Boston Camera Club

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 extant camera club founded primarily by amateurs, and the second-oldest extant camera club, in the U.S.[1] 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. The seven men were joined on November 18, 1881 by James F. Babcock, William T. Brigham, Wilfred A. French, William A. Hovey and others, at which time permanent officers were elected—Brigham president, Babcock vice president, and French secretary and treasurer. Initially the club met in the offices of the Boston Sunday Budget. Later it met at what is now called Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located at the time in Boston.[2]

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 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as the state styles itself, under the new name, 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."[3] The first president (1886–1890) of the incorporated club was electric car manufacturer George Edward Cabot. As of 1888 the club had 64 members.[4] By the end of the 19th century it was typically closer to 100. Dues were expensive—$20 annually.

In 1886 the Boston Camera Club rented permanent 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.[5] It was also conveniently located near downtown photo-supply stores.[6] The club had eight rooms:

"Boston Types — Miss H" by Walter G. Chase, Boston Camera Club, circa 1896. Exhibited in the 1896 Washington Salon and Art Photographic Exhibition, Washington DC.

There is a well-selected library ...; a large exhibition gallery ...; a studio ... fitted with screens, cameras, and two of the finest Dallmeyer portrait lenses, also a fine double stereopticon; an enlarging room, with apparatus for making bromide enlargements, enlarged negatives and lantern slides by the use of an electric arc light; dark rooms....[7]

Apparently the building had an elevator. At 50 Bromfield, for some decades the club held public exhibitions of work by its members and guest photographers.

In 1899 Boston-based journal Photo-Era, launched in 1898, said it had been "elected" the official organ of the Boston Camera Club and would carry its announcements.[8] The club's Joseph Prince Loud was on the journal's first board. From 1907 to 1920 the editor was the club's first permanent secretary and treasurer, photo supplier Wilfred A. French, son of Boston daguerreotypist Benjamin French. French continued as editor until at least 1924.

For reasons begging research, by 1908 the Boston Camera Club was facing difficulties,[9] although it remained active, holding member exhibitions until at least 1912. Still, minutes of 1913 by longtime secretary Thurston show membership in the club had declined and its future was under discussion. Business meetings continued, but apparently far fewer regular meetings were held. The club was kept alive by Frank Roy Fraprie (FRAYP-ree), Phineas Hubbard (president 1908–1913, possibly longer), Horace A. Latimer, and the aging Thurston. The club, it is believed in 1924, left its longstanding 50 Bromfield Street location, and for some years it 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), extant from 1908 to at least the 1920s, which in 1920 had 82 members;[10] Boston Photo-Clan, formed circa early 1912 and apparently defunct by about 1921, dominated by Boston photographer John H. Garo at whose studio it met and exhibited, and of which Fraprie was a member as well;[11] and The Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston.

In 1931 a bequest by longtime club member Horace A. Latimer of Boston, an independently wealthy amateur photographer of some renown, for reasons not yet fully understood, dramatically reinvigorated the Boston Camera Club.[12] Membership rebounded, and with the return of servicemen after World War II it reached 286 in 1946. With the funds the club would purchase new headquarters. Temporarily it moved to 330 Newbury Street, in the Back Bay section of Boston.

In 1934, with part of Horace Latimer's bequest the Boston Camera Club purchased and moved into another building, at nearby 351A Newbury Street, Back Bay. The club occupied three floors. There were a large and small exhibition gallery, darkroom, library, and kitchen. Public exhibitions of photography resumed. For tax purposes, in 1946 the club decided to sell no. 351A and remain in the building as a lessee.[13] Growth continued apace, reaching 547 in 1959—492 regular, 51 associate or corresponding,[14] and 4 honorary members—a size maintained for perhaps two decades. Besides post-war prosperity, the growth is attributable to introduction of 35mm film by Kodak in the 1930s, and single lens reflex (SLR) 35mm cameras by Nikon, Pentax and others in the 1960s. In this era, enthusiasts often sought instruction in camera use by joining a camera club.

Because of the owner's pending sale of the building, in 1980 the Boston Camera Club had to vacate 351A Newbury Street. The club left Boston, relocating to the adjacent town of Brookline, Mass., its location today. In 1997 it had to relocate again, moving across town to its present headquarters in Brookline.

Meanwhile, for the second time in its history, in the 1980s and 1990s membership declined dramatically. The trend is attributed to a number of factors—camera automation, for example autofocus and programmed exposure which reduced the need for user training; the advent of consumer video; and changing social mores. Starting in 2006, membership rebounded to about 150 today, due in large part to the club's emphasis on digital photography, increased promotion of the club, and its website.[15]

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 & societies in the U.S."[16] About 1883 it held its first exhibition at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 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.[17] In 1892 the club exhibited in the long-running triennial exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association.[18] In 1893, judges in the club's annual exhibition included American painter Edmund C. Tarbell, and Boston photo studio owner and club honorary member Frank Rowell.[19] In the club's seventh and tenth member exhibitions in 1895 and 1898, member Emma D. Sewall won the top award.[20] Prominent also in the 1898 show were club members Sarah Jane Eddy and Boston personality Sarah Choate Sears.[21]

In 1900 the Boston Camera Club held an exhibition by noted Boston photographer and member Fred Holland Day. In 1904 it exhibited its members' work at Day's studio in Boston.[22] The same year the club helped organize, and exhibited in, a photograph exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the St. Louis World's Fair. The club's annual show of 1910, which photographic journal Photo-Era called the club's "best for many years," had prints by Eddy, Frank R. Fraprie, Horace A. Latimer, and Joseph Prince Loud.[23]

Concurrently, Joint Exhibitions of Photography were held, sponsored by the Boston Camera Club, 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.[24] 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; Horace Latimer, the club's only award winner; and William Garrison Reed.[25] 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, future founder of the Photo-Secession, and 45 prints by Boston Camera Club member, Bell telephone figure, and high-speed photography pioneer Francis Blake, Jr., the first public showing of his work.[26] Of the sixth exhibition in Philadelphia in 1893, Stieglitz said, "It was, without doubt, the finest exhibition of photographs ever held in the United States, and probably was but once excelled in any country."[27]

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.[28]

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.[29] In 1953 it was renamed the Boston International Exhibition of Photography, although informally it was 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 1913–1930.

At first the salon was limited to black-and-white prints. Starting in the 1954 International Exhibition, color slides (transparencies) were admitted as well. 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 required a man-year of labor to process over 3,200 prints and slides.[30]

Entrants of note in the Boston Salon and International Exhibition over the years included Croatian photographer Tošo Dabac, the 1937 medal winner. Competing by the 9th Salon in 1940 were Eleanor Parke Custis; and lifelong amateur photographer, and future U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. Noted pictorialist and longtime Baltimore Sun photographer A. Aubrey Bodine, who was competing by 1944, received the first Fraprie medal in 1953, winning it again in 1955 and 1959. Competing in this era as well 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 Fan Ho who first competed in 1954 at age 17; and Mexican cinema director José Lorenzo Zakany Almada, who won the Boston Camera Club Medal in 1968.[31]

Exhibition judges over the years include club members Cecil B. Atwater; Leonard Craske; Custis (1943–1957); John W. Doscher; Adolf Fassbender; Franklin I. Jordan; L. Whitney Standish; John H. Vondell; and Henry F. Weisenburger. Guest judges include Bodine in 1964, and etcher Arthur William Heintzelman, first keeper of prints of Boston Public Library.[32]

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 Frances Benjamin Johnston;[33] and in 1899 Clarence White, a show organized and hung by Fred Holland Day.[34] In 1900 it exhibited 150 photographs by Gertrude Käsebier, which Photo-Era called "undoubtedly the finest collection of photographs ever seen" in Boston.[35] Also in this era, the club exhibited the work of English pioneer photographer Henry Peach Robinson, and by Rudolph Dührkoop. There were other exhibitions by lesser-known photographers.[36]

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries 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.

In 1940 the Boston Camera Club exhibited the work of Edward Weston.[37] In 1950 it showed work by Paul Gittings, Sr. In 1953 it exhibited the 1840s work of Scottish pioneers David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson (Hill and Adamson).

After the Boston Camera Club's revival in 1931, it moved temporarily to 330 Newbury Street, Boston. It is unknown whether this space had an exhibition room. The club's permanent facility at 351A Newbury Street, purchased in 1934, had a large gallery. Public exhibitions of outsiders' work in this period was mentioned; member shows have not been identified. Since 1980 when the club left no. 351A, it has had no gallery space, all member shows being held at other venues in the Boston area. The club exhibited at Boston City Hall in 1993; Griffin Museum of Photography, 1997; Boston's Hynes Convention Center, 2004; art and photo studios;[38] and camera stores in the Boston area.

About 1888 members of the Boston Camera Club, including William Garrison Reed, undertook the Old Boston project, a "survey of buildings and farms for local archives," whose photographs, owned by the Boston Public Library, were rediscovered in 2007.[41]

During the 1890s members of the club pursued stereo, or 3–D, photography. Lantern slides, the forerunner of 20th-century color slides, were popular as well. In the 1940s the club offered "entertainment and instruction of disabled veterans of World War II ... sponsor[ing] a camera club at one of the large Army convalescent hospitals nearby."[42] In the 1950s and 1960s the club had a movie group and owned a movie projector.

Among the founders of the Boston Society of Amateur Photographers, as the Boston Camera Club was known until 1886, some were noted locally, even nationally. First permanent vice president of the club James F. Babcock was a well-known Boston chemist and science lecturer who held several U.S. patents. Wilfred A. French, aforementioned editor and publisher of Photo-Era, was a founding member of a group called the National Historic Picture Guild.[44] About another aforementioned early vice president, one of the few professionals in the club, William F. Robinson claims: "Of all New England's commercial photographers, the most gifted was Charles H. Currier."[45]

Prominent as well in the early club were Emma J. Fitz, painter Sarah Jane Eddy,[46] and Maine photography pioneer Emma D. Sewall.[47] Honorary member George Edward Cabot, first president of the club on its incorporation in 1887, was a partner in the Holtzer–Cabot electric car company, Boston. Another early honorary member was late-19th century traveling lecturer Antonie Stölle, who presented innovative color slide-illustrated lectures on works of art.[48]

The Boston Camera Club counted two astronomers among its members, Percival Lowell and honorary member William Henry Pickering, an astrophotographer who discovered Saturn's moon Phoebe, worked on faster shutters for nighttime work, and furthered the cause of women in astronomy.[49]

Painter, photographer, wealthy Boston patron and club member Sarah Choate Sears, heavily connected in the art world, 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.[50] The same year she showed in the second Boston Arts and Crafts Exhibition.

Two collaborators of Alexander Graham Bell were honorary members of the Boston Camera Club. Prof. Charles "Charlie" Robert Cross is believed to have taught the first electrical engineering course in the U.S., at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1882–1883. Inventor and club vice president Francis Blake, Jr. is believed to have substantially helped the club financially in its early years. Blake's 1877 microphone was a key advance enabling Bell's to become the predominant telephone 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 claims the paper "established him as an expert in high-speed photography.".[51] By 1890 he had achieved 1/2000-second exposure times, at which time he presented the results of his work to the club.[52]

In 1896 a print by wealthy amateur Boston photographer Horace A. Latimer, today the club's best-remembered early member, was shown in an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution. Latimer, who specialized in yachting photography and international travel photography, is the only known Boston Camera Club member published in Camera Notes, an organ of The Camera Club of New York, of which he was a member as well.[53] In gratitude to his 1931 bequest which revived the fortunes of the Boston Camera Club, the club's print critiques today are called the Horace A. Latimer Print Competitions.

In 1906 well-known Boston photographer, publisher, esthete, and Boston Camera Club member Fred Holland Day judged at least one exhibition at the club.[54]

In the first half of the 20th century three club members were well-known photographic authors and publishers. Wilfred A. French was mentioned. The prolific Frank Roy Fraprie was head of American Photographic Publishing Co. and editor of 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. Another noted photographer was Lillian Baynes Griffin, an associate, or corresponding, member of the club, who joined in 1906.[55]

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, an honorary member who wrote at least 45 photo-illustrated travel books;[56] painter Emil Albert Gruppé; and post-Secessionist photographer and watercolorist Eleanor Parke Custis.[57]

Amateur photographer, photographic author and publisher, and honorary club member Arthur Hammond won top prize from organizers of the 1939 New York World's Fair for his photo of the fair's icons, the Trylon and Perisphere. Architect, amateur photographer and author L. Whitney "Whit" Standish, president of the club in 1939–1942, was an influential honorary member who helped organize its weekly meetings, competitions, educational courses, and newsletter.[58]

One of the most well-known figures in 20th-century photography, National Medal of Science (1973) recipient, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, and Boston Camera Club honorary member Harold Eugene "Doc" Edgerton greatly advanced the photographic strobe by achieving exposure times of one-millionth of a second, and took the well-known Life magazine photographs of a bullet penetrating an apple, and a crown of milk droplets. 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 his undersea explorations with Jacques Cousteau.[59]

At least five persons named honorary club members in the 1970s–2000s had achievements of note. Henry Bradford Washburn, Jr. was a mountaineer, cartographer, aerial photographer, and longtime first director of the Boston Museum of Science.[60] Photojournalist Arthur Leo Griffin was the best-known photographer of New England scenes in the mid-20th century.[61] Aeronautical engineer Henry F. Weisenburger, club president in 1965–1967, who has practiced photography since the 1940s and joined the club in 1954, is arguably the longest-active living exponent of amateur photography in New England. In 1959 Leslie A. Campbell was founder of 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.[62]

Francis Blake, Jr. (1881), William Henry Pickering (1883), Percival Lowell (1892), Harold Eugene Edgerton (1956), and Arthur William Heintzelman (1958) were Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[63]

Frank R. Fraprie and Allen G. Stimson were Honorary Fellows of the Photographic Society of America. Cecil B. Atwater, Eleanor Parke Custis, John W. Doscher, Adolf Fassbender, Rowena Fruth, Barbara Green, Arthur Hammond, Franklin I. Jordan, Charles B. Phelps, Jr., L. Whitney Standish, John H. Vondell and Edmund A. Woodle were Fellows, as is Richard Yee. Many other club members were Associates.

Fraprie was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. Atwater, Doscher, Fassbender, Green, Hammond, and Jordan were Fellows, and Yee is a Fellow. Fred Holland Day was a member of British photographic society The Linked Ring.

Roydon (Roy) Burke was, and Henry F. Weisenburger is, a Master Member of the New England Camera Club Council.

Professional photographers Arthur Griffin was, and Lou Jones is, a member of the American Society of Media Photographers (Griffin charter member, Jones board of directors).

The U.S. Library of Congress has major holdings of the work of at least two Boston Camera Club members. Photographs of Middle Class Life in Boston, 1890s–1910s is a collection of 523 photographs by Charles Henry Currier.[64] The Library also holds the largest number of photographs of Fred Holland Day.[65]

There are substantial institutional holdings of the photographs of Francis Blake, Jr.; Eleanor Parke Custis; Harold E. Edgerton; Adolf Fassbender; Arthur Griffin by his Boston-area Griffin Museum of Photography; Emil Albert Gruppé; Sarah Choate Sears by Harvard University; L. Whitney Standish; H. Bradford Washburn; Henry F. Weisenburger by the University of Florida, Gainesville; and others.[66]

• BCC. Records. 10 vols., 1881–1971. Held by Boston Athenaeum, Boston MA.

• BCC. Constitution, By-Laws and Rules. 1896.
• BCC. Notice of First Meeting. Feb. 3, 1887.
• BCC. Reflector, The. Newsletter. First issue Feb. 1938. Earliest issues held by Boston Athenaeum. Others: BCC collection, incomplete.
• BCC. Year Book, The. 1900. (Officers, members, club rules, diagram of club rooms.) Smithsonian Institution Archives of Amer. Art. Microfilm reel 4858, frames 517–525.
• Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Religious, etc. Corporations / Certificate of Organization under Mass. Public Statutes, ch.115, sec.4, etc. Feb. 25, 1887.

Selection:

• Third Annual Joint Exhibition of Photographs. Soc. of Amateur Photographers of N.Y., Photographic Society of Philadelphia, BCC. 1889.
• BCC. Catalogue: Photographs: Boston Camera-Club, by the Courtesy of the Boston Art Club at Their Galleries. c.1892. (5th Joint Exhibition.) Harvard University.
• Catalogue of Exhibits at the 5th Annual Joint Exhibition...at the BCC, 1892.
• 6th Annual Exhibition. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. 1893.
• BCC. Catalogue of the 7th Annual Competitive Exhibition...of BCC...1895. Catalog at Boston Athenaeum.
• BCC. Exhibition catalog, booklet, 1900.
• Boston Art Club, BCC. Catalogue of the Third (First Internatinoal) Salon. 1934.
• BCC. Boston Salon of Photography (from 1953 Boston International Exhibition of Photography). Various catalogs, 9th Salon, 1940 thru 43rd & last Exhibition, 1981, inclusive; not complete. Collection BCC.

• Clark's Boston Blue Book. Boston: Edward E. Clark, 1878–1937. The 1895–1903 eds. list BCC officers & members. Not all yrs. online.
• Greenough, Sarah. "The Economic Incentives, Social Inducements, and Aesthetic Issues of American Pictorial Photography, 1880–1902." Martha A. Sandweiss, ed., Photography in 19th-C. America. Amon Carter Mus. (Ft. Worth); Abrams, 1991.
• Polito, Ronald, ed. (Chris Steele & Polito, comp.) A Directory of Mass. Photographers, 1839–1900. Camden ME: Picton, 1993.
• Pollack, Peter. The Picture History of Photography: From the Earliest Beginnings to the Present Day. Abrams, 1958.
• Robinson, William F. A Certain Slant of Light: The First 100 Years of New England Photography. N.Y. Graphic Soc., 1980.

Chronologically:

• The Boston Club Book for 1888. Boston: Edwin F. Clark, 62. Also 1889, 45–46. First known published lists of club members. Curiosities, 1889: George Snell: the noted Boston architect? John H. Thurston omitted; error?
• "New Dark Room for Boston Camera Club." Boston Daily Globe, Oct. 7, 1890, 4.
• "Caught from the Sun: Marvellous Work in Photography by the Members of BCC at Their Exhibition." Boston Daily Globe, Jan. 7, 1892, 10.
• Kimball, Benjamin. "The Boston Camera Club." New England Mag., Apr., 1893, 185–205.
• "Studies in Classic Poses: Strong Exhibition of Photos Made at BCC...." Boston Daily Globe, Mar. 9, 1898, 7.
• "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.
• French, Wilfred A. "The Pictorial Attractions of Boston". Photo-Era, Aug. 1910, 64–71, 94–95.
• ————. "Exposure Guides and Experience." Photo-Era, May 1920, 232–233, 262. Anecdote about an encounter on a club outing with prominent Boston photographer James Wallace Black outside historic Old South Meeting House in the 1880s.
• Hillyer, Whit. "Six Prints from Boston: Progressive Schedules Crowded with Events at the Back Bay Clubhouse Add to the Impressive Record of BCC'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.
• Cleveland, Elizabeth F.; Daniel D. R. Charbonnet. "Honoring Camera Clubs, n.14: Boston Camera Club Centennial." Phot. Soc. of Amer. J. (PSA Journal), Oct. 1981, 32.

• Davis, Keith F. "The High-Speed Photographs of Francis Blake." Mass. Hist. Rev., v2, 2000, 1–26.
• Fanning, Patricia J. Through an Uncommon Lens: The Life & Photography of F. Holland Day. U. Mass., 2008.
• Hall, Elton W. Francis Blake: An Inventor's Life, 1850–1913. Mass. Hist. Soc., 2003, ch. 9, 142–166.
• "Horace A. Latimer: A Man of Mystery: Recluse Millionaire Was Expert Photographer." Obituary, Boston Globe, Sep. 19, 1931, 16.
• Jordan, Franklin I. "Pop Sez —." Amer. Photography, Mar. 1950, 28.
• 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. About H. Bradford Washburn, Jr.