Plants, Water, Salt, Coal: The Archival Strata of the Victorian Photographic Book
This essay interprets the special issue’s theme, “Bibliophilia: Book Matters” through the curious and interconnected bodies of 19th-century books and plants: more specifically, the experimental photographic book objects inspired by Pteridomania, or “Fern Craze,” a collecting fad hinging on the desir...
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| הוצא לאור ב: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces, |
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| מחבר ראשי: | |
| פורמט: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| שפה: | Anglais |
| יצא לאור: |
Interfaces
2025
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| נושאים: | |
| גישה מקוונת: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| id |
openedition-oai:revues.org:interfaces_9703 |
|---|---|
| record_format |
openedition |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
photographie histoire du livre écocritique humanités végétales géologie collection photography ecocriticism book history plant humanities geology collecting |
| spellingShingle |
photographie histoire du livre écocritique humanités végétales géologie collection photography ecocriticism book history plant humanities geology collecting Garascia, Ann Plants, Water, Salt, Coal: The Archival Strata of the Victorian Photographic Book |
| description |
This essay interprets the special issue’s theme, “Bibliophilia: Book Matters” through the curious and interconnected bodies of 19th-century books and plants: more specifically, the experimental photographic book objects inspired by Pteridomania, or “Fern Craze,” a collecting fad hinging on the desire for ferns in prehistoric and contemporary forms. Botanical collecting is typically figured as an extractive process that removes living plants from their native environs, placing them within the dried, enclosed spaces of different books objects, ranging from institutional herbarium to domestic albums. Tapping into the preservative potentials of ecological extraction, I argue that the photographic book advances a model of botanical collecting that memorializes, rather than effaces, these environs of the extracted plants. Taking Cecilia Glaisher’s photographic book, The British Ferns (1855), as my primary subject, I map out processes of photographic creation, focusing on the material condition of Glaisher’s prints and their composition techniques, to demonstrate how different environmental milieux write themselves into and linger unseen within Glaisher’s book: the “wild states” of England’s fern collecting cultures, Glaisher’s own regional ecosystem of Kent, and finally England’s deep-time stratigraphic layers. To access these spaces and times, my readings advance a theoretical framework that entwines eco-materialisms, media studies, and book history through their shared interest in more-than-human storytelling. In simultaneously preserving vegetal, geological, and human histories, the photographic book forms a multi-layered node of Victorian environmental thought that recognizes how extractive ecologies challenge standard, human-centered histories of the book. |
| author |
Garascia, Ann |
| author_facet |
Garascia, Ann |
| author_sort |
Garascia, Ann |
| title |
Plants, Water, Salt, Coal: The Archival Strata of the Victorian Photographic Book |
| title_short |
Plants, Water, Salt, Coal: The Archival Strata of the Victorian Photographic Book |
| title_full |
Plants, Water, Salt, Coal: The Archival Strata of the Victorian Photographic Book |
| title_fullStr |
Plants, Water, Salt, Coal: The Archival Strata of the Victorian Photographic Book |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Plants, Water, Salt, Coal: The Archival Strata of the Victorian Photographic Book |
| title_sort |
plants, water, salt, coal: the archival strata of the victorian photographic book |
| publisher |
Interfaces |
| publishDate |
2025 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/13p0o https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces/9703 |
| _version_ |
1877292089252773888 |
| spelling |
openedition-oai:revues.org:interfaces_9703 https://doi.org/10.4000/13p0o urn:doi:10.4000/13p0o en https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces/9703 2025-04-07T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/13p0o https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Plants, Water, Salt, Coal: The Archival Strata of the Victorian Photographic Book Interfaces Université Bourgogne Europe info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2647-6754 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1164-6225 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces Garascia, Ann photographie histoire du livre écocritique humanités végétales géologie collection photography ecocriticism book history plant humanities geology collecting This essay interprets the special issue’s theme, “Bibliophilia: Book Matters” through the curious and interconnected bodies of 19th-century books and plants: more specifically, the experimental photographic book objects inspired by Pteridomania, or “Fern Craze,” a collecting fad hinging on the desire for ferns in prehistoric and contemporary forms. Botanical collecting is typically figured as an extractive process that removes living plants from their native environs, placing them within the dried, enclosed spaces of different books objects, ranging from institutional herbarium to domestic albums. Tapping into the preservative potentials of ecological extraction, I argue that the photographic book advances a model of botanical collecting that memorializes, rather than effaces, these environs of the extracted plants. Taking Cecilia Glaisher’s photographic book, The British Ferns (1855), as my primary subject, I map out processes of photographic creation, focusing on the material condition of Glaisher’s prints and their composition techniques, to demonstrate how different environmental milieux write themselves into and linger unseen within Glaisher’s book: the “wild states” of England’s fern collecting cultures, Glaisher’s own regional ecosystem of Kent, and finally England’s deep-time stratigraphic layers. To access these spaces and times, my readings advance a theoretical framework that entwines eco-materialisms, media studies, and book history through their shared interest in more-than-human storytelling. In simultaneously preserving vegetal, geological, and human histories, the photographic book forms a multi-layered node of Victorian environmental thought that recognizes how extractive ecologies challenge standard, human-centered histories of the book. Cet article interprète le thème du volume « Bibliophilia : Le livre, la matière et le vivant » en s’attachant aux étonnants objets où l’univers du livre rencontre le monde végétal au XIXe siècle, sous la forme spécifique des albums photographiques expérimentaux nés de la Ptéridomanie, l’engouement pour les collections de fougères préhistoriques ou contemporaines. La collection botanique est généralement perçue comme l’aboutissement d’un processus d’extraction consistant à prélever les plantes vivantes dans leur environnement pour les conserver dans l’espace sec et clos de différentes sortes de livres, allant de l’herbier scientifique à l’album domestique. En m’appuyant sur le potentiel de préservation de l’extraction écologique, je montre que l’album photographique constitue une forme de collection botanique qui conserve la mémoire de l’environnement dont proviennent les plantes, plutôt qu’elle ne l’efface. Cet article est consacré à l’album de Cecilia Glaisher, The British Ferns (1855) dont j’étudie les procédés photographiques, la matérialité et la composition des clichés. Différents environnements ont inscrit leur présence dans l’ouvrage de Glaisher où perdure leur trace invisible : les milieux naturels liés à la pratique culturelle anglaise de la collection de fougères, l’écosystème régional du Kent, ainsi que les couches stratigraphiques du temps profond de l’Angleterre. Pour rendre compte de ces divers espaces-temps, mon cadre théorique inclut les nouvelles matérialités, l’histoire des médias et l’histoire du livre, et je m’appuie sur leur intérêt commun pour les récits autres qu’humains. Parce qu’il préserve l’histoire végétale, géologique et humaine, l’album photographique intègre de multiples aspects de la pensée environnementale victorienne et met en lumière le défi que posent les écologies extractives à une histoire du livre anthropocentrée. |