A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science, by Robert McCracken Peck and Patricia Tyson Stroud, features original photographs by Rosamond Purcell. Purcell found an unconventional studio space for her work, the Academy's rooftop. In this blog post, she shares some of her observations on natural history and natural light photography.
It was overcast and dark in the back rooms on the first day when we embarked on this exhilarating project at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The first specimens we contemplated seemed drab, their charms unforthcoming. Bob Peck knew that I preferred to photograph using natural light, so we spent the morning hunting for optimistic window sills and faint glimmers. I searched through stiff-drawered cabinets of ancient chalk nodules, looking for beauties and leaving paper scraps in my wake. At about 2:00 p.m. we went outside, taking along several fossil ammonites and a few of the chalks found by the eighteenth century paleontologist, Etheldred Benett. Collections manager Ned Gilmore carried the specimens and kept us company, and, as a cheerful team, we explored the best open-air studio that this--or any other--institution had to offer.
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