James Ambrose Cutting

James Ambrose Cutting (1814-1867) was a 19th century American photographer and the inventor of the Ambrotype photographic process.

He grew up in poverty on a farm in Havershill, NH. At age 28, he invented a new type of beehive in 1842, and on the money from selling his patents moved to Boston.

Ambrotypes

In 1854, he patented a process of creating a positive photographic image on a sheet of glass using the wet plate collodion process. To create an ambrotype, the photographer sensitized a polished plate of glass by the wet collodion process and exposed the plate in a camera to produce a negative image. The wet plate collodion process was invented just a few years before by Frederick Scott Archer, but Cutting used it as a positive, instead of a negative.

When dry, the glass plate was then backed either with black paint, metal, cloth, or paper; this black backing made light areas of the negative appear darker, turning the negative image into a positive. Some ambrotypes were made with ruby or dark green glass to simulate the effect of a backing without using one. Ambrotypes often were hand-colored, most commonly with dabs of red paint on the cheeks of the sitter. They were housed in wood or thermoplastic cases (also called 'Union cases'), like the daguerreotype photographs with which they are often confused; an ambrotype is easily distinguished from a daguerreotype because its surface is not reflective, as daguerreotype surfaces are. Ambrotypes were most popular during the mid- to late-1850s but continued to be available through the 1890s.

Patents

Patent Numbers 11,213, 11,266 and 11,267 In 1854, James Ambrose Cutting of Boston, Massachusetts was awarded three patents for creating collodion positive photographs on glass. This process became known as the "imperishable picture" or Ambrotype.

Patent Number 19,626 In 1858, James Ambrose Cutting & Lodowick H. Bradford of Boston, Massachusetts were awarded a patent for improvements in Photolithography. They defined a process of created a very durable photographic picture on a lithographic stone.

Later Years

In 1859, he and Henry D Butler first opened a public aquarium on Bromfield Street, which they later moved to their Boston Aquarial Gardens, located at 240 Washington Street. His partner wrote the book "The Family Aquarium" which published in 1858 was one of the first books written in the United States solely about the aquarium.

The first advertisements for the Grand aquariums at the Boston Aquarial Gardens appeared in the April 12th, 1859, edition of the Boston Post. "This magnificent display of one of the most fascinating phenomena of nature is now open for public exhibition," announced the Boston Post. "These Ocean Conservatories are filled with rare marine animals imported and collected exclusively for this Establishment. They present us with a perfect and striking illustration of Life Beneath The Waters."The facility was eventually purchased by P.T. Barnum, under whose management it became more of a show-hall than a serious scientific establishment; "Madame Lanista," who wrestled with snakes, was a typical attraction of this period. The property eventually became the Theatre Comique in 1864-67.

In August of 1867, he died in an insane asylum in Worcester, MA. Article in New York Times: 'Death of an Inventor'

References

* James, Christopher "The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes", p. 372.
* New York Times, "Death of an Inventor in an Insane Asylum", August 14, 1867.
* Potter, Russell, "Arctic Spectacles: The Frozen North in Visual Culture, 1818-1875" (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007), pp. 171-172.
* Shimmelman, Janice G. "American Photographic Patents, The Daguerreotype & Wet Plate Era 1840-1880", p. 11.
* Welling, William "Photography in America," p. 111.