2010 NEH Seminar for School Teachers

Photographing Historical Sites for the Interpretations of the Industrial Revolution Seminar in Britain, with a selection of photographs

Paul Mueller

Madison High School

Madison, NJ

Interpretations of the Industrial Revolution in Britain

I have had the opportunity to attend several NEH Landmark Institutes over the past twelve years and in 2010 I participated in a five week NEH Summer Seminar for School Teachers on Interpretations of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. The latter was held in London and Nottingham, England. I have brought to these seminars my love of photography and have had the opportunity to photograph historic sites and objects as well as beautiful countryside. I have also photographed seminar participants at work and leisure.

The scope of the seminar on the industrial revolution and the great number of places we visited and objects we examined proved to be quite a challenge both for getting the best technical photographs, using the latest digital cameras and computer darkroom programs, and to tell a story that teachers could use in their classroom to maximize student visual learning on the topic of the world’s first Industrial Revolution. I would be remiss if I did not explain some of the difficulties I encountered taking these photographs, so that teachers can better prepare themselves when they visit historical sites and take their own images.

The number one problem of taking pictures in sheds, barns, museums, galleries and

buildings is getting the correct light exposure. Many places are dark and shadow

enveloped and whatever light sources there is tends to be weak and of poor quality. I did a lot of spot metering on the subject indoors which led me to use high ISO’s most of the time. Many times I used 800, 1000, 1250, and even 1600 ISO ratings. Most good point and shoot cameras today allow you to change the ISO easily. I did not use the camera’s built in flash much at all since it tends to produce harsh pictures and often it over-exposes the room in spots or flares out objects in the photograph. A professional speed light flash added to an SLR camera is the ideal solution. If this is not possible, use your built in flash very sparingly and take multiple photos using different ISO’s and check the LED in the back of the camera. Another major problem was focus sharpness. There is nothing worse than taking a nice photograph of a tool, wagon, or piece of machinery and having it turn out fuzzy and a bit out of focus. I often used a portable tripod or held the camera very still and shot at the highest and sharpest aperture setting I could use. Indoors F-8 or F-11 works best but is hard to do in weak lighting. Placing the camera on a stationary object or bracing oneself against an object or person might help a bit in low light conditions.

Scenic outdoor shots are of course a great deal easier to take successfully, but even outdoors in good light I still found some difficulties. The number one problem is people in the scene. This absolutely ruins any great shot of historical sites or scenery. Patience is the key here. I often had to wait ten or fifteen minutes for people to get out of the picture. Asking them very politely to move or stop a second usually works very well. Another difficulty is lighting. You always want to keep the sun either behind you or over your shoulder. A polarizing filter or warming filter is a must when the sun is shinning very brightly on your scene.

Enough said about some of this technical advise. I will now discuss some of the photos so that you can have a better understanding of them and perhaps use them more successfully in the classroom.

Photo number 1 shows our speaker______standing in front of the most famous individual during EnglandÕs industrialization, namely Richard Arkwright.

The painting is by Joseph Wright and the master hangs in the art museum in Manchester. The second photo is am HDR shot of the water source for the Cromford Mill. The fourth photo is of one of the main factory buildings near the water source. This is also HDR. The fifth photo in order is the toilet facility at Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet in Sheffield where they made steel. Needless to say the students can react quite well to this image and it will lead to a lively discussion of toilet facilities during this time. The seventh photo shows a water

wheel in use around 1800 and the teacher can explain the use of water power and then future replacement power sources. The ninth photo shows a workman grinding and piece of steel to a particular shape using a piece of wood to push the metal towards the grinder. Picture 13 shows a woman working a spinning jenny and the next frame (14) provides students with historical progression on weaving

and spinning. It is important to take photos of signs and descriptions to help identify the objects and time frame. The next set of photos 15 thru 19 all show how cotton was formed and then spun at the Quarry Bank Mill. Note that each photo was shot at ISO 1000 or higher without the use of a flash. This gave them a more natural look. Photo order number 19 clearly shows how the whole cotton textile manufacturing process worked. This can be enlarged and shown on a LCD player on a large whiteboard screen. The picture of the Mill WorkersÕ World clearly points clothing style in the 1840Õn after the invention of photography.

Students can be asked to comment on their appearance and work day. The

photo of the display of wages over time is extremely helpful to students to

see the different wages and different jobs and tasks. The workforce slide shows a map of EnglandÕs mill sites around the turn of the 18th Century.

I find the photos of the living quarters of young boys at the Quarry Mill Site to be particularly visually instructive. The photo of the teacher using the small hand-held sandbox lets students see how young boys learned how to write without the use of paper. The teacher wiping off some writing on the slate tablet

demonstrates learning for young boys who attended classes after working 10 to 12 hours every day. The next photo shows an individual slate filled in by one of our NEH participants, Tesh. One of my favorite photographs is of the teacher demonstrating a form of punishment where bad boys had to hold objects far from their bodies until their arms hurt. The next two photographs show the sleeping area for the boys. Students might be asked: Ò What is missing or what is wrong with these two photos?Ó The answer is they do not demonstrate the extend of crowding or really filthy conditions of the early and mid-1800Õs at Quarry Mill.

Another favorite photo is the teacher spooning out some god-awful concoction

called medicine. IÕm sure this could lead to a very involved discussion of some medicines used in the 1830Õs and 1840Õs in both England and the United States.

One of my favorite sites we visited during the five week seminar on the English Industrial Revolution was the trip to Haddon Hall, an old Tudor Hall with

interesting rooms and strong photographing challenges. Photo number 44 of the long hallway in Haddon Hall was difficult to photograph due to the strong light coming into the four windows and the long length of the hallway. I used a 2 stop neutral density filter to darken the excess light coming in and give an even tone throughout the foreground, middle and background of this photo. In photoshop I chose to make this a little sepia in tone to give the look an older and more wood tone appearance. I think it really works. I took at least ten separate photos at different f-stops and ISOÕs to finally get to most realistic look. The two photos of the small chapel room # 49 & 50, presented some of the same challenges as the hallway shot. I shot one view vertically and one horizontally, and together they really give you a sense of the room and the texture of the wood and walls.

Another favorite site was of course Chatsworth. We were blessed with beautiful weather and almost ideal photo conditions, except for a bit of excessive sunlight at times, which I addressed earlier in this commentary. Photo 52 is a very accurate photo of the main building and the surrounding grounds. I could not take the entire building due to people always standing on the right side of the building.

I followed the classic rule of thirds: 1/3 sky and clouds, 1/3 building, and 1/3 foreground and grass. The next photo, # 53 is of the grounds in front of the buildingÕs main entrance. I often like to shoot two photos of a building and its landscape and display them for the public to get a better idea of the different parts that make up the whole of an historic castle or estate, kind of a Gestalt approach.

I particularly like photos of the two statues in photos number 57 & 58. They are uniquely different: 57 shows depth and two statues, as well as the grounds, and 58 zeros in on one particular statue with only a tree as the backdrop.

I will wrap up with a few comments about photos 66-69, and perhaps a few more. The subject is of course the Iron Bridge, which was built in the late 1700Õs and is Professor KootÕs favorite bridge. Photo # 66 was shot to show the bridge in the context of the surrounding greenery with just a little of the river showing. Keep in mind the weather was cloudy and misty. So the sky was bad and the way you get around a cloudy sky is to shoot low and exclude the sky or have as little of it in the photograph as possible. Photo # 67 is shot from a higher point to include the house just under the bridge for context and interest. Photo # 68 was shot for Professor Koot, since he lights up when he sees this bridge or even talks about it. Photo # 69 is my last attempt to bring more color and artistic style in what was a drab atmosphere weather wise and a difficult shoot, because it started to rain at this moment. I think photos # 70 and 71 are particularly useful to teachers using photos to teach about the English Industrial Revolution. Photo 70 is a description of the famous Bedlam Furnaces and the students can easily read this and get plenty of information from it. Then you show them the photo of the original site of the remains of the Bedlam Furnace and students learn an important lesson. This would be an opportune time to show students the painting ÒCoalbrookdale by Night 1801Ó by the painter Philip James de Loutherbourg and have them discuss what they see and feel.