The Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography is the first comprehensive encyclopedia of world photography up to the beginning of the twentieth century. It sets out to be the standard, definitive reference work on the subject for years to come.

Its coverage is global an important first in that authorities from all over the world have contributed their expertise and scholarship towards making this a truly comprehensive publication. The Encyclopedia presents new and ground-breaking research alongside accounts of the major established figures in the nineteenth century arena.

Coverage includes all the key people, processes, equipment, movements, styles, debates and groupings which helped photography develop from being a solution in search of a problem when first invented, to the essential communication tool, creative medium, and recorder of everyday life which it had become by the dawn of the twentieth century.

The sheer breadth of coverage in the 1200 essays makes the Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography an essential reference source for academics, students, researchers and libraries worldwide.

Fox Talbot is universally recognised as the father of modern photography. His 'calotype' or 'Talbotype' process was the first working photographic process to use the now familiar format of negatives and positives. He was an ambitious man but his interests spread far beyond the confines of photography and it was as a mathematician that he was awarded first Membership and then Fellowship of the Royal Society before the age of thirty-three. He was an accomplished astronomer, a keen archaeologists and a fluent master of Greek and Hebrew. He patented pioneering ideas for internal combustion engines and as early as 1840 and through his life was at the forefront of progressive scientific thinking in England.

One hundred and fifty years ago travelling with a camera was both a novelty and an enormous challenge. The intrepid photographers who took their cameras to remote corners of the world brought back images which amazed their peers. Photographer and historian John Hannavy has recreated some of their epic journeys - travelling to Scotland along the route followed by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1844; recreating Charles Kinnear and Thomas Melville Raven's 1857 journeys to France; exploring the Nile from Cairo to Abu Simbel along the route Francis Frith followed between 1856 and 1859; travelling through Russia and the Ukraine as Roger Fenton did in 1852 and 1855; across India from Calcutta to Simla following Samuel Bourne's 1863 account of his travels; and exploring China and Cyprus as John Thomson did between 1863 and 1878.This beautifully illustrated book contrasts the Victorian world with our own, and looks at how our view of the world has changed in the intevening years. It chronicles the developments which have taken place in travel, architecture, culture, and of course photography itself.

This is John Hannavy's reflective look at how Scotland was depicted in photographs and postcards 100 - 170 years ago. In many ways, it redefines our view of Scotland's past as we are familiar with seeing Victorian and Edwardian people and views in sepia, but these are in colour, adding a warmth and realism to the scenes which photographers immortalized. The subject matter of the pictures was as wide and varied as Edwardian life and work itself and it is here that the reader meets eccentrics and worthies, sees people going about their daily work, catching buses and trains, embarking on steamers, and simply enjoying Scotland's spectacular scenery. Many aspects of Scottish life are explored from people's jobs to the many ways in which they occupied their limited holiday and leisure time between 1840 and the outbreak of the Great War.These include Creating Tourist Scotland - how Victorian and Edwardian Scotland was sold to the world and the birth of Scotland's tourist industry; Scotland's Railways - the development of the railway network and some of the splendid photographs and postcards which were sold to travellers; Industrial Might; The Ubiquitous Steamer; Gateways to the World; Fisherfolk; Working the Land; The Textile Industry; Taking to the Road; The Scots at War - from the Crimean War, the first to be photographed, to the skirmishes leading up to the Great War; Out in the Scots Fresh Air; On Scotland's Canals; Village Life; Family Life; That's Entertainment; Town and City Life; What we did on Holiday and Sports and Outdoor Pursuits. Included are fine studies of the hardy Scotch Fisher Lassies who worked their way down the east coast of Britain gutting and pickling the herring; the people who lived and worked on Scotland's canals; the men who crewed the country's trains, trams and ferries, together with a host of others. In effect, it opens the book on what was perceived as an almost mystical and mysterious landscape, 'north of the border'.With almost 270 photographs, many of them previously unpublished, The Way We Were brings Scotland's colourful past to life.

The Gas Tram was a short-lived phenomenon which briefly seemed to herald a new way forward in tramcar design, replacing horses and steam locomotives on the streets with quieter and smoother travel. One of the major advantages of the gas tram, according to those who proposed it, was the low capital cost of the conversion, and all without the need to install the expensive overhead catenary required for electric traction. Designs for gas tramcars were patented all over the world, and systems were briefly operated in Germany, Australia, Holland, Switzerland and the UK, and proposed in France, New Zealand and the USA. The fuel was invariably domestic 'town gas' drawn from the local gasworks, and the vehicles were said to be very cheap to run. This was a development which was probably a century ahead of its time - with twenty-first century gas systems, using much greener biomethane as a fuel, currently being developed in the UK, Korea, China and elsewhere, and biomethane-fuelled trams already in service in Dubai and Aruba. Derived from the natural decomposition of organic waste which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, biomethane is a clean and green alternative to fossil fuels. Other vehicles, using hydrogen fuel cells to generate electricity, are being developed in several countries. This book - the first ever comprehensive history of these vehicles - uses many previously unpublished photographs, drawings and patents.

Wigan is one of the oldest chartered boroughs in the north of England, and has a rich and proud heritage. The town played a significant role in the Civil War, and over the years has been an important industrial centre and a place known for its highly skilled watchmakers and clockmakers. Despite a history which dates back to pre-Roman times, very little evidence of the early town survived the wholesale reconstruction and expansion which came with the Industrial Revolution and turned Wigan into the centre of both the Lancashire coalfield and the Lancashire cotton industry. Today, the town is a lively mixture of old and new, with Wigan Pier becoming one of the country's most successful tourist attractions, as well as one of the most inspired examples of industrial restoration. The book includes two walking tours of the town which can be used independently of the main text and enable readers to explore the history of Wigan through the streets, buildings and monuments that can still be found there today. John Hannavy is Professor in Art and Design at Bolton Institute. His interests include photographic history and local history. Over the last thirty years he has written and broadcast extensively on the history of Wigan.

By the time the first photographs were taken at war in the 1850s, the idea that 'the camera cannot lie' was already firmly embedded in the Victorian psyche. Photographs were truth, in a way the work of the war artist could never be. Long exposures and cumbersome equipment, however, meant that for the first few decades the medium could not capture action. Out of that early period came the celebrated - but rather prosaic - photographs of Roger Fenton in the Crimea, and the more realistic images of the American Civil War a decade later. War photography had been a reality for nearly fifty years before the reproduction of photographic images became possible in the daily press, restricting sales to subscription lists, print shops and photographic studios. For commercial reasons, photographers censored themselves - if the images shocked, they might be unlikely to sell. Once reproduction in magazines and newspapers became possible, official censorship began.
Through a rich selection of images - many of them never-before published - this book tells the story of the photographers who chronicled Britain's Victorian and Edwardian wars.