Tuesday 3 October 2017

Story of Glass Negatives and Tin Plate Photos by John Andersen; Hervey Bay Historical Village and Museum

Teddington Weir
With everyone today taking thousands of digital photographs on cameras and phones, it is hard to imagine that around 1900, photography was still a great novelty and very expensive. Although most people remember Kodak film and colour slides, early photographers captured images using glass negatives.
Now extremely rare, the Hervey Bay Historical Village & Museum is fortunate to have a collection of these glass negatives. More importantly our collections were donated by local Kaminski and Henderson families and these historic pieces of glass have recorded local images from late 1890’s/1900.
In amazing detail, prints from the negatives show Ululah, Teddington Weir, Woody Island, Baddow House, other local landmarks and people…….as they were in those far-off days. The collections are on permanent display at the Hervey Bay Historical Village & Museum.
Ululah Lagoon



Baddow House
Even rarer than the glass negatives, early photographs were produced on tin plate….the same tin plate that our fruit tins are made from today. These photographs are unique, not only because of the quality of the images but also the fact that they are even today in pristine condition after 125 years or longer. Again, the Hervey Bay Historical Village & Museum has a permanent display of some of these very special photographs.
Tin Prints
As with many articles on display, isn’t it interesting to know that many items over 100 years old, still work well. In the throwaway world of today, if a mobile phone for example, lasts for two years, it’s the exception. Just throw it away and get a new one.




Woody Island Light House

Published with consent from John Andersen, Historian, Hervey Bay Historical Village & Museum.

Tags #glass #negatives #woodyisland #teddington #weir #tinprints #herveybayhistoricalvillageandmuseum #herveybay

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