Blogs

Hello All, I am having an exhibit of stereographs taken in Tenerife following in the footsteps of Charles Piazzi Smyth and his wife, Jessie.

This project is close to my heart because I have a few family connections in 1856 Puerto de la Cruz. It is up at the University of Alabama in Huntsville until 7 of March. Many of you are not near Alabama but I hope theres a chance for this to travel one day.

I am currently planning another trip this summer and continue to work on a timeline of the expedition.

Thanks to all who have helped along the way. Here's the exhibition text: 

A Photographer’s Experiment:
Rephotographing Charles Piazzi Smyth in Tenerife

On June 24, 1856, Charles Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal of Scotland, set sail on the ship Titania. He traveled to the Canary Islands with a crew of sixteen men and equipment to view the skies above the clouds. Piazzi, as he was called, wanted to investigate what Newton had described as atmospheric interference. This trip would help prove that the skies were clearer at higher altitudes. It would be one of his biggest gifts to astronomy and why we now see observatories on high mountain tops.

 “Twenty-seven horses and mules, and as many men” helped with the ascent to Guajara (8,903 ft above sea level), the first of the two sites. The winds were so fierce that local guides and helpers from the Port of Orotava built stone walls to help protect their tents. Today, most of the barrier walls have been reconstructed, some keep a similar footprint to the originals.

The second site was called Alta Vista (10,702 above sea level). The winds and the blowing dust did not make Guajara the ideal location so they decided to camp on the slopes of the peak, Teide. This time lava flows on either side helped protect them from the elements. The local men again built walls, but this time the structure was covered with tarps except for a small courtyard that housed the Pattinson telescope. The views of the skies were a success.

Charles Piazzi Smyth was not only an astronomer, he was also a photographer. He chose to document his expedition with a stereo camera specially constructed for his trip. His stereographs from the island of Tenerife were published in Teneriffe, An Astronomer’s Experiment: or, Specialties of a Residence Above the Clouds, London, L. Reeve,1858. This was the first book to use stereoscopic photographs as illustrations. Revisiting this expedition and its photographs attempts to shed light on this story and my family’s history on Tenerife.

José A. Betancourt

January 2024

Alexander McGlashon (sometimes spelled McGlashan) was born in 1811 and established a successful career as a copperplate printer in Edinburgh; examples of his printed work from about 1840 onwards can be found in various museums. As a member of the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland he clearly had interests beyond the merely mundane and it is not surprising that he became interested in the relatively new medium of photography; while retaining his printing business this seems to have become his main interest. It is difficult to be certain of the date that he first took to photography but two portraits of Thomas Smellie dated 1854 are held by the Eastman Museum; it is likely that he was also producing stereographs at this time.

In 1854 he took the momentous decision to travel to Melbourne in Australia to further his photographic career.  He ran M’Glashon’s photographic gallery from 7 Collins Street East, charging from 5 shillings for a portrait in glass. Several stereographs from this period are held in museums – there is a reasonable case for believing that he may have introduced the stereo process to Australia. Two fine prints of Collins Street in Melbourne have also survived.

He returned to Edinburgh in 1857 where he continued to be very active in photography. Stereographs were hugely popular and he produced many of these featuring views of Edinburgh and central Scotland; an advert he placed in an Edinburgh magazine in 1858 listed 172 stereos. While many of the stereos are well executed “tourist” shots he also in some views explored a more consciously artistic approach. From an embossed retailer's stamp on some of these stereos we know that they were also being sold in USA, suggesting that McGlashon was having considerable success in his photographic business. He lectured on the theory and practice of photography in the Edinburgh Institute. He was a council member of the Edinburgh Photographic Society whose meetings he on occasion chaired and indeed he also gave talks to them on photographic subjects. In addition he was involved in photographic projects with Octavius Hill including exhibiting at the London International exhibition in 1862.

He photographed many well known individuals, as was reported in the contemporary press, leading to the granting of a royal warrant in 1863 when, in November, in partnership with John Walker he photographed the Princes Alfred and William of Hesse, the first occasion on which a member of the royal family sat for an Edinburgh photographer. The two McGlashon portraits of the top selling Victorian novelist Mrs Gaskell are particularly well known being the only photographs of her.

McGlashon continued to be actively involved in photography into the 1870s. He died in Edinburgh in 1877. Fortunately many of his photographs have survived and we are now able to appreciate his importance in mid century Edinburgh photographic circles.