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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

Edinburgh photographer Alexander McGlashon travelled to Australia in late 1854, remaining in Melbourne until May 1857, running a photographic business based in 7 Collins Street East. Sadly very few of his photographs from that period are known to survive. It was therefore with some excitement that I recently uncovered a “new” stereo.

Edinburgh Council has an archive of glass plates that they have incorrectly attributed to Thomas Begbie. Recently the full archive has been made available on the internet. One of these items, no 11656, is described as a “copy of an American Stereocard” and is dated as being taken by Begbie in 1887. The view is clearly not a Scottish scene so presumably as it was known that Begbie lived for most of his life in Scotland someone took a stab at describing this stereo in a way consistent with the attribution of the archive to Begbie.

In fact looking at the online image there is nothing to suggest that this is a copy of another stereo; more importantly it is not an American view but is clearly a very early view of Collins Street in Melbourne; indeed the address 6 Collins Street East can be seen on one of the properties. Similar McGlashon views of Melbourne are held by the state Library of New South Wales, by the National Museum of Scotland and by the George Eastman Museum.

Edinburgh Council, which has been reluctant to correct the Begbie misattribution, has been informed of this discovery.

See: hhttps://www.capitalcollections.org.uk/index.php?WINID=1574687520640