W. N. Jennings
Very Early Photographic Study of Lightning, 1890s
Albumen print
3 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches; mount larger
With photographer's credit stamp verso.
With three artistically-written letters by the photographer.
With photographer's credit stamp verso.
With three artistically-written letters by the photographer.
Sold
Further images
This photograph, taken by the Philadelphia-based photographer William Nicholas Jennings, has long been considered the first photograph of lightning, a title first bestowed on it soon after it appeared in...
This photograph, taken by the Philadelphia-based photographer William Nicholas Jennings, has long been considered the first photograph of lightning, a title first bestowed on it soon after it appeared in the September 5th, 1885 edition of “Scientific American” (dubbed “a real streak of Jersey lightning). A lengthy article, published by Panorama magazine, described how this came about.
“According to Jennings’ own personal narrative, he set out to photograph lightning in order to prove the inaccuracy of the “awkward angular zig-zag” populating artworks. In his scrapbook, he wrote, “To my eye [lightning] appeared with an infinite variety of outline; all of them graceful, none zig-zag.
To photographically prove this point, Jennings claimed he hauled a camera up to his roof during every storm for two years, but that his emulsion was not sensitive enough to record the “evanescent flash,” as he described it. On September 2, 1882…Jennings finally captured “a dazzling stream of electric light.” His photographs improved as he used more sensitive emulsions and “quicker” lenses with a larger maximum aperture, leading to the clearer image reproduced in Scientific American a few years later.”
Jennings' photograph is not, however, the first photograph of lightning. There is a known daguerreotype of the subject taken by the great mid-western photographer Thomas Easterly. Several other photographers, Several photographers, including “Robert Haensel in Germany, Charles Moussette in France, and New England meteorologist A. H. Binden successfully secured the elusive thunderbolt in the 1880s. Nonetheless, Jennings aggressively promoted and maintained throughout his life the designation for his 1882 photograph as the earliest on record.” Jennings was an active member of the Franklin Institute and in 1937 he donated a scrapbook of his lightning research, assuredly titled “Jove’s Autograph” perhaps in an attempt to further solidify his claim.
Included with the photograph are three letters penned by Jennings, which showcase his playfulness as an artist and man of letters.
“According to Jennings’ own personal narrative, he set out to photograph lightning in order to prove the inaccuracy of the “awkward angular zig-zag” populating artworks. In his scrapbook, he wrote, “To my eye [lightning] appeared with an infinite variety of outline; all of them graceful, none zig-zag.
To photographically prove this point, Jennings claimed he hauled a camera up to his roof during every storm for two years, but that his emulsion was not sensitive enough to record the “evanescent flash,” as he described it. On September 2, 1882…Jennings finally captured “a dazzling stream of electric light.” His photographs improved as he used more sensitive emulsions and “quicker” lenses with a larger maximum aperture, leading to the clearer image reproduced in Scientific American a few years later.”
Jennings' photograph is not, however, the first photograph of lightning. There is a known daguerreotype of the subject taken by the great mid-western photographer Thomas Easterly. Several other photographers, Several photographers, including “Robert Haensel in Germany, Charles Moussette in France, and New England meteorologist A. H. Binden successfully secured the elusive thunderbolt in the 1880s. Nonetheless, Jennings aggressively promoted and maintained throughout his life the designation for his 1882 photograph as the earliest on record.” Jennings was an active member of the Franklin Institute and in 1937 he donated a scrapbook of his lightning research, assuredly titled “Jove’s Autograph” perhaps in an attempt to further solidify his claim.
Included with the photograph are three letters penned by Jennings, which showcase his playfulness as an artist and man of letters.