William Bradford & The Arctic Regions

The following are notes from the catalogue for our April 20 sale of Images & Objects: Photographs & Photobooks.

Lot 17: William Bradford, The Arctic Regions, with 141 mounted albumen prints, London, 1873. Estimate $100,000 to $150,000.

William Bradford, a celebrated American painter, was also a traveler and adventurer fascinated with the Arctic landscape. The Arctic Regions is the result of seven expeditions to the area undertaken for the purposes of art, the most ambitious of which was made in 1869. This voyage was underwritten by Boston collector and banker LeGrand Lockwood. A sealing ship called the Panther was commissioned for the trip; the vessel covered 5,000 nautical miles but was forced to turn back after being trapped for two days in pack ice.

Lot 17: William Bradford, The Arctic Regions, with 141 mounted albumen prints, London, 1873. Estimate $100,000 to $150,000.

Bradford understood the power of the camera, and used the resulting images to create what is now is considered a landmark in the history of Arctic exploration, as well as photobooks. It was, according to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, “At the time of its publication in 1873, this leather-bound elephant folio was the first book to capture the splendor of the Arctic through photography.”

Lot 17: William Bradford, The Arctic Regions, with 141 mounted albumen prints, London, 1873. Estimate $100,000 to $150,000.

Sumptuously bound and profusely illustrated with original photographs, The Arctic Regions features 141 spectacular albumen photographs, including a 2-part panorama, which set the book apart from contemporaneous accounts illustrated with engravings. The text, which combines sober scientific observation with romantic hyperbole, serves as an invaluable descriptive aid for scientists, adventurers, and environmentalists working today.

Lot 17: William Bradford, The Arctic Regions, with 141 mounted albumen prints, London, 1873. Estimate $100,000 to $150,000.

Working under Bradford’s supervision were John Dunmore and George Crichterson, photographers associated with the prominent Boston-based firm James Wallace Black Studio. Although they are credited as the official photographers, it is now believed that Bradford himself may have taken many of the pictures, which feature remarkable scenes of icebergs and ice floes in addition to pictures of indigenous people (“Eskimaux”) and moored ships.

Lot 17: William Bradford, The Arctic Regions, with 141 mounted albumen prints, London, 1873. Estimate $100,000 to $150,000.

A source of great interest throughout the nineteenth century, the Arctic captured the public imagination, manifesting itself through a widespread desire for images, stories, and interpretations of this remote and desolate landscape. The images in The Arctic Regions depict views of an alien, frozen land and its exotic inhabitants. Today, there is a new recognition for the arctic landscape’s vulnerability, and how its disappearance will effect coastal regions and islands throughout the world.

Lot 17: William Bradford, The Arctic Regions, with 141 mounted albumen prints, London, 1873. Estimate $100,000 to $150,000.

In the text, Bradford recounts a voyage in which he worked under adverse conditions. The harsh weather often caused major setbacks, delays and annoyances among the ship’s crew. Dunmore also described a dangerous instance in which their equipment and lives were at stake: “We sailed about sixty miles to the mouth of a glacier, where the icebergs break off, to take some views. Just as we were landing, a large berg broke off which sent the water up twenty feet all over us, and washed away collodion, developing glass, green baize, etc., and came very near taking us along with them.” Yet, despite these challenges, they produced remarkable photographs of a stunning, and now endangered, landscape. The volume is a tribute to Bradford’s heroic vision and the photographers who skillfully worked in the most difficult of circumstances.

Lot 17: William Bradford, The Arctic Regions, with 141 mounted albumen prints, London, 1873. Estimate $100,000 to $150,000.

Explore the full catalogue.