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The Moon

1857–60
Not on view
Whipple and his partner Black collaborated with scientists at Harvard College Observatory over the course of a decade, adapting new photographic processes to astronomical research. After the observatory installed a new clock drive on the telescope in 1857, the pair photographed the moon using collodion-coated glass negatives, from which they produced salted paper prints. This example appears to have been made by cutting the image of the moon out of an earlier print and rephotographing it against a dark background. This may have been done to enlarge the lunar orb or to eliminate imperfections in the original background.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Moon
  • Artist: John Adams Whipple (American, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1822–1891 Grafton, Massachusetts)
  • Artist: James Wallace Black (American, Francestown, New Hampshire 1825–1896 Cambridge, Massachusetts)
  • Date: 1857–60
  • Medium: Salted paper print from glass negative
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 8 1/4 × 6 3/16 in. (21 × 15.7 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Robert O. Dougan Collection, Gift of Warner Communications Inc., 1981
  • Object Number: 1981.1229.19
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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The Moon, John Adams Whipple American, Salted paper print from glass negative
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