Mammoth Plates: 1891

I like how you can make out the little town in the background of the photo. You can see the big church with its dome and towers.

Very nice picture. I wonder where in Mexico this was taken.

Glass plates were coated on the spot. Or at least the night before. The glass was the expensive part, the silver nitrate emulsion came in either screw top tins or light tight jars, and were coated in the field. If the plate negative was not satisfactory it was a simple matter to strip the emulsion, recoat the glass plate and try again.

[You're thinking of the wet-plate negatives used around the time of the Civil War. Most glass plates made after 1880 (including this one) are dry-plate negatives -- coated with emulsion by the manufacturer and presensitized. - Dave]

Makes me think of a rolling "rrrrrr" tongue-twister a Mexican priest taught me many years ago: "Rapido corren los carros cargados de azucar de los ferrocarriles."

>> Were those "Mammoth Plate" cameras custom or home made or were they available commercially?

If you were a photographer in the mid 19th century you'd most likely buy a prefab lens assembly and make the box yourself (not that complicated, as most cameras then didn't have shutters), or have one made to your specification. After the Civil War, American Optical, Scovill and the Henry Clay Co. were among the commercial makers of big view and box cameras. A nice selection here.

Is anyone fooled by the perspective here? It doesn't look like that ledge is tall enough for the train to look as tiny as it does!

One slip, and goodbye large format camera, tripod and photographer!

I used to shoot a lot of landscapes in large format (4x5) before the digital age hit photography. I can identify with these gents lugging all that equipment around but not to the extent they did. I cannot imagine 18x22 in the field. My hat's off to them. That's an extremely hard thing to do.

Were those "Mammoth Plate" cameras custom or home made or were they available commercially?