HARVARD CAMERA CLUB.

F

ROM our July report has arisen the misapprehension that we are more of an art club than a photographic club. This is not so.

The open art lectures mentioned in that report are only a part of our program. Between them we have thoroughly scientific talks given to the club exclusively. These intermediate lectures consist in papers on developing, printing and enlarging. In this way the members and officers who are always changing through the yearly graduations and the usual variations in college classes become familiar, as far as they wish to, with the scientific side.

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To be sure the men who speak at our open lectures are recognized art workers, but their topics are generally related to camera work. As an example, there were last year Professor Charles Eliot Norton's lectures on "The Value (to Photographers) of Studying Great Paintand Professor Charles H. Moore's talk on the "Artistic Element in Photography." Then Mr F. Holland Day spoke on "Photography as a Fine Art" and Mr. Denman W. Ross on "How Design May Enter Photography" Thus it is the relation of these topics to photography that makes them of value to the camera worker.

H. W. ELIOT,

Cor. Sec.

various editors have fully appreciated that nothing but the best is good enough for THE AMERICAN ANNUAL. The 1901 volume has been compiled on these lines. "Nothing but the best" has been used in the making of this book. We are, therefore, bold enough to think that THE ANNUAL for 1901 maintains its past high reputation as being "The Annual of the Year."

The literary contents cover a range of topics that have to do with all phases of photography, each article being written by an authority on the particular subject, therefore making it of lasting value. Mr. Jos. T. Keiley whose name is synonymous with all advance in photography has taken for his subject "Photography and Progress," and has written an exhaustive essay on the Universality of Photography and its applications to the various requirements of mankind. This essay, in point of literary style and argument is far in advance of the usual ANNUAL article. Mr. Henry Wenzel, Jr.'s, article treats of a subject with which he is thoroughly conversant. The Gum-Bichromate Process has been most carefully studied by Mr. Wenzel, and

he has in his article on this up-to-date process, gone into particulars, giving our readers the full benefit of his experiments on various grades of paper, etc., with exact details as to how to coat, print, and develop the print. The article is well illustrated with reproductions from some of his gum studies, showing the different effects produced by using various papers. The subject of orthochromatic photography is one that is always being brought before the amateur, but Mr. Newton Emmens has managed to condense into a comparatively short monograph on this subject a great deal of valuable matter covering the History, Theory, and Practice. The paper will prove a valuable one to amateurs, even though it may not contain any

new matter.

For those who follow photography for other than pleasure, excellent suggestions will be found in Mr. Gilson Willets' "Markets for Amateur Photographs." Mr. Willets gives the names of the various publications that are in the market for pictures, and states what each is in the habit of accepting. The article is well

illustrated by a series of photographs showing what an edition will and will not accept.

Robert Demachy, whose name is prob ably better known than any other pictorial photographer, has a short but very able article on "The Training of the Photographer in View of Pictorial Results." The veteran dry-plate maker, John Carbutt, writes instructively on "Doctoring the Negative"; R. B. Lewis shows, with working drawing, "A Device for Taking Photographs Automatically," and for those whose parses are deep enough, and have a soul above the kitchen sink for developing purposes, Mr. Edwards. Ficken, the well-known architect, gives working-drawings and description of an elaborate dark-room. Other articles, of more than usual interest and instructiveness are by Messrs. J. Wells Champney, Wm. D. Murphy, Wm. E. Carlin, J. C. Warburg. Francis Barklie, Milton Punnett, F. H. Worsley. Benison, and many others whose names for lack of space we must omit mentioning.

A special feature and one entirely new in Annuals, is the department, Photo-Paragraphs, compiled by Henry Wenzel, Jr., and the Editor. In this department the amateur, and the professional, too, will find many little items of usefulness; little things not to be found in instruction books or magazines.

The appendix, containing formulæ and tables, has been entirely overhauled with the result that a mass of obsolete matter has been stricken out and all formulæ pertaining to plates and papers of present day manufacture, inserted, making the book of great practical value. The list of American Photographic Clubs is also as complete as it has been possible to make it.

With regard to illustrations, "they speak for themselves." They form a prominent record of what our photographers have achieved up to the end of the nineteenth century. Scarcely any of the well-known names are missing, and it is essentially an American collection as but few foreign pictures are shown. Eight pictures are in two printings, reproducing as near as possible the originals handed into us. An Albertype print of one of Mrs. Käsebier's latest pictures shows this artist's wonderful skill in composition. A print on argo shows the beauty of this developing paper, and there are over eighty other full page illustrations, and numberless smaller half-tone cuts scattered throughout the book, making it the most profusely illustrated volume published. And quality has in no wise given way to quantity.

CAMERA NOTES, organ of the Camera Club, N. Y., for September, has just come to hand, and it is an interesting number, though weak in literary matter with the exception of Fuguet's and Hinton's articles. We refer more particularly to the article "L'Homme Qui Rit,"-author unknown-to quote a phrase

in said article. Personalities are never in place in well conducted periodicals, and we have much regretted that many of our esteemed contemporaries have seen fit to "talk back," filling their paper with matter of interest to them only, and not their readers at large. We have, therefore, intentionally avoided being drawn into the maelstrom of argument as to whether this set or that set of photographers is right in their ideas and their aims, believing that when the matter had come to a vortex, it would gradually quicken out and disappear into the smooth flowing current of ordinary photographic existence. But an article in this number of the Camera Notes on one of our most esteemed contributors has led us to break our rule for once. In "L'Homme Qui Rit," the author or authors unknown, who are speaking for themselves and not for the Club we take it,

refer to certain comedies published under the pseudonym of "A Smiler," the cleverness of which is admitted. Osborne I. Yellott, whose name has frequently appeared in these pages, is the author of these comedies, as our esteemed brethren of the craft, including the Editors of "Camera Notes," all know, and the attempt by the "unknown" author or authors of "L'Homme Qui Rit" to belittle Mr. Yellott, would be ridiculous in the extreme and entirely unworthy of such a reputable publication as "Camera Notes," but for the fact that the article was written in the same spirit as the comedies to which it refers and not with the serious intent which, at first blush, would appear to be the case. However, the authors have thrown a boomerang which will undoubtedly come circling back with gathered

force.