94/22 v. 2 Photograph albums of Alfred Capel Cure

Item Overview

Title

94/22 v. 2 Photograph albums of Alfred Capel Cure

Date Created

1850 - 1863

Collection

Photograph album collection, circa 1850-1964

Notes

Summary

Volume 2 contains photographs taken between 1850 and 1856, many of them views of British Army garrisons and barracks in Gibraltar and Ireland. Photographs from 1851-1852 include several views of Casemate Barracks from the Montague Cavalier station at the British garrison in Gibraltar, some with uniformed fellow soldiers in the shot, as well as several views of Capel Cure's summer house in Gibraltar. There are many photographs from 1853 and 1854 of the British barracks at Roscrea, Templemore, Athlone, and Shannonbridge in Ireland, and portraits of soldiers stationed there, many of whom served with Capel Cure in the 55th Regiment of Foot, and later, in the Grenadier Guards. He has noted in some of captions which comrades were killed, when, and where (Crimean War--Balaklava, The Alma--1854).
Volume 1, with ms. title "Photographic Experiments, 1850-1851," contains some of Capel Cure's earliest photographs of medieval manor houses and castles in the English countryside, particularly Derbyshire, Shropshire, Sussex, and Hertfordshire, many of which have long since been demolished. Included in Vol. 1 are views of Stokesay Castle, Wenlock Abbey, Badger Hall (Capel Cure's family home), Millichope Park, and Chetwynd Park in Shropshire; Ashridge and Down Hall in Hertfordshire; Stoke Edith and Hereford Cloister in Hereford parish; Darley Abbey Hall, the paper mill in Darley, and Duffield Bridge in Derbyshire; Powis Castle, with its distinctive terraced gardens, located in Powys, Mid Wales; Shrubland Hall in Suffolk; and Holland House, Kensington, London.

Description

Early photographs of castles and country houses, landscapes, and portraits in England, Gibraltar, and Ireland, taken between 1850 and 1856. Capel Cure also photographed civilians around the barracks, such as a knife grinder, barracks gate boy, chimney sweep, rag boy, and beggars, and included many views of nearby landmarks, such as Corville Abbey, Rosecrea (1853), the Rock of Cashel, Cashel Cathedral, King Cormac's Chapel, Culdee Chapel and Round Tower in Clonmacnoise on the River Shannon south of Athlone (1853), and Loughmoe Abbey just south of Templemore (1854). There are also numerous views of Badger Hall, photographed with family, friends, and dogs "Pharaoh", "Jet", and "Flush", during 1854; and several portraits of the photographer himself. The photographs dated 1856 include a series of shots of Exeter Cathedral, and Greenstead Church (the oldest wooden church in the world), Bovinger Church, Blake Hall in Essex, and Battle Abbey and Pevensey Castle in Sussex. Capel Cure's experiments with photography are evident in two views of Roscrea Castle from 1852: one made with a single lens, the other with a double lens. He also identifies two ambrotypes he made in 1854, using the collodion wet plate process.Alfred Capel Cure was an officer in the British Army, and an early pioneer of photography. His uncle, the painter and photographer Robert Henry Cheney (1800-1866), taught him photography, and in 1850, Capel Cure began making salt prints of architectural subjects--manor houses, cathedrals, abbeys, and churches. Capel Cure was initially commissioned into the 55th Regiment of Foot, and later, as a member of the Grenadier Guards, he fought in the Crimean War, where he was wounded in the attack on the Redan at Sebastopol. He attained the ranks of Lieutenant-Colonel (1858) and Colonel (1863). Capel Cure died July 29, 1896, in an accidental explosion while dynamiting tree roots in his park.

Keywords

Genre

photographs

Resource type

still image

Subjects

Salted paper prints--Ireland--1850-1856.
Salted paper prints--England--1850-1856.
Ambrotypes--England--1854.
Salted paper prints--Gibraltar--1850-1856.