ROCKWOOD, George. Large Sepia Toned Photograph of the Montague Paper Company Mill, Turners Falls, Massachusetts [20 by 12 inches]. [New York]: [George Rockwood], [1880].

Large format 20” x 12” original print, black and white photograph circa 1880. Matted and framed with company title, in original 32.5” x 26.5” traditional wooden frame. Photograph of the Montague Paper Company’s Mills in Turners Falls, MA by New York photographer, George Rockwood. A prominent 19th-century photographer based in New York City. Initially, Rockwood worked in landscape photography, shifting his focus to portraiture in the mid-1880s. Rockwood has been credited with introducing the carte-de-visite format of photography to the United States from France. Rockwood was also a member of elite photographic societies during the 1870s and 1880s and contributed articles to their published journals. Over the course of his career, he photographed an astounding 350,000 people. This Rockwood photo may have been the original source for the engraving of the mills published in the 1891 illustrated book 'Picturesque Franklin' (Wade, Warner & Co.). The same engraving was used in many contemporary histories of Turners Falls, Massachusetts such as this example from 1892 which describes the Montague Paper Company: 'In 1872 the manufacture of book paper was inaugurated and to the production of these two kinds of paper the mill was for some time devoted; now the product is wholly news or ordinary printing paper. In 1874 the works were enlarged by the addition of a wing three stories in height and measuring 100 by 55 feet, and in 1875 the corporation purchased the works of the Turners Falls pulp company, directly east, and consisting of a two-story brick edifice, measuring 200 by 55 feet. The latter was soon afterward enlarged, so that now the company has the extended front shown in the engraving, of nearly six hundred feet.' Very Good. Shipping will need to be negotiated.

Price: $550.00