The relationship between James Edward Ellam and the Underwood & Underwood company (U&U) flourished from 1897 when he stereographed Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations.
Five years later, his exclusive 3D portrait of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in their coronation robes provided U&U with both a press photo and a highly commercial stereocard.
But what of James’s work for the company in the intervening years?
One of the stereos from the recently discovered cache of 30 that are the subject of this blogpost-a-day series provides a clue.
Captioned “St. Anton” in James’s hand, it features a view of a town in the Austrian Alps known the world over as a legendary ski resort.
However, it was only towards the end of the 19th century, when alpinists used a new railway to reach St. Anton, that skiers were first spotted on the surrounding slopes.
Dating this stereo to the mid-to-late 1890s places it at a time of transition for St. Anton from an economy based on agriculture to one centred on tourism.
At this point in its evolution, the stereoscopic photography company Underwood & Underwood of New York and London was expanding the list of countries its customers could visit virtually via the stereoscope.
Their big idea was to publish box sets of 3D views, accompanied by maps and guidebooks, that allowed customers to travel as virtual tourists without leaving home.
Stereoscopic photographers, who could deliver high-quality views, were essential to the success of its business model.
A typical example is “Picturesque Innsbruck, the capital of Tyrol, Austria …”
Copyrighted and dated “1898” by Underwood & Underwood using its J.F. Jarvis imprint, this stereocard numbered “34” featured in such a box set.
In the absence of primary sources, it is impossible to determine whether this stereo is the work of James Edward Ellam.
But if he was employed by U&U as views photographer in the late-1890s, “St. Anton” may be a souvenir of an assignment that took him to Austria.
Tomorrow: “The Wheatear.”
Pressphotoman 
Leave a comment