Oxford Duplication Centre

Expert Scanning & Digitisation of your Glass Plate Negatives

There are two basic types of glass plate negatives: collodion wet plate and gelatin dry plate. Wet plate negatives, invented by Frederick Scoff Archer in 1851, were in use from the early 1850s until the 1880s. Using glass and not paper as a foundation, allowed for a sharper, more stable and detailed negative, and several prints could be produced from one negative.

Collodion wet plate negatives characteristically have uneven emulsion coatings, and thick glass with rough edges. Occasionally, the photographers thumb will be visible on the corner or edge of the plate (from holding the plate while coating it in the collodion emulsion).

Silver gelatin-coated dry plate negatives, on the other hand, were usable when dry and thus more easily transported, and required less exposure to light than the wet plates. Invented by Dr. Richard L. Maddox and first made available in 1873, dry plate negatives were the first economically successful durable photographic medium. Dry plate negatives are typically on thinner glass plates, with a more evenly coated emulsion. Dry plate glass negatives were in common use between the 1880s and the late 1920s.