|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Portable darkroom tent
|
This example of a photographer’s portable collodion
darkroom tent was owned and used by George M. Bretz,
of Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Wet-plate collodion
was a light-sensitive solution used as an emulsion
to coat glass plates, which were then quickly placed
in cameras. An image was exposed and immediately
developed. An itinerate photographer or landscape
photographer traveling extensively would have used
a portable darkroom tent like the Bretz one shown.
Wet-plate collodion photography was popular from
the mid-1850s to the early 1880s, when dry plates
were introduced. |
|
Division of Information, Technology and Society,
Photographic History
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian
Institution
Behring Center
Gift of Mr. George M. Bretz
|
|
|
|
|
