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Inlet off Mattiuck Creek, 1878

Medium: Collodion silver glass wet plate negativeby George Bradford Brainerd.

(Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum)

See “Found in the Archives: The Oldest Photographs of Mattituck” on page 3.

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MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND SIDEWALK SALE! MAY 24, 25 & 26!

Found in the Archives:The Oldest Photographs of Mattituck

THE GLASS PLATE NEGATIVES OF GEORGE BRADFORD BRAINERD

by Jeffrey Walden & Gerard Matovcik

What we did not know was that Brainerd, apparently on the same day, took his camera and photographic equipment in a wagon and journeyed north to the Long Island Sound and along Mattituck Creek to make at least nine other glass plate negative images of the area. There is no record of his excursion into northern Mattituck. No one at Mattituck-Laurel Library knew that these glass plate images existed. One day, Jeffrey Walden, the assistant director of the Mattituck-Laurel Library, was having a conversation with Ron Ziel, a collector of railroad images. Jeff was interested in vintage photographs of Mattituck and Laurel for the “Images of America” book that was being prepared for publication. When Jeff asked Ziel if he knew about any other photographs of Mattituck and Laurel, Ziel remarked that the Brooklyn Museum held collections of Brainerd’s glass plate negatives. That night, Jeff went to the Brooklyn Museum website and discovered that the museum listed the catalog numbers of nine images of Mattituck by Brainerd. The discovery of nine images of Mattituck from 1878 was exciting. Mattituck-Laurel Library purchased a copy of these photographs from the Brooklyn Museum. One of the most interesting photographs was

In 1878, George Bradford Brainerd, a noted photographer from Brooklyn, made a stop at the Mattituck railroad station as part of his itinerary to

photograph Long Island Railroad stations as well as other Long Island scenes. We know he made the stop because we have his photograph of the railroad depot below (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Mattituck Railroad Station by George Bradford Brainerd, 1878.

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an image of the village looking south from Mattituck Creek (see Figure 2). To capture this view, Brainerd was standing at the end of Southard’s Point on Mattituck Creek just east of present-day Westphalia Avenue. At the time, 1878, the wooden bridge on the right side of the photograph was called Cove bridge or “Long” bridge because it spanned a wide section

of the southwest corner of Mattituck Creek known as the Cove. Frank Moore Lupton, a Mattituck native and a successful publisher in New York, would build a beautiful cottage on Southard’s Point in 1886. That same year he rebuilt the bridge because it had become unsafe for heavy loads, and the new bridge became known at the Westphalia Road bridge.

Figure 2. Cove Bridge Over Mattituck Creek, 1878.Medium: Collodion silver glass wet plate negative by George Bradford Brainerd. (Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum)

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Today the cove is filled in and Westphalia Road runs through it. (Notice that on the center of the horizon in the photograph is the steeple of the Mattituck Presbyterian Church.) On the west side of Cove Bridge is the end of the cove (seen above

in Figure 5). On the left side of the image, we see a field of hay stalks. On the right is an impressive barn with a cupola, and on the creek is a boathouse.

Figure 5: West Side of the Cove at Mattituck Creek with Farm and Buildings, 1878. Medium: Collodion silver glass wet plate negative by Brainerd. (Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum)

Continued...

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The OLD MILL Brainerd also took two remarkable photographs of the old tidal mill on Mattituck Creek (Figures 3 & 4), which capture the original dirt road running over a dam and bridge made of stone. The mill opened in

Figure 3: The Old Mill from the west side of Mattituck Creek, 1878. Medium: Collodion silver glass wet plate negative by George Bradford Brainerd. (Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum)

1821 after a stone dam with gates had been completed. Most of the width of the creek was dammed to direct the water power for the mill’s wheel. Work hours followed the tide schedules. The mill turned both day and night. The incoming tide would force open gates at mid-stream of the

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dam. When the tide turned, these gates would close and a smaller gate opened, running water through a tunnel which turned the mill wheel once again in the side house. Customers would bring the grist to the mill and hoist it up to the second floor. Then it was fed into a hopper which

Figure 4: The Old Mill from the east side of Mattituck Creek, 1878Glass plate negative by George Bradford Brainerd. (Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum)

held two flat stones that rubbed against each other. Then the ground grist would drop into a chute and be weighed. Payment for the grinding was a percentage of the grist.

Continued...

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Figure 6: Looking Northeast over a Cabbage Field at the Cove and Mattituck Creek, 1878.Medium: Collodion silver glass wet plate negative by George Bradford Brainerd. (Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum)

A PLACe OF NATURAL BeAUTY

Through Brainerd’s images we can see the natural beauty of Mattituck’s countryside in 1878 when the creek and sound were primarily uninhabited areas. In the photograph above (Figure 6), we don’t see any homes or

other structures on the banks of Mattituck Creek. Instead, we overlook a cabbage field and gaze upon the tranquil tidal waters of the inlet. Figure 7 shows us a breathtaking view of the dunes on the Long Island Sound Shore in 1878, vanishing into the horizon in all their natural beauty. There are no structures on the dunes, only sunlit, pristine cliffs to border the shore.

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Figure 7: Looking east over the Dunes on Long Island Sound at Mattituck, 1878. Medium: Collodion silver glass wet plate negative by George Bradford Brainerd. (Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum)

GeORGe BRADFORD BRAINeRD AND THe COLLODION SILVeR GLASS WeT PLATe PROCeSS Nineteenth century photographers used a complicated process to acquire an image. That they often used the process in remote places is a testimony to their skillfulness and diligence. As all early photographers

did, Brainerd ventured into the field on a wagon with his camera and tripod, glass plates, dark tent, and collection of chemicals. Brainerd chose an interesting scene and then set up his camera and his dark tent. He then prepared his photographic glass plate in his tent by coating the plate with collodion, a syrupy mixture of gun cotton and ether.

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When the collodion had set but the ether had not completely evaporated (a matter of seconds), the glass was sensitized by bathing it in a solution of silver nitrate. The light-sensitized plate was put in a light-proof holder while still damp and then placed in the camera for exposure. After exposure, ranging from seconds to a few minutes (depending upon the lighting conditions), the plate was immediately developed in the dark tent on the site. Brainerd thoroughly

washed the plate and fixed it with a solution. With the addition of a protective coat of varnish, the glass negative was ready to make prints whenever the photographer decided to. We have no evidence that Brainerd made any prints from his Mattituck glass plate negatives preserved at the Brooklyn Museum, but we are certainly grateful that Brainerd did such a skillful job to preserve detailed, high-resolution scenes of Mattituck in 1878.

One kind of itinerant photographer’s wagon

Six of these images of Mattituck from 1878 by Brainerd have been enlarged and printed from digital copies by professional photographer, Stephen Berger. They are on display at Mattituck-Laurel Library in the Local History Collection room. Please feel free to stop by and enjoy these treasured views of Mattituck from the nineteenth century. Visit the Brooklyn Museum online and search their collections for photographer George Bradford Brainerd to view hundreds of other beautiful photographs of Long Island.

Jeffrey Walden is the Assistant Director of the Mattituck-Laurel Library, and Gerard Matovcik is a reference librarian. (