Bringing Back the Past: Dry Plate Photography

By Tadson Bussey

Dry plate photography was developed after the wet collodion process. With dry plates, glass plates that had been factory coated with a photographic emulsion were boxed after the emulsion dried. The plates could be stored and loaded into cameras as needed and developed at any time after exposure. The process was far more convenient than the wet collodion process, where glass plates had to be hand coated with a wet, light sensitive emulsion just before exposure and then developed almost immediately thereafter. 

Miles Ainscoe Seed—successful dry plate creator—was born in Lancashire, England in 1843. After moving to the United States at the age of 24, Seed settled in St. Louis, Missouri, and became an employee at John A. Scholten's photographic studio. During his spare time, Seed conducted home experiments on the simplification of photographic negatives. After several years, he developed a more practical photographic dry plate that was quickly dubbed the "Seed Dry Plate" upon its release in 1879 and the M.A. Seed Company was founded in 1883. Photographers worldwide were soon using his invention. The appeal of dry plates rested in their ease of transport. Photographers could now travel with these prepared dry plates and develop their photographs at their convenience. 

By the twentieth century, Seed Dry Plates were universally regarded as the finest in the world. Although he was a prosperous businessman, his interest in dry plates went far beyond commercial sales—he offered his expertise to assist photographers on how to get the greatest use of his plates. His company published The Art of Negative Making, which became known in industry circles as the photographic bible. 

The M.A. Seed Dry Plate Company was incorporated in July 1883, and Eastman Kodak purchased the thriving business in 1902.

In my small collection of retro ephemera, old black and white photographs, transparencies, and negatives, I recently came across a box of Seed’s Dry Plates. The box makes reference to the M.A. Seed Dry Plate Company so they predate the 1902 incorporation by Eastman Kodak.

Inside there were twelve exposed dry plates which appear as a negative image. Many of the plates were not in good shape with a loose, peeled up, dry and brittle degraded emulsion. 

For fun, I scanned the plates to reveal a few landscape photographs and several portraits—many of the same young girl.

As with many of the photographs in my collection, perhaps this serves to bring back, in some small way, the memory of these people and places.