The Cromer Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Photography

A deep dive into the pioneering collection of nineteenth-century French photographs, equipment, and ephemera, which is a cornerstone of the George Eastman Museum

In the early twentieth century, Parisian photographer, amateur historian, and collector Gabriel Cromer (1873–1934) amassed a collection that traced photography’s prehistory, invention, and development to about 1890. His dream was to found a national museum of the photographic arts in France. Although Cromer’s ambition was never realized, his collection was central to establishing the world’s first museum dedicated to photography: the George Eastman Museum. The Cromer Collection of Nineteenth‑Century French Photography considers the origin and circulation of the collection as well as the influence it has had on photography as a field of study. The book’s six essays, written by French and American scholars, explore the Cromer Collection’s complex passage across markets, borders, and functions. For more than half a century, curators and scholars worldwide have drawn extensively on the Gabriel Cromer Collection for exhibitions and publications; this book provides the first focused scholarly study of the foundational resource.