Bibliomania meets Pinholica

This summer the Oshkosh Public Library had a booth at the Farmers' Market. I follow the "Librarian Learns" YouTube channel and stopped to suggest some questions to the host Mike McArthur, which he solicits at the end of each episode. Also at the booth was Sandy Toland, Community Engagement Librarian. She organizes the Library's annual Photo Contest, which I've been helping to judge since my involvement in the Oshkosh Public Museum's "Then and Now" exhibit, but we'd never met. All our communication has been by email.

This year is the Semisesquicentennial of the construction of the building and the Centennial of the Library occupying the entire place, which had been shared with the Museum. As part of the celebration, they asked people about their favorite book, possibly for a YouTube project. I immediately told them mine was William Henry Fox Talbot's Pencil of Nature from 1844, in which he recalls how he invented photography and tries to describe it to a public who hadn't imagined such a thing. However, it's not in the Library's collection, so I probably wasn't a good prospect for their series.

In October, Sandy contacted me about the photo contest, and that reminded me of our conversation this summer. If I purchased a copy of The Pencil of Nature, would the Library add it to their circulating collection? I worked my entire professional life underneath college libraries and pretty much knew the answer, but there might be some options I wasn't aware of. She replied, as expected, that the official policy of the Library is to accept all donations, but it would then be the Library's property with no expectations of what would happen to it. Whether they were added to the collection was subject to the considerations of all collection development decisions. However, there were no copies anywhere in the Northeast Wisconsin Winnefox Library System, which Oshkosh is part of, and it was a significant title. It's the first book ever illustrated with camera photographs.

Onto the internet to see what's available. My preference was the 1969 facsimile edition, which is often found on the used book market (I check periodically to see what my copy's worth). It's also available in really cheap paperbacks since it's been in the public domain for over a century. A copy of the facsimile edition was buy-it-now priced at about half to a third of what several other copies were and half of what mine cost in 1985. It was rated as "very good." The only note was a 3/4 inch tear on the dust jacket.

I ordered it. If it wasn't in good enough condition for a circulating collection, I could mend it as best as possible (I was once in charge of mending at UW-Stout), and place it in the small library at Photo Opp.

When it arrived, except for the tear, it seemed absolutely brand new. It looked like it had never been read. I immediately took care of that. It's really fantastic to get into the head of someone who was learning about photography as we all do, except he was the first one ever to do it and write about it, which he was aware of and delighted by.

With the entire internet at my fingertips, I wondered if there was a copy of another work that strongly influenced me, Advanced Pinhole Photography from 1905, which is an issue of The Photo Miniature magazine. Each issue of that periodical consisted of a monograph on a particular subject. It presents pinhole photography not as "an optical problem or scientific hobby" but from a "practical standpoint" to "produce pictures with a serious purpose." Once you get used to the Edwardian syntax and vocabulary, it's fascinating to recognize things you see every day and also what's different (not that much). There was a copy on eBay for $19. It also came with a 1901 issue on Color Photography, three years before Autochrome was available.

The Color issue is an extremely dense narrative on the Tri-chrome process, including making the dyes for the color filters and bichromate positives and recommendations for different manufacturers' plates with the best spectrographic characteristics for each of the three negatives. This issue has extensive end notes, including some interesting references to notable camera makers Misters Burke and James, in the present tense. Half the notes consist of several letters that reported on the debate about whether the 1904 Saint Louis World Fair would include photography in the Liberal Arts or the Fine Arts Palace. The decision was to stay in the Liberal Arts, but the Fine Arts Jury would select a representative sample of artistic works for their building. I wonder how that worked out. The Kemper Art Museum's tiny selection from the Fair doesn't include any photographs.

We interrupt our program for Halloween.

Sandy was at the Reference Desk when we met. Although its fate was uncertain, I went ahead with the donation. We spoke about getting involved in public outreach programs and educational workshops and their plans for developing a gallery for local artists. I brought the camera specifically to take her photograph and kept forgetting while we conversed. When she excused herself to help a patron, I took my opportunity. She seemed to stand pretty still, but it looks like quite a few photons made it through her few movements. You can see the Pencil of Nature and another book I donated on the desk.

The first section of this shelving contains the Dewey Decimal Classification 770 - Photography. The catalog lists about 3,800 books so something must be circulating.

In addition to promoting the exhibit at his childhood home downtown, the Library featured the works of Oshkosh native Lewis Hine. It seems like his inspiration in documenting capitalist overreach and resulting human suffering will probably continue to be necessary.

For my double exposure fans at Photo Opp, a sunny corner in the stacks on top of the stairwell leading to the original part of the building.

Several small private study rooms are available in one corner, which reminded me of another Oshkosh landmark covered by "Librarian Learns."

The Genealogical Center is in the original entrance hall under the dome with an upper gallery. The second level was covered by a floor in the 1950s, and the entrance moved to the other side of a new addition. This was the children's library when Andy was a child. I never suspected the dome was right above me.

The room divider in the previous photograph hides it, but there's enough of a gap to put a pinhole camera and look into that 1950s addition, which is now Current Periodicals (another job I had in a library) in addition to the Jigsaw Puzzle collection.

Sunbeams on the tiled floor under the locally made Buckstaff furniture.

Another irresistible sunbeam in a different corner of the original building.

While taking these exposures, I found an odd personal connection. Andy now works for the New England Historic Genealogical Society. On some of the same shelving we used to scour for picture books and early readers, I found collections of some of the Society's periodicals. One of Andy's first jobs for them was getting those quarterlies online.

The EyePA 30 has .23mm hand-drilled pinholes 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film is Ilford HP5 semistand developed in Rodinal 1:100.