John H. Lamprey
| John H. Lamprey FRGS | |||||||||||
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| File:Lamprey, John H..jpg | |||||||||||
| Residence | 16 Camden Square, NW [A3, list 1867.07.15] | ||||||||||
| Occupation | photographer | ||||||||||
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Contents
[hide]Notes
Office Notes
appointed Asst Sec and auditor Jan 69
sub-editor of quarterly journal A1 f.354
House Notes
Assistant Secretary and Sub-Editor of the Quarterly Journal of the Society, and Librarian to the Royal Geographical Society, etc.
given as J.S. Lamprey in A1 which Elizabeth Edwards and I think is a mistake for J.H.; in A3 it is simply 'John'
maybe staff only ESL
ASL proposed 1866.03.06
Lampray in ASL list Aug 20 1866 and FGS not FRGS, which is it?? [address same]
ESL 1869.01.12 Mr J.H. Lampray was appointed Assistant Secretary and editor of the Ethnological Society
ESL 1869.02.09 It was resolved that the following should be inserted on the outside of the cover of the Quarterly Journal below the names of the Editors, viz: All communications to be addressed to the sub editor, J.S. Lamprey 4 St Martin’s Place, WC
1873.04.01 J.H. Lampry Esq. FRSS was proposed for Membership
1873.04.22 J.H. Lamprey Esq. was elected a Corresponding Member.
Notes From Elsewhere
On 27 April 1872, the photographs of Miss Stokes, a series of 54 images of early Christian architecture found in Ireland, were presented by J H Lamprey, secretary of the London Ethnographical Society. [from Women of the conversazioni by Teal Martz on Royal Society blog]
John Lamprey sought to quantify anthropometric measurements through the development of a grid system composed of a wooden frame with silk threads hung behind the subject.
John Lamprey was Librarian of the Royal Geographical Society and Assistant Secretary of the Ethnological Society of London. Very little is known of him, however his photographic legacy is the system for the production of anthropometric photographs which he published in the Journal of the Ethnological Society in 1869. The system was devised for use to both anthropologists and artists for the “comparison of measurement of individuals by some common standard.” In poses that refer back to traditional visual modes of mapping the body which had developed since the seventeenth century, the figure was arranged in both full face and in profile poses, with ad
Ditional head studies, in front of the background screen divided into two inch square by means of silk threads. The idea was that the measurements of the body could be read off the scaled photograph so: “the anatomical structure of a good academy figure or a model of six feet can be compared with a Malay of four feet height in height.”
Although Lamprey himself is often attributed with the photographs himself, it would appear that he only facilitated them on behalf of the Ethnological Society. Indeed it is not known precisely if he initiated the system or was merely acting on instmctions, nor is it clear how subjects were recruited, although a number appear to have been seaman. However the fact the President of the Ethnological Society, the distinguished Darwinian biologist, Thomas Huxley, initiated his own system within months of the publication of Lamprey’s system, and with no reference to the latter, suggests that as science the scheme was found wanting in some way. The photographs themselves appear to have been taken for the Ethnological Society by Henry Evans, described as photographer and scientific instrument maker. Evans was prosecuted for the sale of indecent photographs in March 1870, a high-profile case which raised the question of the boarderline between science and pornography. It has often been assumed that the photographs probably commissioned by Lamprey were part of this prosecution. “Men of Science” (probably senior members of the Ethnological Society) petitioned on Evans’ behalf, as did artists whom he was supplying with model photographs, including Rossetti and Burne-Jones, but to no avail. Although it was clearly stated that the “scientific” photographs were not those that were the subject of the prosecution, there is another set of photographs in existence, using the same models which are of more questionable intent and are not amongst the sets commonly found in anthropological collections. As Evans’ whole stock, including the anthropometric photographs and studies by O. Rejlander, was burned, after his conviction, we shall probably never know.
None the less the system was quite influential, largely because it was one of the few instmctions in the field to be published. Eor instance it resonates through the black and white chequered background used by Portman and Moles worth for their 1894 anthropometric studies of the Andamanese and some Lamprey-system photographs were reproduced in Carl Dammann’s Anthropologisch-Ethnologiches Album inPhotographien (1873-74). The photographs have become iconic of nineteenth century racial beliefs and have been published widely in postcolonial critical studies and art works, for instance Faisal Abdu’ Allah’ s untitled installation for “The Impossible Science of Being” (Photographers Gallery, London, 1995).
Elizabeth Edwards
LANCASTER, JAMES & SONS See also: Dammann, Carl and Frederick
Further Reading
Lamprey, J. H., “On a method of measuring the human form for the use of students of ethnology,” Journal of the Ethnological Society of London (1869) 1:84—85.
NOT Joshua H. Lamprey who patented a vertical lavatory, and an apparatus for producing oxygen by electricity, and possibly was the author of Industrial Art
Publications
External Publications
On certain antiquities in stone found in the islands of the Pacific and South seas / by J.H. Lamprey (see also Hieroglyphics of Easter Island where he is mentioned by J. Park Harrison)
Industrial art, ed. by J.H. Lamprey Editor J H Lamprey Published 1877
House Publications
On a method of measuring the human form JES 1869
