to Cornelius and Baker to
Speaker 1: Cornelius and Sons over the years, Robert Cornelius retired. After that,
Speaker 1: he spent most of his time at his country house
Speaker 1: north of Frankfort, Sylvania. He had purchased that in the
Speaker 1: early eighteen fifties. He still had the urge to experiment,
Speaker 1: although once he left the lamp business this was gardening. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he apparently did some seed experimentation, although I did not
Speaker 1: find much documentation on it or information. Cornelius died at
Speaker 1: his country house on August tenth, at the age of
Speaker 1: eighty four, so he lived for quite a while after retirement.
Speaker 1: He was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, and
Speaker 1: when His obituary ran in the American Journal of Photography.
Speaker 1: It was right above an article written by another inventor
Speaker 1: who would become much more famous. That article was titled
Speaker 1: the Action of the Eye, and it was written by
Speaker 1: Nicola Tesla. Today, Cornelius's famous selfie as part of the
Speaker 1: collection of the Library of Congress. It's appeared in the
Speaker 1: exhibits American Treasures of the Library of Congress and not
Speaker 1: An Ostrich and other images from America's Library that was
Speaker 1: in was also included in the book Gathering History the
Speaker 1: Mary As Carson Collection of Americana in and then in
Speaker 1: the e book Great Photographs from the Library of Congress.
Speaker 1: And you can also find it online at Library of
Speaker 1: Congress LC dot gov. Also will be on our social media. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's also just easy to find. If you do an
Speaker 1: Internet search for Robert Cornelius, it's gonna come up. The
Speaker 1: studio that Cornelius had had briefly in Philadelphia is now
Speaker 1: called out by a historical marker from the Pennsylvania Historical
Speaker 1: and Museum Commission, which reads, quote, Robert Cornelius, the metallurgist
Speaker 1: and brass founder, opened one of the world's first photographic
Speaker 1: studios here in the spring of eighteen forty, his collaboration
Speaker 1: with chemist Paul Beck Goddard in successful experiments to reduce
Speaker 1: exposure times made it possible to use the camera in portraiture.
Speaker 1: Although he has name recognition in Philadelphia and in photography circles,
Speaker 1: there's a fresh effort now to make sure that the
Speaker 1: images Cornelius made and those early days of dagaratype experimentation
Speaker 1: are preserved. In an article appeared in the online publication
Speaker 1: Hidden City exploring Philadelphia's urban landscape, the write up features
Speaker 1: a woman named Rachel Wetzel, who's a photograph conservator for
Speaker 1: Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts and what's the
Speaker 1: is on a mission to track down all of the
Speaker 1: Cornelius Degarat types you can and ensure that they're preserved.
Speaker 1: That effort has gotten a financial boost in the time
Speaker 1: since that article appeared, The National Endowment for the Humanities
Speaker 1: gave funding for a two year research project with the
Speaker 1: goal of documenting all Cornelius portraits. According to the Robert
Speaker 1: Cornelius Degara type project Facebook page, which is part of
Speaker 1: this effort, quote, this project began as a collaborative scientific
Speaker 1: study between Rachel Wetsel of the Conservation Center for Art
Speaker 1: and Historic Artifacts and Adrian Lundgren of the Library of Congress.
Speaker 1: Those two conservators now have a team to research historical
Speaker 1: cleaners on de garatype images. Today, it is known that
Speaker 1: fifty four of Cornelius's portraits survive. And now you know
Speaker 1: when you look and say wow, you are handsome, that
Speaker 1: that is the story of Robert Cornelie. Yeah. Do you
Speaker 1: have some listener mail for us? I do. It is
Speaker 1: also a little bit photography related because it is about
Speaker 1: our recent episode on Wilson A Bentley who photographed all
Speaker 1: of those beautiful snowflakes. This is from our listener Maren,
Speaker 1: who writes, Hi, Holly and Tracy, I'm a longtime listener
Speaker 1: of the show and really enjoyed your episode on Wilson A. Bentley.
Speaker 1: Growing up, every December, my mom would wrap up twenty
Speaker 1: five books, and each night leading up to Christmas, my
Speaker 1: brother and I would alternate picking out one to unwrap
Speaker 1: and read. I love this tradition and I think everyone
Speaker 1: should adopt it, including myself. Maren goes on this tradition
Speaker 1: functioned as our family's advent calendar and also prevented my
Speaker 1: brother and I from nagging my mom to unwrap gifts
Speaker 1: before Christmas. It was a really fun tradition as each
Speaker 1: year there was one into two new books, and my
Speaker 1: brother and I like to try to pick out our
Speaker 1: old favorites by their shapes. One of my favorites of
Speaker 1: these books was actually about Wilson Bentley. It's called Snowfake
Speaker 1: Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. It looks like it may
Speaker 1: be at a print now, and it's been several years
Speaker 1: since I have read it, but I remember it being
Speaker 1: a charming story and having excellent illustrations of Bentley snow crystals.
Speaker 1: Being literature lovers, I thought you would enjoy my story
Speaker 1: in the book. Thank you for all the hard work
Speaker 1: you put into the show, yours, Maren p. S. I
Speaker 1: have included a festive picture of my cat, Mazzi. Mazzi
Speaker 1: is a torty, which I love because they are usually
Speaker 1: little feline spitfires. But also, Marin, thank you because I
Speaker 1: actually meant to mention that book at least in the
Speaker 1: episode and neglected to You can still get it, at
Speaker 1: least on the second hand book market. I think if
Speaker 1: you're really eager to get it, you could probably get
Speaker 1: your hands on a copy somehow. Yeah, we had a
Speaker 1: lot of people mention it, like on Facebook comments and
Speaker 1: tweets and things. Yeah, it's cute as pie. Um, and
Speaker 1: it is very cool and there is there are very
Speaker 1: pretty illustrations, so um, thank you for that reminder that
Speaker 1: we should mention it. I'm still busy paging through Bentley's
Speaker 1: book on snowflakes that he wrote because it has so
Speaker 1: many great photographs in it and I just adore it.
Speaker 1: So if you haven't looked at that, that is also great.
Speaker 1: Thank you again for writing us. If you would like
Speaker 1: to do so, you can do so at History Podcast
Speaker 1: at i heeart radio dot com. You can also find
Speaker 1: us on social media as Missed in History, which Tracy
Speaker 1: just mentioned. You can also subscribe to the podcast if
Speaker 1: you haven't gotten around to it yet. That is so
Speaker 1: easy to do. You can do it on the I
Speaker 1: heart radio app or anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts.
Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of
Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.