Fred Litchman used this Kodak glass plate camera to document Marblehead and its colorful citizens in the late 19th century.
Taking a glass plate photograph was much harder than tapping an iPhone. First, Litchman coated a 5-by-7-inch glass plate with an emulsion made of silver bromide, chloride and iodide, known as a “wet plate.” He then set the camera on a tripod, inserted the glass plate, composed the shot by looking through a viewfinder and pressed a button to open the shutter. He repeated this process for every photograph and returned to his darkroom to develop each photograph while the plates were still wet.
Litchman’s studio could take photographs of “interiors, buildings, animals, yachts, etc. at short notice” along with traditional family portraits. Litchman’s first studio was located at 84 Front St., and in 1898 he moved to 15 State St., the current home of Maddie’s Sail Loft. Fred opened his final studio at 157 Washington St., the future home of the Lee Mansion Brick Kitchen, in 1914.
In 1888, Kodak founder George Eastman introduced the snapshot camera. Marketed with the slogan “You press the button, we do the rest” the camera and its film revolutionized photography by allowing amateurs to take photographs with no formal training. Litchman began to use the snapshot camera, especially when he traveled, but he continued using glass plates into the 1930s.
In the early days of snapshot photography, having a local studio was crucial for getting your photos quickly. The Kodak Company could develop photos taken with their cameras, but the process was laborious: a shutterbug had to mail their camera and film to the Eastman Studio in Rochester, New York, where technicians developed the photos and send them back along with the camera, which they loaded with a fresh roll of film. This $10 service had the benefit of “free” film, but it was more expensive and took longer than going to a local photographer. Litchman trained a group of young men to develop photographs, and they honed their craft under his watchful eye.
The Marblehead Museum has just opened part two of its “Marblehead Snapshots” exhibition, which will run until September. The exhibition features 40 photographs of Marblehead taken by Litchman from the 1890s to World War I. The exhibition is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Jarrett Zeman is the assistant director of the Marblehead Museum. From the Vault is a monthly segment highlighting an item from Marblehead Museum’s collection of over 60,000 artifacts. Learn more and explore at marbleheadmuseum.org.
