Series I-C - Glass Plates (2008-03-31)

Peter M. Bowers Photograph Collection and Papers - Series I-C - Glass Plates, circa 1900s-1930s

The glass plates sub-series of the Bowers Collection includes 378 glass plates (six cubic feet), including both negatives and transparencies, which Bowers presumably purchased or collected from others, likely multiple sources. The first 82 images largely relate to Glenn Curtiss’s and other aviators’ early flights at Lake Keuka near Hammondsport, New York. A few more images are from the same time period and location but are not aviation related. More than fifty images are of balloons and dirigibles, including scenes from World War I. The remainder of the images are largely side or three-quarters-view images of early aircraft parked in fields. The Curtiss JN-4 Jenny is especially well represented. The glass plates are a variety of sizes (4x5 inches, 5x7 inches, 8x6 inches, and 8x10 inches) and are black-and-white. Some images are original negatives but many are copy negatives taken from prints or other sources. Thirty-one 3x4-inch lantern slides are also present including one in color.