Description
Early photographs of castles and country houses, landscapes, and portraits in England, Gibraltar, and Ireland, taken between
1850 and 1856 taken by Alfred Capel Cure.
Background
Alfred Capel Cure was an officer in the British Army, and an early pioneer of photography. His uncle, the painter and photographer
Robert Henry Cheney (1800-1866), taught him photography, and in 1850, Capel Cure began making salt prints of architectural
subjects--manor houses, cathedrals, abbeys, and churches. Capel Cure was initially commissioned into the 55th Regiment of
Foot, and later, as a member of the Grenadier Guards, he fought in the Crimean War, where he was wounded in the attack on
the Redan at Sebastopol. He attained the ranks of Lieutenant-Colonel (1858) and Colonel (1863). Capel Cure died July 29, 1896,
in an accidental explosion while dynamiting tree roots in his park.
Extent
2 albums
(ca. 300 photographic prints) : salt paper, ambrotype ; 33-34 x 26-29 cm (albums)
Photographs are mounted on leaves of white paper, with ms. captions indicating date, location, and other subject information.
A numbered list of the photographs in Vol. 2, in the same hand, is affixed to inside back cover of the album.
Vol. 1 half-bound in brown leather and marbled paper boards, with gilt rules along corner pieces and backstrip; rebacked spine,
with original black leather spine label preserved, bearing gold-stamped title "Photographs." Vol. 2 is half-bound in green
leather and scuffed green marbled boards, with ornamental embossed borders along corner pieces and backstrip; spine rebacked,
with gold-stamped spine title "Album of Alfred Capel Cure. 2." Capel Cure's engraved bookplate, with his crest and motto ("Fais
que doit arrive que pourra") on front pastedown. Bookplate of C.K. Ogden in upper left-hand corner of front pastedown.
Spec. Coll. copy: each album housed in its own modern beige cloth clamshell box with velcro closure; box titles in black:
"Photographic Experiments" (v. 1) and "Album of Alfred Capel Cure" (v. 2).
Restrictions
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the
creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright
owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Availability
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.