The albumen silver print, invented in 1850, was the most popular photographic printing process of the 19th century. To make albumen silver prints, a sheet of paper is coated with albumen (egg white) and salts, then sensitized with a solution of silver nitrate. The paper is exposed in contact with a negative and printed out, which means that the image is created solely by the action of light on the sensitized paper without any chemical development. Because the paper is coated with albumen, the silver image is suspended on the surface of the paper rather than absorbed into the paper fibers. The result is a sharp image with fine detail on a smooth, glossy surface. This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-10-13-0194.

This text is a free resource by Thomas Payne. It provides basic information to first year students. Visit: http://faculty.wartburg.edu/payne/

Students will learn about the jazz singer Billie Holiday and the sociohistorical context in which she performed. They will learn how discriminatory statutes (called Jim Crow laws) affected daily life. They will also analyze how movement is created in photographs and the effect of a photographer's point of view on composition. Finally, students will photograph a musician, paying attention to what can be communicated through point of view.

Students will learn about axial movements and locomotor movements by discussing dancers depicted in a drawing and photograph. They will then practice combining axial and locomotor movements. They will describe how artists depict a dancer's motion in drawing and photography. They will also analyze how an artist creates movement and emphasis through contrast, composition, and leading lines, and then experiment with photography to capture motion in dance.

Learn about many ways to combine art and science as we observe the world around us. We often think of scientists as methodical and precise, and artists as free-willed, impulsive creators. But did you know that some art has science packed right into it? And that artists throughout history have helped scientists conduct their work? Learn about the photography of Berenice Abbott who documented the changing New York skyline with photographs of architecture and urban design of the 1930s, and science interpretation in the 1940s to 1960s. Learn how to use the sun to air dry your salt dough creations and explore papier-mâché. 

This art history video discussion examines these portraits by August Sander: "Pastry Cook", gelatin silver print, 1928, "Secretary at a Radio Station", Cologne, gelatin silver print, c. 1931, and "Disabled Man", gelatin silver print, 1926.

From the ancient discovery of the camera obscura to the 18th century mechanical devices used to create silhouettes such as the physionotrace, this initial chapter explores the inventions and inventors that preceded photography. It recreates the experiments of Johann Schulze who proved the light sensitivity of certain silver salts and Thomas Wedgwood’s early attempts to make photographic images. These early pioneers contributed to the discovery of photography in 1839. This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-10-13-0194.

Advanced-level students will write narratives from the perspective of slaves depicted in rare photographs, and then create a print depicting a moment from the narratives.

Students create and use pinhole cameras to understand how artists use and manipulate light to capture images in photographs. They shoot and develop photographs made with pinhole cameras. They compare and contrast a nineteenth-century image, photographs taken with a pinhole camera, and pictures created with a digital camera or camera phone.

Students create and use pinhole cameras to understand how artists use and manipulate light to capture images in photographs. They shoot and develop photographs made with pinhole cameras. They compare and contrast a nineteenth-century image, photographs taken with a pinhole camera, and pictures created with a digital camera or camera phone.

Students create pinhole cameras to understand that light travels in a straight path. They describe the lines and shapes in a nineteenth-century photograph of a building and then use their pinhole cameras to trace the architecture of their school building.

Students create pinhole cameras to understand that light travels in a straight path. They describe the lines and shapes in a nineteenth-century photograph of a building and then use their pinhole cameras to trace the architecture of their school building.

Students create pinhole cameras to learn how artists manipulate light to make photographs. They describe and analyze a nineteenth-century photograph and use their cameras to capture the architecture of their school or other buildings.

Students create pinhole cameras to learn how artists manipulate light to make photographs. They describe and analyze a nineteenth-century photograph and use their cameras to capture the architecture of their school or other buildings.

This art history video discussion looks at Henri Cartier-Bresson's "Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare", Paris, 1932.

Introduced in 1851, by Frederick Scott Archer, the wet collodion process was a fairly simple, if somewhat cumbersome photographic process. A 2% solution of collodion, bearing a very small percentage of potassium iodide, was poured over a plate of glass, leaving a thin, clear film containing the halide. The plate was then placed in a solution of silver nitrate. When removed from the silver, the collodion film contained a translucent yellow compound of light-sensitive silver iodide. The plate was exposed still wet and then developed by inspection under red light. Once the plate was washed and dried, it was coated with a protective varnish. The collodion process replaced the daguerreotype as the predominant photographic process by the end of the 1850’s. It was eventually replaced in the 1880’s with the introduction of the gelatin silver process. This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-10-13-0194.

Photography’s earliest practitioners dreamed of finding a method for reproducing the world around them in color. Some 19th century photographers experimented with chemical formulations aimed at producing color images by direct exposure, while others applied paints and powders to the surfaces of monochrome prints. Vigorous experimentation led to several early color processes, some of which were even patented, but the methods were often impractical, cumbersome and unreliable. This chapter explores early additive color processes as well as later subtractive processes like chromogenic color and the Kodachrome. This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-10-13-0194.

The first commercially successful photographic process was announced in 1839, the result of over a decade of experimentation by Louis Daguerre and Nicéphore Niépce. Unfortunately, Niépce died before the daguerreotype process was realized, and is best known for his invention of the heliograph, the process by which the “first photograph” was made in 1826. Daguerreotypes are sharply defined, highly reflective, one-of-a-kind photographs on silver-coated copper plates, usually packaged behind glass and kept in protective cases. The daguerreotype process is demonstrated in this chapter. This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-10-13-0194.

Students will research how the development of the atomic bomb affected people in World War II, participate in a debate about the bomb's use, and investigate how it has affected people's lives since 1945.

Students will research how the development of the atomic bomb affected people in World War II, participate in a debate about the bomb's use, and investigate how it has affected people's lives since 1945.