HERBERT SPENCER PHILOSOPHER EVOLUTION OF COMPLEXITY CABINET PHOTO BY MAYALL
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:3005392 | Photo Type: Cabinet Photo |
ANTIQUE CABINET CARD PHOTOGRAPH OF HERBERT SPENCER. Handwritten in ink on back: "Mr. Herbert Spencer." Handwritten in pencil on back: "Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903) English philospher, Social Theorist And early evolutionist. Scarce."
BACKMARK. "J.E. MAYALL F.C.S., F.R.M.S. ART PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO 164 NEW BOND STREET Corner of Grafton Street LONDON AND 91 KINGS ROAD BRIGHTON."
SIZE. Approximately 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches.
CONDITION. PHOTO: Soiling. Mount: Wear at corners. A tiny bi...t of wear at top and bottom edges. Soiling, front and back. Back also has old paper affixed at right edge.
APPEARANCE. The top of his head is washed out. Otherwise, sharp portrait with very good tones.
THE SUBJECT. "Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era. Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies. As a polymath, he contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, astronomy, biology, sociology, and psychology. During his lifetime he achieved tremendous authority, mainly in English-speaking academia. 'The only other English philosopher to have achieved anything like such widespread popularity was Bertrand Russell, and that was in the 20th century.' Spencer was 'the single most famous European intellectual in the closing decades of the nineteenth century' but his influence declined sharply after 1900: 'Who now reads Spencer?' asked Talcott Parsons in 1937. Spencer is best known for the expression 'survival of the fittest, ' which he coined in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. This term strongly suggests natural selection, yet as Spencer extended evolution into realms of sociology and ethics, he also made use of Lamarckism." (source: Wikipedia)
THE PHOTOGRAPHER. "John Jabez Edwin Mayall. Dates 1813 - 1901. Roles Photographer, Daguerreotypist. Nationality English. Born Manchester, England. Died London, England. After serving as the proprietor of a daguerreotype studio and a chemistry lecturer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, John Jabez Edwin Mayall relocated to London in 1846. He promptly obtained a daguerreotypist's license from Richard Beard, who at that time held the patent for the process in England. In April 1847 Mayall opened the American Daguerreotype Institution in London, explicitly naming it American because American daguerreotypes were known for greater clarity and polish and were of a larger size. Mayall became renowned as a portraitist; within his first three years in England, he photographed Sir John Herschel, Sir David Brewster, and Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. At the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, held in the Crystal Palace in 1851, he introduced a technique he had perfected: the popular vignetted portrait, in which the sitter's head appears in focus while the surroundings gradually become less distinct. In 1855 Mayall sold the American Daguerreotype Institution and began to mass produce cartes-de-visite, small, calling-card-size photographs that were inexpensive to make, easily exchanged, and extremely popular. In 1860 Mayall published a carte-de-visite album of the British Royal Family; he reportedly sold 60, 000 sets of these photographs." (source: The J. Paul Getty Museum website)
BACKMARK. "J.E. MAYALL F.C.S., F.R.M.S. ART PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO 164 NEW BOND STREET Corner of Grafton Street LONDON AND 91 KINGS ROAD BRIGHTON."
SIZE. Approximately 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches.
CONDITION. PHOTO: Soiling. Mount: Wear at corners. A tiny bi...t of wear at top and bottom edges. Soiling, front and back. Back also has old paper affixed at right edge.
APPEARANCE. The top of his head is washed out. Otherwise, sharp portrait with very good tones.
THE SUBJECT. "Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era. Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies. As a polymath, he contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, astronomy, biology, sociology, and psychology. During his lifetime he achieved tremendous authority, mainly in English-speaking academia. 'The only other English philosopher to have achieved anything like such widespread popularity was Bertrand Russell, and that was in the 20th century.' Spencer was 'the single most famous European intellectual in the closing decades of the nineteenth century' but his influence declined sharply after 1900: 'Who now reads Spencer?' asked Talcott Parsons in 1937. Spencer is best known for the expression 'survival of the fittest, ' which he coined in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. This term strongly suggests natural selection, yet as Spencer extended evolution into realms of sociology and ethics, he also made use of Lamarckism." (source: Wikipedia)
THE PHOTOGRAPHER. "John Jabez Edwin Mayall. Dates 1813 - 1901. Roles Photographer, Daguerreotypist. Nationality English. Born Manchester, England. Died London, England. After serving as the proprietor of a daguerreotype studio and a chemistry lecturer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, John Jabez Edwin Mayall relocated to London in 1846. He promptly obtained a daguerreotypist's license from Richard Beard, who at that time held the patent for the process in England. In April 1847 Mayall opened the American Daguerreotype Institution in London, explicitly naming it American because American daguerreotypes were known for greater clarity and polish and were of a larger size. Mayall became renowned as a portraitist; within his first three years in England, he photographed Sir John Herschel, Sir David Brewster, and Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. At the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, held in the Crystal Palace in 1851, he introduced a technique he had perfected: the popular vignetted portrait, in which the sitter's head appears in focus while the surroundings gradually become less distinct. In 1855 Mayall sold the American Daguerreotype Institution and began to mass produce cartes-de-visite, small, calling-card-size photographs that were inexpensive to make, easily exchanged, and extremely popular. In 1860 Mayall published a carte-de-visite album of the British Royal Family; he reportedly sold 60, 000 sets of these photographs." (source: The J. Paul Getty Museum website)
