Musing from the Museum 31

SWISS CHOCOLATE AND SCOTTISH STONE.

A brief examination of three random images from SGS photographic negative collection.

By Alastair Goodrum.

In order to illustrate the diversity of images in the Society’s photographic collection, the following discourse uses two random images from the negative section and one image from the positive lantern-slide section.

                        A poster advertising the Paris World Fair 1900.

  A substantial part of the SGS photographic negative collection can be found inside a nondescript wooden box located beneath one of the display cases in the Maples gallery. Among the gems inside are a couple of cardboard boxes that contain what I regard as the ‘Alpine Journey’ part of this collection. It is interesting for many reasons, but it differs from the other negatives in that wooden box because these(somewhat ‘curly’) negatives are very early examples of the ‘modern’ plastic, compact camera variety rather than glass plates. The images are of varying quality but offer the amateur sleuth, armed with magnifying glass, MS Photoshop and the Internet, plenty of scope. After taking a while to sort out the rather haphazard storage of these negatives, a pattern emerged and it became apparent that the span of the ‘Alpine’ boxescovers an expedition (by persons unknown – but probably an SGS member or members) to the town of Argentiere, set in the valley and mountains of the Chamonix district; via Paris and Lac Leman (aka Lake Geneva). Several locations have been identified but the date of this journey was elusive. However, the sequence of images seemed to tie up with viewsthat included the Eiffel Tower.

SGS image of Eiffel Tower, Paris; buildings of the 1900 expo and the Ferris Wheel in background.

  Closer examination of the SGS shots of the Tower showed evidence of buildings and a Ferris Wheel, named the Grande Roue, positioned as for the Paris Exposition/World Fair,which was held from 14 April to 12 November 1900. The enormous Ferris wheel (about ¾ the size of the London Eye)can be seen on the lower right edge of the photo. It was 360 feet high and could carry up to 1,600 passengers in 40 cars at any one time. It did not feature in any of the Paris Expositions of earlier decades. The other SGS images of Paris are, frankly, relatively underwhelming; those of Lake Geneva are more interesting because local people feature much more prominently; while those images of the Chamonix/Argentierevalley area offer an excellent chance to see how the mountains and glaciers have changed and how the villages were opening up to tourism.

          For comparison, a publicity photo with the Ferris Wheel at top right.

                                            SGS image of a French customs post.

  In trying to squeeze information from these negatives it always pays to ‘look inside the scene.’ One such example is the above image of the exterior of a customs post (Douane) – almost certainly on the Franco-Swiss border – featuring two gentlemen in the foreground. Dressed in similar formal attire and hats, they could be Customs officials but there are, sadly, no notes accompanying any of these images. However, in the background some wooden crates labelled ‘CHOCOLAT KOHLER’ aroused my curiosity.

  In those days (1900) Kohler was an internationally known manufacturer of chocolate based in Lausanne, Switzerland and advertised its products widely in the artistic style of the day (see above advert). Founded in 1830 by the Kohler brothers in Lausanne, Switzerland, the company became famous for its introduction of hazelnut chocolate – the first time anyone had added a fruit to solid chocolate. Kohler merged with Nestlé in 1929.

Moving on now to another curiosity among the Society’s images, the major part of the collection, which used to reside in a cupboard in the Maples Room includes, in addition to many cartons of delicate glass negatives, several small wooden boxes, custom-built to house glass lantern-slides. These are ‘positive’ images. In box LS2 there is what appears to be a ‘bought-in’ show of 29 x 3¼ x 3¼ inch slides illustrating both industry and unemployment in the Tyneside area. A minute label on some of the slides has the seller’saddress: Newton & Co, 3 Fleet Street, London. Some structures, shown under construction in the slides, for example bridges and ships, can be dated as 1928.

  There is a note sheet in the box that indicates briefly what each image represents. However, slide number 27 (see below)is described as ‘a moorland view’ suggesting perhaps, that there is pastoral solace not far from the heavy industry of Tyneside. But there is something not quite right about the context of this slide.

                            SGS Lantern Slide LS2/27, the Cumberland Stone.

On closer examination, the boulder in the foreground has writing on it and clearly visible are the words: ‘CUMBERLAND STONE,’ with more obscure writing on its flat top.

  A little surfing of the internet, places this boulder at the eastern edge of the Battlefield of Culloden, fought near Inverness in Scotland on 16 April 1746, between forces of the Duke of Cumberland and those of Prince Charles Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) – a long way from Tyneside! Popular myth suggests this is where the Duke took breakfast and surveyed the battlefield on the day of the Battle, hence it being known as the ‘Cumberland Stone.’ The inscription on the flat top reads: ‘Position of Duke of Cumberland during the Battle of Culloden.’ Research shows the writing to have been carved in 1881.

  Many accounts of the Battle allege that the boulder is too far from the battle lines (500 yards) for the Duke to have exerted any effective command from that position. He could have had his boiled egg and soldiers there, but it is also claimed thatduring the action he conducted his part in the battle from horseback while riding between his first and second lines of troops.

  The stone is a glacial feature known as an ‘erratic boulder;’one that was moved thousands of years ago by nature’s force to this position many miles from its original home. It measures 54 feet in circumference and is 5 feet high. The view in the slide is towards the South-East / 135 degrees. Today the boulder is located adjacent to the B9006 Inverness to Nairn road, near its junction with the B851, not far from the hamlet of Leanach, whose cottages are believed to be those in the background of the SGS slide.

                             A similar view of the Cumberland Stone in 2023.

 It seems, therefore, that the inclusion of this image in the Tyneside slide presentation box is just a random ‘fill-in’ item.