Album with Pressed Flowers

photographer unknown

[1899]
17.0 x 53.0 cm
FC3234.2 P732 PE001004

This unique album from 1894 acts as an aide memoire, with the photographs as well as the pressed plants and flowers providing an indexical link to the places represented. 

The gelatin dry plate process rendered photography more accessible in the late-nineteenth century. Once the plates could be dry rather than wet (as was the case with the wet collodion process), photographers did not need a portable darkroom in order to create the kind of landscape pictures included here. Still, the careful compositions found within this album suggest that the photographs were taken by a serious amateur who had knowledge of the photographic process, made use of a tripod, and aimed for artistic compositions. Compare this album to an album of snapshots from the early-twentieth century to get a sense of this difference.

This album is part of the Prairie Ephemera Collection housed in Bruce Peel Special Collections.

Citation

photographer unknown, “Album with Pressed Flowers,” Bruce Peel Special Collections Library Online Exhibits, accessed December 30, 2024, https://omeka.library.ualberta.ca/items/show/3135.