[Album of Early X-Rays]
S. Hunt British
Not on view
In December 1895, the German mechanical engineer Wilhelm Röntgen announced his discovery of the X-ray, a mysterious new type of radiation capable of revealing the hidden structure of living things. Within months, scientists around the world began to experiment with X-ray technology, attracting popular interest through public exhibitions and lectures. This album by S. Hunt, a bootmaker and engineer based in Weymouth, England, includes X-ray photographs of various objects, including a scissors, nails and screws, and hands bedecked with rings, as well as broken bones and needles embedded within various body parts. To some of the images, Hunt added a decorative “signature” crafted from metal wire, situating the images somewhere between science and art.
