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Osbert Chadwick album
2022.R.28
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Osbert Chadwick album of Ukraine, the British Isles, and the British West Indies
Creator:
Chadwick, Osbert, 1844-1913
Identifier/Call Number: 2022.R.28
Physical Description:
1 Linear Feet
(22 photographs, 8 photographs forming 1 panorama, and 7 leaves in 1 album)
Date (inclusive): 1873-1889
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
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Abstract: The album of 21 albumen photographs and an eight-part joined albumen panorama compiled by the British civil engineer, Osbert
Chadwick, contains photographic views related to the places Chadwick practiced as a civil engineer as well as views of sites
and natural landmarks that Chadwick appears to have had a personal interest in. Of particular note are the the first eight
photographs in the album and the panorama of Sevastopol, all of which are views taken in the Crimea where Chadwick worked
as an engineer for the Odessa waterworks after resigning his commission in the Royal Engineers.
Language of Material:
English
.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Osbert Chadwick album of Ukraine, the British Isles, and the British West Indies, 1873-1889, The Getty Research Institute,
Los Angeles, Accession no. 2022.R.28.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2022r8
Osbert Chadwick, C.M.G. (5 April 1844-27 September 1913), was the son of Sir Edwin Chadwick, the British social reformer who
instituted major reforms in urban sanitation and public health. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, London.
In 1864, Chadwick obtained a commission with the Royal Engineers and worked in India and Aden Settlement. In 1873, he resigned
his commission to become a civil engineer, working first for the Odesa Water Works. He was subsequently engaged by the British
Colonial Office as a Consulting Engineer for water and sanitation projects and designed water-supply and sewerage and drainage
systems for Grenada, Malta, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Trinidad, Kingston, Jamaica, and other Crown colonies. He was made a Companion
of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (C.M.G.) in 1886 for his construction of the Malta Water Works (1883-1888). His
work on Malta resulted in the formation of the eponymously named Chadwick Lakes formed by a complex system of small dams that
eventually drain into the Mediterranean Sea. Chadwick authored a number of site reports related to his engineering projects
as well as
A Treatise on Surveying with Reginald Empson Middleton (1899). From 1898 to 1911, Chadwick was the first Chadwick Professor of Civil Engineering,
University College London, a chair established by his father for the improvement of health conditions in the British Empire.
Sources Consulted:
"Osbert Chadwick,"
Graces's Guide to British Industrial History. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Osbert_Chadwick.
Scope and Content of Collection
The album of 21 albumen photographs and an eight-part joined albumen panorama compiled by Osbert Chadwick contains photographic
views related to the places Chadwick practiced as a civil engineer as well as views of sites and natural landmarks that Chadwick
appears to have had a personal interest in.
The first eight photographs in the album and the panorama are all views taken in the Crimea where Chadwick took up his first
position after resigning his commission in the Royal Engineers, working as an engineer for the Odesa waterworks, Odesa being
at that time the fourth largest city in the Russian Empire. While the photographers responsible for these images, as well
as for most of the images in the album have not been identified, their subject matter suggests that it is not unreasonable
to attribute them to Chadwick or a close associate at the waterworks. Inserted in the front of the album is an albumen panorama
of the coastline of Yalta mounted on a stereograph card. The annotation on its verso "Yalta, instantaneous from the steamer,"
that is, an instantaneous photograph made with a mechanical shutter and faster emulsion, provides another clue that the Crimea
photographs were taken by Chadwick or a close associate.
The first five photographs of the Crimea depict views taken along the road from Sevastopol to Yalta and in and around both
cities. These photographs are accompanied by descriptive manuscript notes written by Chadwick on stationery headed: Park Cottage
/ East Sheen / Mortlake / SW, the home of Edwin Chadwick, in what was then a suburb of London. Notes 4 and 5 relate to St.
Nicholas Memorial Church in Sevastopol which was built between 1857 and 1870 and dedicated to the Russian defenders of Sevastopol
during the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855) in the Crimean War. These notes relate how the bodies of the fallen Russian soldiers
were collected and buried in the church's graveyard, noting that black marble tablets inscribed with their names insctibed
were placed in the church chapel.
These photographs are followed by an eight-part panorama of Sevastopol. It too is acccompanied by a note, the first page of
which is erroneously numbered 5 (numbered 5 [bis] in the finding aid for disambiguation). Chadwick states that the panorama
was taken from the new church of St. Vladimir which was built as a memorial to the heroes of the Siege of Sevastopol. The
sections of the note are lettered A-H, corresponding to the sections of the panorama, with many sections including references
to important sites and troop positions during the siege.
The final three photographs from Crimea are the images which relate most directly to Chadwick's work, and depict the tower
and the exterior and interior of the engine house of the Odesa waterworks.
The images that follow the Crimea photographs are general views of other locations that Chadwick worked in including Trinidad
(two images by Félix Morin), Martinique, and Grenada, and beyond this do not represent any specific relationship to his engineering
work. They are interspersed with images of locations in Scotland and Ireland and depict towns, a ruined abbey, and local natural
wonders such as Clamshell Cave, the Causeway and the Bending Pillars on the coast of Staffa, Scotland and the Giant's Causeway
and the Stacks in Port Moon on the Causeway Coast in County Atrim, Northern Ireland. Both the views of Staffa by James Valentine
and the Irish views by an unidentifed photography studio were widely disseminated tourist shots readily available for purchase.
The album is bound in full black morocco with a gilt-stamped border. The titles of the individual photographs are derived
from various sources as indicated in the notes.
Arranged in a single series: Series I. Osbert Chadwick album of Ukraine, the British Isles, and the British West Indies, 1873-1889.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Beth Ann Guynn processed the collection and wrote the finding aid in 2022.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquired in 2022.
The collection was digitized in 2023 and the images are available online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2022r28
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Waterworks -- Ukraine -- Odesa
Antrim (Northern Ireland : County) -- Description and travel
Crimea (Ukraine) -- Description and travel
I︠A︡lta (Ukraine) -- Description and travel
Trinidad and Tobago -- Description and travel
Grenada -- Description and travel
Martinique -- Description and travel
Odesa -- Ukraine -- Description and travel
Sevastopoľ -- Ukraine -- Description and travel
Staffa -- Scotland -- Description and travel
Albumen prints -- 19th century
Photograph albums -- 19th century
Photographs, Original.
Panoramas -- Ukraine -- 19th century
Valentine, James, 1815-1879
Morin, Félix