July 08, 2008, 10:59 AM
Historic Photo Studios
By Joe Berlin
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Abstract

Executive Summary

Chemical-based photography (e.g. Daguerreotype process) was popularized in the United States by Samuel Morse during a relatively short period in the 1840s. Portraiture that was previously unavailable to the common person was now available on a mass basis. Almost every small town now had their own photography shop.

Photographic chemistry processes in use changed rapidly from 1870 to 1900 with all processes using complexes of silver due to its response to light. Processing of exposed slides used a variety of chemicals including compounds containing mercury, silver, arsenic, iodine, chromium, cyanide and various petroleum compounds, supplemented by the use of significant amounts of water. Since many of these compounds are metals, they do not degrade over time.

BLDI has found sites with the designation “Photo” on Sanborn Fire Insurance maps to have soils containing concentrations of various compounds, most significantly mercury, exceeding Michigan’s Part 201 Generic Residential Cleanup Criteria (GRCC). With the use of a Baseline Environmental Assessment (BEA) in Michigan, liability for the presence of contaminants above Part 201 GRCC can be mitigated.

A History of Chemical-Based Photography

Photography is the result of combining several technical discoveries. Long before the first photographs were made, Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (965–1040) invented the camera obscura and pinhole camera. Albertus Magnus (1193–1280) discovered silver nitrate, and Georges Fabricius (1516–1571) discovered silver chloride.

The first permanent photograph was an image produced in 1826 by the French inventor Nicéphore Niépce.

References

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