Boston Camera Club

Photography was introduced in 1839. For some decades it involved laborious daguerreotype followed by wet-plate and other processes. Amateur photography in the United States got its first major boost in 1880, when the future Eastman Kodak Co. and others introduced dry plates-glass plates with pre-applied chemical emulsion. In 1888 Kodak introduced flexible media-first paper and soon film-and third-party processing. These innovations brought photography to the masses. Still, professionals and advanced amateurs typically continued to use glass plates until the early 20th century, when film was universally accepted. Today most photography, including in the club, is digital.

The club known today as the Boston Camera Club was founded October 7, 1881 in Boston as the Boston Society of Amateur Photographers. It is the oldest continuously active camera club founded by amateurs, and the second-oldest active camera club, in the U.S.The oldest continuously active camera club in the U.S. is the [http://phillyphotosociety.com Photographic Society of Philadelphia], founded in 1862 and 19 years older than BCC. Founded mostly by professionals, it became amateur later. The third-oldest is the [https://www.baltimorecameraclub.org Baltimore Camera Club.] The first amateur photographic organization in the U.S. was the Amateur Photographic Exchange Club, NYC, active 1861-1863. "In 1880 there were fewer than 10 camera clubs or societies in the U.S., all of them composed mainly...of commercial photographers." Greenough, 268. Present at the October 7 meeting were F. H. Blair, James M. Codman, W. C. Greenough, A. P. Howard, Lucius L. Hubbard, Frederick Ober, and John H. Thurston, with Thurston having the most active role. At first, temporary officers were elected. On November 9, 1881 in a Boston newspaper, the group solicited support from anyone else interested. Accordingly another nascent group, comprising James F. Babcock, William T. Brigham, Wilfred A. French, William A. Hovey, and others, joined them. The combined group met on November 18, 1881, and permanent officers were elected-Brigham president, Babcock vice president, and French secretary and treasurer. Babcock was a professor of chemistry; French and Thurston Boston photographic suppliers; Hovey a newspaper editor. At first the club met in various places, including the offices of Hovey's Boston Sunday Budget newspaper. Later, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), then located in Boston, became a regular meeting place. Dues were not particularly low for the time-$5 annually plus a $3 admission fee.Evening Transcript (Boston), Nov. 9, 1881; Kimball, 205. The earliest known mention of the post-November club is an announcement by secretary Thurston of formation of the Boston Society of Amateur Photographers in Photographic Times & American Photographer, Dec. 1881, 457-458, [https://hathitrust.org HT.]  At the time MIT, today located across the Charles River in Cambridge, Mass., was called simply the Institute of Technology.

As amateur photography in the United States became more widespread, in 1886 the club changed its name to Boston Camera Club. The first regular (all-member) meeting of the renamed club was held October 7, 1886. On April 6, 1887, it incorporated under the new name in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as that state styles itself, stating as its purpose the furthering of "the knowledge of photography in all its branches and the promotion of social intercourse among the amateur photographers of Boston and vicinity." The first president (1886-1890) of the incorporated club was George Edward Cabot, an electrical products manufacturer. As of 1888, the club had 64 members.Boston Club Book. By the end of the 19th century it was typically closer to 100. By now, dues were expensive-$20 annually.

Starting in 1886 for some three-and-a-half decades, the Boston Camera Club rented headquarters at 50 Bromfield Street, Boston. It may have been selected by being the business address of both club founder Thurston, a photo supplier; and early vice president Charles Henry Currier, a jeweler and commercial photographer,Polito & Steele, 48; Robinson, 135-137, 223 (who calls Currier the "most gifted" New England commercial photographer). and by being in Boston's photo-supply district.Boston Almanac & Business Directory, v56, 1891, 426, [https://hathitrust.org HT], lists 3 photographers including Currier, and 6 photo suppliers & services including Thurston, on Bromfield St. The area remained Boston's main camera retail district until the early 21st century. See also [https://archive.org/details/kingshowtoseebos0bost/page/92 King's How to See Boston], 1895, 92; and Thurston's business listings in Polito & Steele, 171. The club had eight rooms including an exhibition gallery, multi-function studio, dark rooms, enlarging room, and library. Equipment included cameras, Dallmeyer portrait lenses, enlargers, a double stereopticon lantern-slide projector, and electric arc lights, giving members the capability of making bromide and other prints, enlarged negatives, and lantern slides.Swift.

Image:1896 BostonTypes byWalterChase BostonCameraClub.png

For reasons begging research, by 1908 the Boston Camera Club was facing difficulties, journal Photo-Era saying it had been "long been on the sick list."Photo-Era, May 1908, 261-262, [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009366707 HT.] Although it remained active, holding member exhibitions until at least 1912, membership declined and its future was uncertain. Business meetings continued, but apparently far fewer regular meetings. The club was kept alive by Frank Roy Fraprie (FRAYP-ree), club president Phineas Hubbard, Horace A. Latimer, and the aging Thurston. The club, it is believed in 1924, left 50 Bromfield Street and for some years met at the Boston Young Men's Christian Union (YMCU). Amateur photography in Boston now seems to have been dominated by three entities-the Boston YMCU Camera Club (a different entity than Boston Camera Club's meetings at YMCU), active from 1908 to at least the 1920s;Photo-Era, Apr. 1920, 214, [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009366707 HT.] Boston Photo-Clan, active about 1912-1921, mentored by Boston commercial photographer John H. Garo, at whose studio it met, of which Fraprie was a member as well;Photo-Era, Apr. 1912, 184; American Photography, Dec. 1914, 742. [https://hathitrust.org HT.] and The Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston.

In 1931 a bequest by club member Horace A. Latimer of Boston, a wealthy amateur photographer of some renown, reinvigorated the Boston Camera Club.State of Maine, Last Will and Testament of Horace A. Latimer, Oct. 19, 1931. Latimer also bequeathed money to the [http://www.portlandcameraclub.org Portland (Maine) Camera Club], founded in 1899, thanks to which it too prospered and is still active. The club moved temporarily to 330 Newbury Street in the Back Bay section of Boston. Although membership in 1934 was only 45, in 1936 with Latimer's bequest it purchased a building at nearby 351 Newbury Street, Back Bay,BCC bought 351 Newbury St. from Frank R. Fraprie's American Photographic Publishing Co. Deed, July 8, 1936. When it actually moved into the building begs inquiry. It may have been renting there for some time. where it occupied three floors, having two exhibition galleries, darkroom, library, and kitchen. Public exhibitions resumed. For tax reasons, in 1946 the club sold no. 351 and remained in the building as a lessee.BCC, succession of 5-year leases, June 1, 1946 ff. In this era the club leased and occupied floors two and three, changing its address from 351 to 351A Newbury St. The new owner apparently occupied the first floor only. Growth continued apace. Membership rebounded and, especially with the return of service persons after World War II, reached 350 about 1949. It reached its highest known level of 547 in 1959,Per BCC records. The 547 comprised 492 regular, 51 associate or corresponding, and 4 honorary members. From the 19th to early 21st century the club had associate members-correspondents living beyond a 25-mile radius of Boston, some out of state, who paid half dues and often sent in their photographs by mail for competition in the club. a trend attributable to post-war prosperity and the introduction of 35-millimeter film by Kodak in the 1930s. Throughout, enthusiasts often sought instruction in camera use by joining a camera club. Starting in the 1960s for much of the rest of the century, however, membership declined again, for example to 440 in 1970, and then much lower. Much of it was due to camera automation requiring less instruction, like single lens reflex (SLR) cameras introduced in the 1960s, autofocus and automated exposure in the 1970s, the introduction of rival hobby technologies like consumer video, and sociological factors.

Because of the owner's sale of the building, in 1980 the Boston Camera Club had to vacate its 351 Newbury Street headquarters. For the first and only time, the club left Boston, relocating to the adjacent town of Brookline, Massachusetts.Finding the new location was largely the work of club president George H. Moseley, for which he was made an honorary member In 1997 it moved across town to another part of Brookline. Starting in 2006 membership rebounded again, due in large part to the club's emphasis on digital photography, increased promotion of the club, and its website.The first discussion and vote by the club on whether to admit digital images in competitions were held in June 1995. In 2020-2022 during the worldwide coronavirus, the club held its meetings and presentations online. In 2023 the Boston Camera Club returned to Boston, and to its present headquarters and meeting place, historic Old South Church in BostonOld South Church in Boston is familiarly called "New" Old South Church, to distinguish itself from its former building, Old South Meeting House, the famous meeting place still standing in downtown Boston, after a meeting in which in 1773 rebellious Massachusetts colonials went in disguise to a Boston wharf, boarded merchant ships, and destroyed a shipment of the import enshrined in the name of their action, the Boston Tea Party. in Copley Square, in Boston's Back Bay district.

Because the Boston Camera Club was founded before amateur photography was widespread, many early members were knowledgeable practitioners. A few even made advances in photographic technology, or received notice for their work. Since at least 1889, the Boston Camera Club has awarded honorary life membership on two classes of individuals—members giving extraordinary service to the club, and outside personalities in the Boston area for signal achievement in photography. As of 1889 there was one honorary member, Boston studio photographer Frank Rowell.Whether Rowell is BCC's first honorary member begs research. [https://archive.org/details/bostonclubbookfo1889unse/page/46 Boston Club Book for 1889], 46. Rowell is listed in business in Boston from 1859; later as Allen & Rowell. Polito & Steele, 23-24, 115.

Among the founders of the Boston Society of Amateur Photographers, as the Boston Camera Club was first known, its first vice president James F. Babcock was a Boston chemistry professor who held several U.S. patents. Wilfred A. French was publisher and editor of journal Photo-Era, and a founding member of a group called the National Historic Picture Guild.Robinson, 126; Polito & Steele & Steele, 63, 167. Prominent in the early club were Emma J. Fitz; Rhode Island photographer, painter, and suffragist Sarah Jane Eddy;Eddy: American Amateur Photographer, Mar. 1899, 121-122.

Fitz: ibid, 122-123. [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000642809 HT.] Eddy, a friend of Susan B. Anthony, painted portraits of her and Frederick Douglass. and Maine photography pioneer Emma D. Sewall. Honorary member George Edward Cabot, first president of the incorporated club, was a partner in the aforementioned George Cabot's Holtzer-Cabot electrical products company, Boston."Holtzer-Cabot Electric Co.," A History of Brookline, Massachu­setts ..., Brookline, 1906, 245-246, [https://archive.org/details/historyofbrookli00dene/page/245/mode/2up IA.] Another early honorary member was late-19th century lecturer Antonie Stölle, a presenter of innovative color slide-illustrated lectures on works of art."Colored Lantern Slides: Fraulein Stolle's Reproduction of Famous Works of Art...," New York Times, Nov. 24, 1895, A20. The Boston Camera Club counted two noted astronomers among its members, Percival Lowell and honorary member William Henry Pickering. Pickering, an astrophotographer who discovered Saturn's moon Phoebe, worked on faster camera shutters for nighttime work and furthered the cause of women in astronomy.Lowell, Pickering, other honorary members: Clark's Boston Blue Book, 1895, 439. Pickering: Robinson, 106-107, 230.

Painter, photographer, Boston art patron, and club member Sarah Choate Sears was named a Member of the Photo-Secession by Alfred Stieglitz. In 1899 she had a solo exhibition at the club that included a portrait of Julia Ward Howe.Photo-Era, Mar. 1899, 260-261, [https://hathitrust.org HT.] Member was the 3rd rank in the Photo-Secession, beneath Fellow and Associate. That year she also showed in the second Boston Arts and Crafts Exhibition. Two collaborators of Alexander Graham Bell were honorary club members. Prof. Charles "Charlie" Robert Cross is believed to have taught the first electrical engineering course in the U.S., at MIT in 1882-1883. Inventor and club vice president Francis Blake, Jr. is believed to have substantially helped the club financially in its early years. The 1877 Blake amplifier enabled Bell's line of telephones to become the predominant brand in the U.S. In 1886, two weeks after the club changed its name to Boston Camera Club, he read an important paper on camera shutters, in which he did pioneering work. Although his work was likely not yet perfected, Elton W. Hall says the paper "established him as an expert in high-speed photography."Hall, 151. By 1890, he had achieved 1/2000-second exposure times, at which time he presented his full results to the club.Francis Blake Jr., "Photographic Shutters," read at the club Apr. 14, 1890. American Amateur Photographer, Feb. 1891, 67-73, [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000642809 HT]; Anthony's Photographic Bulletin, [https://archive.org/details/anthonysphotogra1891newy/page/144/mode/2up Mar. 5, 1891], 144-146; [https://archive.org/details/anthonysphotogra1891newy/page/174/mode/2up Mar. 28, 1891], 174-177; [https://archive.org/details/anthonysphotogra1891newy/page/234 Apr. 25, 1891], 234-236. Hall, 155-156. For a portrait of, and photograph by, Blake see Polito & Steele, facing 497. Fred Holland Day, publisher, esthete, photo­graphy lecturer and mentor, and a leading U.S. artistic photographer of the late 19th and early 20th century, joined the Boston Camera Club in 1889. Besides lecturing at the club, he judged at least one exhibition there, in 1906.Club records on Day are scant. His membership was recommended by club treasurer (1891-1893) Frederick Alcott Pratt, a nephew and trustee of the literary estate of Louisa May Alcott. Day's membership was approved May 6, 1889, but he left the country in June, 1889 (Fairbrother, 21) and seems not to appear in club membership lists thereafter. Still, the club owns a photograph copy of a receipt signed by Pratt, c.1891, for $15 dues from Day. Fanning, 92 quotes the Washington Post, 1896, still linking him with the club. For Day judging at the club see Fanning, 157, 235; mentoring, 158-159. In 1896 a print by amateur Boston photographer Horace A. Latimer, the club's best-remembered early member, was shown at the Smithsonian Institution. Latimer, a yachting and international travel photographer, is the only known Boston Camera Club member published in The Camera Club of New York's Camera Notes.Photos by Latimer: Camera Notes (Stieglitz, ed.), Oct. 1901, 140; Oct. 1902 (Juan C. Abel, ed.), frontispiece, [https://hathitrust.org HT]. Brief technical item, title notwithstanding: [https://archive.org/details/pictorialphotogr02pict/page/12/mode/2up "Mr. Latimer Expresses His Views Somewhat at Length,"] Pictorial Photography in America, 1921, 12-13. In gratitude to his 1931 bequest which revived the club's fortunes, the club's print critiques today are called the Horace A. Latimer Print Competition.

In the first half of the 20th century, three Boston Camera Club members were photographic authors and publishers. Wilfred A. French was mentioned. The prolific Frank Roy Fraprie headed American Photographic Publishing Co. and edited annuals American Amateur Photographer and American Annual of Photography. Honorary member Franklin Ingalls "Pop" Jordan was a photographic author and editor. Another personality, Adolf "Papa" Fassbender, the German-born New York City educator called a "one-man photographic institution," had a career of 72 years training thousands in photography. In 1903 club member Wendell G. Corthell was a co-founder of the Salon Club of America, an artistic photographic group in opposition to Stieglitz's Photo-Secession. Another noted photographer was Lillian Baynes Griffin, who joined the club in 1906.Fraprie: Robinson, 185, 186. Fassbender: Christian A. Peterson [et al.?], The Pictorial Artistry of Adolf Fassbender, International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum[?], 1994. Lillian Griffin: BCC minutes, 1906.

The Boston Camera Club had members who were non-photographic artists of note practicing photography secondarily. They include Gloucester (Massachusetts) Fisherman's Memorial sculptor Leonard Craske (KRASK); prolific Cape Ann, Massachusetts etcher, photographer, and author Samuel V. Chamberlain, who wrote at least 45 photo-illustrated travel books;Robinson, 193-194, 221. painter Emil Albert Grupp‚; and post-Secessionist photographer and watercolorist Eleanor Parke Custis.Jack Wright, "PSA Personalities: Eleanor Parke Custis, FPSA," Photographic Society of America, Journal, Dec. 1945, 549-550; Eleanor Parke Custis, 1897-1983: Retrospective Exhibition, May 24 - June 21, 1986, Cambridge MA: James R. Bakker Antiques, c.1986. Photographic author and publisher Arthur Hammond won top prize at the 1939 New York World's Fair for his photo of the fair's icons, the Trylon and Perisphere. Architect and author, club president L. Whitney "Whit" Standish, helped organize the club's weekly meetings, competitions, educational courses, and newsletter.Arthur Hammond, "Semi-Lunar," silver gelatin print, c.1939, collection BCC. Noted etcher Arthur William Heintzelman was first keeper of prints of Boston Public Library. Chamberlain, Hammond, Standish, and Heintzelman were honorary members.

One of the most well known photographic inventors of the 20th century, National Medal of Science (1973) recipient, MIT professor, and Boston Camera Club honorary member Harold E. "Doc" Edgerton greatly advanced the photographic strobe by achieving exposure times of one-millionth of a second, and had well-known stop-action photographs in Life magazine. Lesser known are his night aerial strobe work for the Allied D-Day invasion in World War II, his co-founding of defense contractor EG&G, and undersea explorations with Jacques Cousteau.EG&G, the 'E' in whose name denotes 'E'dgerton, is now URS Federal Services.

In the second half of the 20th century the club had members with noted photographic achievements. H. Bradford Washburn, Jr. was a noted mountaineer, cartographer, aerial photographer, and longtime first director of the Boston Museum of Science. Photojournalist Arthur Griffin was the best-known photographer of New England scenes in the mid-20th century, and in 1992 opened his Boston-area [https://griffinmuseum.org Griffin Museum of Photography.]Arthur Griffin had cover photos on Life and Time, the first color photos in the Boston Globe, Saturday Evening Post, and Yankee magazine, and published photo books on New England in collaboration with well-known authors. Club president Henry F. Weisenburger, a photographer since the 1940s who joined the club in 1954, was perhaps the longest-active exponent of amateur photography in New England. Leslie A. Campbell, a locally noted promoter of amateur photography in western Massachusetts, in 1959 founded [http://www.masscamnats.org Massachusetts Camera Naturalists], a nature photography group. Lou Jones is a Boston-based commercial, Olympic Games, and jazz photographer, a photojournalist whose books include Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row (1996), and photography educator.Lou Jones, "Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row," [http://www.ncaaa.org Museum of The National Center of Afro-American Artists], 2003. Jones: [http://www.fotojones.com website.] Boston news photographer and camera salesman Gordon A. Hicks is the longest-known club member at 71 years, 1938-2009. All were honorary members.

The exhibition history of the Boston Camera Club is long and somewhat complex. The club has hosted several species of shows. There have been exhibitions by its members, at the club and elsewhere in Boston; joint shows with other camera clubs; exhibitions by outside photographers; and salons-judged competitive exhibitions of photography open to the international public.

About the Boston Society of Amateur Photographers, as the club was first known, Sarah Greenough says its first shows "established many of the patterns and issues that would dominate future exhibitions" of photo clubs and societies in the U.S. In 1883 at MIT, the club held its first exhibition, an unusually large show of some 700 prints. The second exhibition in 1884 was held at the Boston Art Club. The third, in 1885, included male nudes, raising eyebrows in conservative Boston. In 1892 the club exhibited in the long-running triennial exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. In 1893, judges in the club's annual exhibition included American painter Edmund C. Tarbell, and Boston photo studio owner and club honorary member, the aforementioned Frank Rowell. In the club's 7th and 10th member exhibitions in 1895 and 1898, member Emma D. Sewall won the top award. Prominent also in the 1898 show were club members Sarah Jane Eddy and Boston personality Sarah Choate Sears.Greenough, 273; Robinson, 143; Mass. Charitable Mechanic Assn., Report of the 18th Triennial Exhibition, Boston, 1893, 175-181; Kimball, 192; "Boston Camera Club," New York Times, Apr. 14, 1895, 13; Photo-Era, May, 1898, [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008966276 HT.]

In 1898 the Boston Camera Club exhibited 250 prints by Fred Holland Day. About 1904 it exhibited members' work at Day's studio in Boston.Fanning, 85, 138, 223. In 1904 it helped organize, and exhibited in, a photograph exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the St. Louis World's Fair. In 1907 the club showed the work of Wendell G. Corthell. The club's annual show of 1910, which Photo-Era called the club's "best for many years," had prints by Eddy, Frank R. Fraprie, Horace A. Latimer, and Joseph Prince Loud.Photo-Era, July 1910, 48-49, [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008966276 HT.]  For a photo by Corthell and mention by noted critic Sadakichi Hartmann, see American Amateur Photographer, July 1904, 296, 302, 303; photo, 299, [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000642809 HT.]

Concurrently, Joint Exhibitions of Photography were held, sponsored by the Boston Camera Club, [http://phillyphotosociety.com Photographic Society of Philadelphia], and Society of Amateur Photographers of New York, with the venue rotating annually among the three cities. There were seven exhibitions, in 1887-1889 and 1891-1894.Greenough, 273. At first, the three clubs shared in the preparation for each show. In the first Joint Exhibition, held in New York City in 1887, Joseph P. Loud and Horace A. Latimer received the Boston club's only diplomas. In the third exhibition in Philadelphia in 1889, Boston was represented by Wilfred A. French, Latimer, and William Garrison Reed.Loud, club president 1897-1901, was an editor of Photo-Era. In 1884 Reed, club treasurer 1886-1890, was involved in the club's Old Boston project, mentioned shortly. Starting with the fourth exhibition in New York City in 1891, collaborative preparation ended and each club individually ran the exhibition in the city in which it was held. That year Latimer exhibited the most prints from the Boston club. The fifth Joint Exhibition, held at the Boston Art Club in 1892, was a large show of over 600 objects, including 18 prints by Alfred Stieglitz, and 45 prints by the Boston club's Francis Blake Jr., the first public showing of his work.Hall, 161. Among the better-known exhibitors were other BCC members Walter G. Chase, Charles H. Currier, Owen A. Eames, Wilfred A. French, Benjamin Kimball, Horace A. Latimer, and Joseph P. Loud; and from Philadelphia the noted William Herman Rau. Catherine Weed Barnes, "Boston Fifth Annual Joint Exhibition," American Amateur Photographer, June 1892, 259-264, [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000642809 HT.] Of the sixth exhibition in Philadelphia in 1893, Stieglitz called it "without doubt, the finest exhibition of photographs ever held in the United States, and probably was but once excelled in any country."Stieglitz, "The Joint Exhibition at Philadelphia," American Amateur Photographer, v5, 1893, 201, [https://books.google.com/books?id=W13QAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA201 GB.]

The Boston Camera Club has had two series of photographic salons, or competitive exhibitions. The first series was held in the first decade of the 20th century, probably for only a few years. Presently only the second salon, held in 1906, has been identified."Second Salon of the Boston Camera Club," Boston Daily Globe, May 13, 1906, 41. After its revival by Horace Latimer's 1931 bequest, in 1932 the club launched an international competition, the Boston Salon of Photography, held 43 times over the next five decades.Boston Art Club and BCC, Catalogue of the Third (First International) Salon, 1934. Whether title means the salon started in 1932 and had its first overseas entrants in 1934 begs inquiry. In 1953 it was renamed the Boston International Exhibition of Photography, although informally often still called the "Boston salon." In 1953 as well, the Frank R. Fraprie Memorial Medal was created in recognition of Fraprie's role, along with Latimer, in having kept the club alive in the difficult years of 1913-1931. At first the salon was limited to black-and-white prints. Starting in 1954 color slides (transparencies) were admitted. In 1959 a color print section was added. The 43rd and last exhibition was held in 1981, the club's centenary year. In discontinuing the international exhibitions, the club cited lack of manpower. Whereas earlier salons typically received hundreds of entries each, the 1981 exhibition took a man-year of labor to process over 3,200 prints and slides.In the 1940 salon the club received 1,747 prints from 457 entrants, of which 397 prints by 259 persons were accepted—figures the catalog notes were far higher than usual. By contrast, in 1981 3,291 entries were received from 788 entrants, of which 768 entries by 457 persons were accepted. The effort was led by former club president (1976-1979) and honorary member David F. Rodd, and then-president (1980-1982) Daniel D. R. Charbonnet.

Entrants of note in the Boston Salon and International Exhibition over the years include Croatian photographer Toso Dabac, the 1937 medal winner. Competing by the 9th Salon in 1940 were Eleanor Parke Custis, and amateur photographer and future U.S. senator and presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. Noted pictorialist and longtime Baltimore Sun photographer A. Aubrey Bodine, competing by 1944, received the first Fraprie medal in 1953, winning it again in 1955 and 1959. Competing in this era too was 1940s pictorialist Rowena Fruth. There was also longtime competitor Wellington Lee, who competed from 1950 to the last salon in 1981; Hong Kong-American photo prodigy, actor, and director [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0387293 Fan Ho], who first competed in 1954 at age 17; and Mexican cinema director [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0951487 Jos‚ Lorenzo Zakany Almada], who won the Boston Camera Club Medal in 1968. In 2021 the club mounted an outdoor exhibition, showing its members' work on a wall in Boston's Seaport district, in collaboration with community organizations.

From the late 19th to at least the mid-20th century the Boston Camera Club had exhibitions by prominent outside photographers. In 1896 it showed work by Alfred Stieglitz. In 1899 it had shows by major figures Frances Benjamin JohnstonPhoto-Era, Apr. 1899, 292, [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008966276 HT.] and Clarence White, the latter organized and hung by Fred Holland Day.Fanning, 149. In 1900 it showed 150 photos by Gertrude Käsebier. Photo-Era called it "undoubtedly the finest collection of photographs ever seen" in Boston.Photo-Era, Apr. 1900, 128, [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008966276 HT.] The same year, Boston professional photographer Frank W. Birchall showed some photos at the club.Patricia J. Fanning, "Frank W. Birchall: Photographer, Reformer, Farmer," The Journal [https://phsne.org (Photographic Historical Society of New England)], 2024, 14. Also in this era, the club exhibited the work of early English pioneer photographer Henry Peach Robinson, German photographer Rudolph Dührkoop, and lesser-known photographers. In 1907 there was an exhibition by physiologist and educator Frederick Haven Pratt, a friend of Fred Holland Day and Member of the Photo-Secession.Frederick Haven Pratt, of Worcester, Massachusetts, is not to be confused with the club's Frederick Alcott Pratt. See "Pratt, Frederick Haven," [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830903502.html encyclopedia.com;] Fanning, 150. Club activities, 1907: American Amateur Photographer & Camera & Darkroom, Feb. 1907, 142, [https://books.google.com/books?id=CfdIAAAAMAAJ GB.]

From the late 19th to early 20th century U.S. camera clubs mounted exhibitions of each other's work. In 1908 the Boston club showed the work of two organizations in Buffalo, New York, and by the Capitol (Washington, D.C.) and Portland (Maine) Camera Clubs; and in 1909 the Philadelphia Photographic Society.Photo Era, Mar. 1909, 166, [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008966276 HT.] In 1940 it exhibited the work of Edward Weston,American Photography. Jan. 1941, 73. and in 1950 Paul Gittings, Sr. During the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 1950–1951 season it had an exhibition in Boston's Symphony Hall.Boston Symphony Orchestra programs, 1950–1951 season. In 1953 the club exhibited the 1840s work of Scottish pioneers David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson (Hill and Adamson).

In discharging the mandate of its 1887 state charter to promulgate the "knowledge of photography," the Boston Camera Club has sponsored lectures and programs by expert members and guests. Writing in 1893, club member Benjamin Kimball said Boston camera manufacturer Thomas H. Blair gave the club's first known talk, on lenses; the year is unstated.Kimball, 189. The first documented lecture is a paper on the history of photography read to the club on February 5, 1883 by then-president William T. Brigham.Brigham. In 1886 and 1890 club member Francis Blake Jr. made presentations on high-speed photography. In 1895 member Owen A. Eames presented his Eames Animatoscope, an early motion picture device.One source says however: "It is unlikely that projection was attempted." [http://www.victorian-cinema.net/when_chrono Who's Who of Victorian Cinema.] Eames, BCC treasurer 1894-1896. In 1897 Friedrich von Voigtländer, head of the Austrian optical firm of that surname, spoke to the club. In 1904, likely at his studio during the club's aforementioned show there, Fred Holland Day presented a paper for which he was well known, "Is Photography a Fine Art?"Fairbrother, 102 says the title and theme date to at least 1897, in an essay by a French critic. Many others lectured at the club in its early years.See e.g. Boston Daily Globe, Feb. 17, 1890, 6; Nov. 11, 1890, 4; Dec. 7, 1906, 2.

About 1888 William Garrison Reed and other Boston Camera Club members undertook the Old Boston project, a photo survey of sites around Boston whose photographs, owned by the Boston Public Library, were rediscovered in 2007.Photos, [https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/sets/72157607471461913/comments Old Boston project]; Marsha Peters, Bernard Mergen, "Doing the Rest: The Uses of Photographs in American Studies," American Quarterly, 1977, 281. During the 1890s members of the club made lantern slides, the forerunner of 20th-century color slides; and pursued stereo, or 3-D, photography.As mentioned, the club owned a stereopticon projector for showing lantern slides. Stereopticon is a confusing term, with two senses: 1. A projector with two lenses, capable of projecting stereo lantern slides. More often, its name notwithstanding, it was used in single-image projection to enable dissolve, the effect of the previous image fading as the next comes in. 2. The popular term for a hand-held stereoscope, or viewer for 3-D stereo cards. In the 1940s the club brought entertainment and instruction to disabled World War II veterans at a Boston-area Army hospital.Hillyer. In the 1950s and 1960s the club had a movie group and owned a movie projector. In the 1970s and 1980s the club had presentations by Marie Cosindas and Minor White. In the 1990s it sponsored day-long courses by Lou Jones, Frans Lanting, John Sexton, and others. Boston-area professionals including staff photographers of the Boston Globe and Boston Herald, and instructors in Boston's New England School of Photography and other institutions, have been club presenters and competition judges. Since the latter 1990s the Boston Camera Club has regularly held lectures and field trips in digital photography.

As it has for most of its existence, the Boston Camera Club meets weekly. Meetings are held weekly, except in summer, at its Old South Church in Boston headquarters. Meetings are open and free to the public. Activities range from beginner to advanced and comprise education, print competitions and critique, live-model formal portrait sessions, field trips, and inter-club competitions. Outside speakers and competition judges are regularly invited. The club communicates through its website and newsletter, The Reflector, launched in 1938 and published electronically.Issues of the club's newsletter are online back to 1954 on the club's [http://www.bostoncameraclub.org website]. The Boston Camera Club is a member of [http://www.neccc.org New England Camera Club Council] and Photographic Society of America.

Image:1893 old dark room BostonCameraClub.png|Darkroom

Image:1893 new dark room BostonCameraClub.png|Darkroom stalls

Image:1893 making lantern slides BostonCameraClub.png|Making lantern slides

Image:1893 studio BostonCameraClub.png|Studio, with skylight

All images, 50 Bromfield Street, Boston, 1893.Kimball, 1893.

For authors named by surname only, see sources, below. BCC denotes Boston Camera Club. GB, HT, IA denote [https://books.google.com Google Books], [https://hathitrust.org HathiTrust], [https://archive.org Internet Archive].

{{reflist}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Chronologically:}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Boston Camera Club records. 10 vols., 1881-1971. Holder: Boston Athenaeum, Boston MA. [http://catalog.bostonathenaeum.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?&bibId=442318 Listing.]}}

{{Hanging indent |text=[https://archive.org/details/bostonclubbookfo00bost/page/62 Boston Club Book for 1888, The.] Boston: Edwin F. Clark, 62; [https://archive.org/details/bostonclubbookfo1889unse/page/44 1889], 45-46. First known published lists of club members. Curiosities, 1889: Member George Snell: the noted Boston architect? John H. Thurston omitted; error?}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Clark's Boston Blue Book. 1878-1937. BCC listings in 1895-1903; perhaps more.}}

{{Hanging indent |text="New Dark Room for Boston Camera Club." Boston Daily Globe, Oct. 7, 1890, 4.}}

{{Hanging indent |text="Caught from the Sun: Marvellous Work in Photography by the Members of Boston Camera Club at Their Exhibition." Boston Daily Globe, Jan. 7, 1892, 10.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Kimball, Benjamin. "Boston Camera Club, The." New England Magazine, Apr. 1893, 185-205. [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006786569 HT.]}}

{{Hanging indent |text="Studies in Classic Poses: Strong Exhibition of Photos Made at Boston Camera Club... ." Boston Daily Globe, Mar. 9, 1898, 7.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Year Book, The. 1900. Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art. Microfilm reel 4858, frames 517-525. Officers, members, club rules, diagram of club rooms.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Swift, W. B. "New England Camera Clubs." Photographic Times. Feb. 1901, 60-61. [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000675023 HT.]}}

{{Hanging indent |text="Friends Played Joke: Got at Chief Petty Officer Jackson's Slides and Created Fun for Boston Camera Club." Boston Daily Globe, Apr. 9, 1909, 6.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=French, Wilfred A. "Pictorial Attractions of Boston, The." Photo-Era, Aug. 1910, 64-71, 94-95, [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008966276 HT.]}}

{{Hanging indent |text=----. "Exposure Guides and Experience." Photo-Era, May 1920, 232-233, 262. [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008966276 HT.]  Anecdote about an encounter in downtown Boston on a club outing in the 1880s with prominent Boston photographer James Wallace Black.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Standish, L. Whitney. "Those Improper Bostonians." American Photography, Dec. 1949, pg. nos. beg inquiry. History of BCC in 1930's and 1940's.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Hillyer, Whit. "Six Prints from Boston: Progressive Schedules Crowded with Events at the Back Bay Clubhouse Add to the Impressive Record of Club's 65-Year History." Popular Photography, Mar. 1946, 40-41, 154. Includes photos by club members Harold Elliot, Frank R. Fraprie, Arthur Hammond, H. B. Hills, Franklin I. Jordan, and Barbara Standish.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Cleveland, Elizabeth F.; Daniel D. R. Charbonnet. "Boston Camera Club Centennial." ("Honoring Camera Clubs," n.14.) Photographic Society of American Journal (PSA Journal), Oct. 1981, 32.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Blake, Francis}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    Davis, Keith F. "The High-Speed Photographs of Francis Blake." Mass. Historical Review, v2, 2000, 1-26.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    Hall, Elton W. Francis Blake: An Inventor's Life, 1850-1913. Mass. Historical Society, 2003, chap. 9, 142-166.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    Massachusetts Historical Society. Francis Blake papers, v42.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Day, Fred Holland}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    Crump, James. F. Holland Day: Suffering the Ideal. Santa Fe, NM, 1995.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    Fairbrother, Trevor. Making a Presence: F. Holland Day in Artistic Photography. Andover MA: Addison Gallery of American Art, 2012.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    Fanning, Patricia J. Through an Uncommon Lens: The Life & Photography of F. Holland Day. Univ. Mass., 2008.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    Jussim, Estelle. Slave to Beauty: The Eccentric Life and Controversial Career of F. Holland Day, Photographer, Publisher, Aesthete. Boston, 1981.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Edgerton, Harold E.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    Bruce, Roger R., ed. Seeing the Unseen: Dr. Harold E. Edgerton and the Wonders of Strobe Alley. Exhib. catalog. Geo. Eastman House; MIT. 1994.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    [http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Harold_E._Edgerton Engineering and Technology History Wiki.]}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Latimer, Horace A.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    Boston Globe. "Horace A. Latimer, A Man of Mystery: Recluse Millionaire Was Expert Photographer." Sep. 19, 1931, 16. Obituary.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Sewall, Emma D.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    Sewall, Abbie. Message through Time: The Photographs of Emma D. Sewall, 1836-1919. Gardiner ME, 1989.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Washburn, H. Bradford Jr.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    New York Times. "Copters and Lasers Map Grand Canyon." Jul. 19, 1972.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    Rowan, Roy. "On a Bungled Flight to Nowhere, They Sought a Chinese Mountain High: When a Ballpoint Pen Czar and a Hotshot Pilot Went Looking for the World's Tallest Peak, All They Found Was Trouble." Smithsonian, Mar. 1998.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=- Wroth, Katharine. "High Art: The Astonishing Life & Work of Brad Washburn." Appalachian Mountain Club Outdoors (AMC Outdoors). Mar. 2004, 26-33.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Other}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    Jordan, Franklin I. "Pop Sez -." American Photography, Mar. 1950, 28.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=-    Peterson, Christian. Pictorial Photography at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The institute, 2012.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Brigham, William T. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.fl2np4&seq=5 "The Dawn of Photography: A Paper Read at the Annual Meeting of the Boston Society of Amateur Photographers, February 5, 1883."] Boston, 1883, HT.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Greenough, Sarah. "The Economic Incentives, Social Inducements, and Aesthetic Issues of American Pictorial Photography, 1888–1902." In: Martha A. Sandweiss, ed. Photography in 19th-Century America, Amon Carter Museum (Ft. Worth, TX), Abrams, 1991.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Polito, Ronald, ed. (Chris Steele & Polito, compilers). [https://openarchives.umb.edu/digital/collection/p15774coll12/id/110/rec/1 A Directory of Massachusetts Photographers, 1839-1900,] Camden, Maine: 1993.}}

{{Hanging indent |text=Robinson, William F. A Certain Slant of Light: The First 100 Years of New England Photography, New York Graphic Society, 1980.}}

{{Commons category|Boston Camera Club}}

• [http://www.bostoncameraclub.org Boston Camera Club website]

• Photography
• History of photography
• History of Boston

Cecil B. Atwater, 1886-1981. James F. Babcock, 1844-1897. Frank W. Birchall, 1857-1916. Francis Blake Jr., 1850-1913. Aldine Aubrey Bodine, 1906-1970. Roydon Burke, 1901-1993. George Edward Cabot, 1861-1946. Leslie A. Campbell, 1925-2020. Samuel Vance Chamberlain, 1895-1975. Daniel D. R. Charbonnet, 1943-2020. Wendell G(urney?) Corthell, 1844?-1915. Marie Cosindas, 1923-2017. Leonard Craske, 1882-1950. Charles Robert Cross, 1848-1921. Charles Henry Currier, 1851-1938. Eleanor Parke Custis, 1897-1983. Fred (his birth name) Holland Day, 1864-1933. John W. Doscher, d. after 1971. Rudolph Dührkoop, 1848-1918. Sarah Jane Eddy, 1851-1945. Harold Eugene Edgerton, 1903-1990. Adolf Fassbender, 1884-1980. Frank Roy Fraprie, 1874-1951. Wilfred A. French, 1855-1928. Rowena Fruth, 1896-1983. Barry Goldwater, 1909-1998. Arthur Leo Griffin, 1903-2001. Lillian Baynes Griffin, 1871-1916. Emil Albert Grupp‚, 1896-1978. Arthur Hammond, 1880-1962. Arthur William Heintzelman, 1891-1965. Gordon Adna Hicks, 1909-2009. Fan Ho, 1937-2016. Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1864-1952. Lou Jones, 1945-. Franklin Ingalls Jordan, 1876-1956. Gertrude Käsebier, 1852-1934. Horace A(lbert?) Latimer, 1860-1931. Percival Lowell, 1855-1916. Charles B. Phelps Jr., 1891-1949. William Henry Pickering, 1858-1938. Frederick Alcott Pratt, 1863-1910. Frederick Haven Pratt, 1873-1958. Henry Peach Robinson, 1830-1901. David F. Rodd, 1948-2017. Frank Rowell, 1832-1900. Sarah Carlisle Choate Sears, 1858-1935. Emma D. Sewall, 1836-1919. L. Whitney Standish, 1919-?. Alfred Stieglitz, 1864-1946. Allen G. Stimson, ?-1996. John H. Vondell, ?-c.1967. Henry Bradford Washburn Jr., 1910-2007. Edward Weston, 1886-1958. Henry F. Weisenburger, 1924-2021. Clarence White, 1871-1925. Edmund A. Woodle, 1918-2007.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Boston Camera Club}}

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