Wendys Classic Corner Wendys Classic Corner Hi, this is Wendy from Wendys Classic Corner, and today we are in the beautiful north side of Pittsburgh.

Have you heard of the photo Antiquities Museum?

You can not believe what amazing artifacts they have hidden in plain sight right here on East Ohio Street.

Come along with me as we go.

A couple centuries into the past.

You don't want to miss this.

Let's go.

So we're here with Bruce Klein, the founder of the Photo Antiquities Museum of Photographic History.

Bruce, hi.

Welcome.

And thank you for having me.

Yeah.

Thank you for being on Wendy's classic Corner.

We're so excited to check out your museum today.

How many years was this museum been here?

31.

Amazing.

I opened it in 1993, in the early 19th century photographic museum in the United States.

Oh, that's so awesome.

And I don't think a lot of people are aware of this.

You're kind of here in the north side on East Ohio Street.

But I think we need to get the word out.

Well, it's, history lesson.

Yeah.

And, basically, we have a mission.

Our mission is the preservation, presentation in education of the history of photography.

Yeah.

People got to come out here and see this.

And especially, I think what they really want, what you really want to see is this.

You have the first photograph in history.

We have a copy of the first photograph.

Yes.

Not the actual photograph.

The first photograph was taken by Joseph Niépce and, in 1826.

And, it was an eight hour exposure.

His lens had to stay open for eight hours to make the exposure.

And, it's a very small image.

It actually sits in the University of Austin and their vaults today, but we do have a copy on display.

It has faded a little over the years.

But he did work with another gentleman, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, and Daguerre was able to stop it from fading away instead of using a piece of pewter.

He used a piece of copper.

He put silver on and he passed it into.

Was a mirrored surface, and his exposure time went from eight hours to under 30 minutes.

And, Daguerre type.

So this one here is 170 years old, and it's as good as the day it was taken 170 years ago.

Yeah.

And your first photograph, that's almost 200 years.

It is almost 200 years now to 2024.

Right?

Yes.

And these so they put them in these kind of these daguerreotype.

They put them these little commemorative like decorative.

Yeah.

These little cases.

There's a front and back cover and, this way it protects it from getting oxidized and fading away.

Yes.

Yeah.

And, Daguerre and Niépce, they were they kind of started a partnership.

They did they work together for a while, And then, of course.

So when they separated, Daguerre kind of got all the credit there.

But, Daguerre photos didn't fade, though.

They lasted.

And, like I said, this one was 170 years old, and it's is as good as this was taken.

And then after, what is the next process that came after that?

So after that it was called an amber type.

This is a image on glass.

You can see it looks like a negative.

And then you put a black backing on it and it becomes a positive image.

1854 and that was done in England in 1854.

But the problem with that is every time you dropped it, you cracked a photo.

So the third substrate is called a tintype.

Yeah.

In a, tintype in 1856 was developed here in, Kenyon College over in Ohio.

It's the only process we developed here in the United States.

And actually on a piece of iron.

And, you don't have to worry about glass breakage or mercury poisoning.

And so it was a really good process.

And this was pretty popular during the civil War, I think it was.

And, the second process, during a civil war, which came after that, was called a Carte de visite CDV And, this is on paper.

And the beauty of this is they had a glass negative.

And with the glass negative, you can make as many as you want with the daguerreotype.

They're one of a kind.

But now this you can make as many as you want.

And it was affordable.

So if you would put the cost back in the 1860s, during the Civil War into 2024, the cost would be about $10, where a daguerreotype in today's money would be about $1,000.

Wow.

So the CDV was affordable to the masses, and that's why a lot of Civil War soldiers had the CDVs, as well as the tint types.

So they kind of went from copper to glass to tin to paper.

Yes, correct.

Awesome.

So that's really interesting.

Thank you for showing us those.

And also I'm really interested in hearing about these beautiful, beautiful slides you have here.

So these are called lantern slides.

These are images that are on glass.

They are black and white images and they are hand colored.

They were projected, 10ft by 20ft.

So if you're going to project an image that big, you got to make sure that the coloring is exactly where it had to be.

They used a single hair brush.

Wow.

Just to be able to color these.

And it was a way that people traveled the world, because in the late 1800s, you didn't have the internet, you didn't have movies.

And everything we saw was basically a pencil drawing.

So they actually sent people from all to all parts of the world in a photograph to every country.

And they brought them back and they made a slideshow.

Think of it as a slideshow.

They would project up onto a wall and you travel the world through the lantern slide.

Oh that's awesome.

And these also you can see these all these slides, they do look like they're from different parts of the world.

Oh yes, all over the world.

And of course we even have some fun local ones from Pittsburgh here.

Oh, awesome.

And I think you were going to show us some other really cool things, I think.

What a stereo were you?

Stereo viewer reviewers cabinet cards.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yes.

All right, let's go to see.

Yeah.

Let's go check this out.

Okay.

So we're over here with some of these stereo scopes.

But I think you had wanted to mention some things about all these photographs you have in these cabinets.

Here in the cabinets, I have a variety of other ones.

I have cabinet cards, I have the CDVs, and I even have the backs of some of these beautiful graphics on the back.

So I have some mug shots.

So there's a variety of different types of photographic processes I show in a variety.

So you can see what people looked like over the years.

And what are cabinet cards?

Cabinet cards were, developed in 1866, and they had a larger negative.

It was six inches by nine.

So each cabinet card is about this big.

And people wanted a larger photo of the little CVDs or a little small.

Yeah.

So they wanted something a little larger for people to see.

And the mug shots are really interesting.

So they would take that what at the jail would be at?

Yeah, at the police station or at the jail.

And the information on the back would talk about the height, the weight, what the crime was like.

One lady, she was arrested for suspicious character.

So it's about as generic as you can get.

Thank goodness they don't read suspicious characters anymore.

I think I'd be arrested.

And so I also, you also wanted to tell us a little about the stereo stereoscope.

So.

Yes.

So stereo scopes and stereo views were actually used way back with the daguerreotypes.

So 3D was very important.

And, if you want to take a look through this one, you can see there's a beautiful hand-colored stereo view in there.

And don't they have two images that sort of blend together?

So it's two images side by side, 3.5in apart, same distance your eyes are.

And then when you look at them through the lens, your brain will put one on top of the other and becomes 3D.

Yeah, that's that's really cool.

And you have a lot of these different I do they still use this technology today do they not.

Well it's a little different today.

Sure.

But if you look at the old View-Master that the kids even play with today, it's also the same principle.

It's two images side by side.

As I say, it reminds me of those things.

You'd put that little, you know, little red thing, and you'd put the the thing and you'd be able to see all the pictures.

That's right, the View-Master.

Yeah.

I think I'm kind of aging myself there, but they still make them today.

Yeah.

Awesome.

So, anything else you want to talk about in this particular.

Well, we have a lot of different viewers here.

Yeah, some are flower viewers, some are tabletop viewers.

Some of these could hold up to 300 stereo views.

And this one happens to have images on glass so that when you look at those, the 3-D really comes out.

And what what range of years are these?

So these usually date in the 1870s to about 1890s.

Oh, okay.

Awesome.

And, so that but they're made for, you know, home use.

They're made for inside of a, museum.

Things on that order.

Okay.

And then you I think you have a really, really gigantic camera to show us.

I do, yes.

All right, go see that, then go check that out.

So we're over here by that eight by ten camera.

You were talking about us talking about this camera.

So that camera, was taking photos that are eight inches by ten inches.

It was probably manufactured around 1920s.

And it actually comes from Italy.

This camera, it produces an eight by ten negative.

As you can see on here, the image is upside down and backwards so that that's how a negative is produced.

And then when you put it onto a piece of paper it becomes a positive.

Here's one of the negatives that it produces.

And as you can see it is an eight by ten size negative.

So it's very large.

And you can imagine because of that the image is very, very sharp.

So these produce great quality images.

And the again, these cameras, were 100 years old and people still do kind of use these cameras today or for people to produce these really high resolution type image.

Yes.

There is there's a few people that still shoot eight by ten.

More shoot the size down, which is four by five.

But, yes, Ansel Adams, when he would do all of his photographs, he shot me by ten camera.

Yeah.

And it's a little a little cumbersome, I guess.

Yeah.

Especially on horseback.

Wow.

Yeah, that would be.

Yeah.

And so you also wanted to show some other photographs.

We have a Pittsburgh, 150 year inauguration?

This is a .

sesquicentennial.

Yeah, that was done in 1908, when Pittsburgh was 150 years old.

Wow.

And the city built some beautiful arches downtown.

They brought famous people in, they even had a western Pennsylvania Native American tribe.

They raced boats on the Monon River.

Yeah.

And, they had marches downtown.

The police and firemen would march through these archways.

It was a major event when Pittsburgh was 150 years old.

And we have the whole sesquicentennial exhibit on display.

Oh.

That's awesome.

And then, what did they do with the arches?

They just turned back.

They actually they tore them down.

So I will say, yes, they are beautiful and they're pretty.

It's a shame they didn't keep them up.

Yeah.

You visit the city just to see them.

If they still had them.

It's really interesting to see these historical pictures of Pittsburgh in general.

And you said this was in 1908, 1908.

Yeah.

It's taken.

Yeah.

Oh, awesome.

Yeah.

Those are really nice.

And then I think you wanted to show us some really, really interesting photographs of a little a little bit, freaked out about these ones, but we're going to go check these out.

This is our the postmortem for.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, okay, let's check on this.

Lets see that.

So first we're over here with these post mortem photos.

So can you tell us a little bit about these?

Sure.

So, first thing you'll notice is a lot of, very young children.

Back then, it was very high infant mortality rate.

It started to do these postmortem photos with the daguerreotype and then with the embryo type tintype and even the CDVs.

And a lot of times it was the only photo that the parent had.

They didn't want you to think was from death.

So what they would do is they would actually sit them up like it looks like they're sleeping and sometimes even open their eyes.

So postmortem photography has been around since photography started in 1839.

And these are from what time frame would you get?

Yes.

Well these are the daguerreotype from the 1840s.

Here's Ambrotypes from the 1850s, tint types from the 50s and 60s, CDVs and cabinet cards from the 50s and 1860s.

So back in the 1800s, every photographic process that we had, we're done postmortem.

Oh, and do they still do these today?

They do, for different reasons.

Back then.

It's because they never had a photograph of the child.

Today, someone passes away and their family members may live out of state or even out of the country and haven't seen them in 20 or 30 years, and hire photographers to go into the funeral homes and take pictures just so they can see what they look like when they passed.

Okay, well, interesting.

So okay.

So next I think we're going to go check out some cameras, cameras, or we can go check out a 19th century studio.

Oh, let's do one of the two of them.

Okay, great.

That'll be a surprise.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

All right.

So surprise, surprise.

We've come into the camera room.

The camera room.

So we talked so much about photographs.

So now we want to talk a little bit about who's responsible for starting the whole camera movement and who who are we talking about here segment right here.

This is a display we've put together from the Eastman Kodak Company.

George Eastman was a really good innovator and a really good marketer.

And he actually saw the first camera that the public used.

He actually invented roll film from glass plates.

And, George Eastman, this is just some of his cameras that he's come out with over the years.

And, we show as well as his equipment, we also show, Edwin lands equipment.

Edwin Land was the founder of the Polaroid Corporation.

And in 1948, he actually made the first instant camera.

So if you think about it, we've had three types of instant photography.

The first type was the the daguerreotypes.

You develop it instantly.

The second type was the Polaroid.

And the third, of course, is digital photography.

Today.

Yeah.

So we've actually had three types in the course of the photographic history.

So basically he made the camera.

You shoot the picture boom outcomes outcomes the photo.

And it was instant.

Yes.

Yeah.

And there was a little bit of a spat between at some point between Eastman and Lab.

And there was Kodak infringed upon their patent rights and actually paid Polaroid over $1 billion in fines.

Now, the Polaroid Corporation does not exist today as a company, but, yes, they won that patent infringement.

Eastman was kind of he tried to kind of make a monopoly on the film.

Oh, absolutely.

He, not only just the film, but also on the chemicals.

And the government kind of got after him and said that they had to let other people sell film and let other people sell chemicals, and they did.

But where did everybody else buy the chemicals and the film from Eastman.

So in a sense, instead of slap them on the wrist, they actually did him a big favor because he had more distribution outlets, and he was the first one to sort of supply, film to motion camera, motion picture industry and Thomas Edison.

Yeah.

That's right.

Yeah.

He was an innovator.

And he was actually, the type of a guy that actually thought forward.

He was almost like a futurist.

Yeah.

Awesome.

And so I think maybe if we have a little more time, we can go check out some Pittsburgh.

Local pictures.

Absolutely.

Yeah, sure.

So let's go check that out.

Okay?

Okay.

All right.

So we're here in the Pittsburgh room.

So tell us a little about these wonderful pictures of Pittsburgh.

Yeah.

So this happens to be one of the oldest photographs of the city of Pittsburgh taken from Mount Washington to the point.

And you can see the suspension bridge here.

You can see the covered bridge going over to Manchester.

And look at all the coal coming up the main river there.

Yeah.

So it's one of the oldest photographs was taken in 1896.

Wow.

So we have a lot of historical photographs here.

We have a lot of, photographs of Civil War soldiers from Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, Allegheny City at the time.

And we also show a lot of different photographers from the 1800s as well.

So this is a pretty historic room, and we have a lot of things that we can show people in this room.

Yeah, like we're not getting into everything you have here because we want people to come out and take the tour.

Oh, absolutely.

And the tour usually lasts, like I said, about an hour to an hour and a half, and you have to call ahead of time to make an appointment.

And, it's, it's a pretty good tour.

We answer a lot of questions, and, sometimes it takes 2 or 3 times before you actually get to see it all.

Yeah.

And how, I guess, how do people reach you?

Like, you have a website or you are.

I have a website, and they can just call on the phone and make a reservation.

Yeah, we're right here in East Ohio Street.

531 East Ohio.

And, yeah, they can either call us or, they can look us up on the web.

Absolutely.

And you can see a lot more interesting things than what we've done.

Oh, we just barely touched it.

Yeah, just the tip of the iceberg here.

Exactly.

Yes.

We we kind of skim past, but we are going to be showing before we leave, a, a little studio that that's a 19th century studio.

Yeah.

So we show how a photographer would have photographed in the 19th, in the 1800s and 19th century.

And it would be a skylight.

No electronic flash, no electricity to use natural light, which is actually the best way to make a photograph because there's no shadows.

Yeah.

So I think that's the last thing we'll end with here.

And we do appreciate so much, Bruce, you taking the time to show us this wonderful museum.

And we do hope that people will come out and check this out.

We're very good.

Thanks, Wendy, and thanks for doing this on us.

Thank you very much.

It's our pleasure.

Thank you.