[Album of Early X-Rays]

S. Hunt British
ca. 1898
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: [Album of Early X-Rays]
  • Artist: S. Hunt (British)
  • Date: ca. 1898
  • Medium: Gelatin silver prints
  • Dimensions: Overall: 9 3/4 × 10 3/8 × 13/16 in. (24.7 × 26.4 × 2 cm)
  • Classifications: Photographs, Albums
  • Credit Line: The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2022
  • Object Number: 2022.330
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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