Description
Although M.W. Gorman
states that the Sutton party took a camera with them on
their 1869 visit and "were the first to secure pictures of
the Lake and of the most picturesque pieces of scenery on
the way," credit for this particular deed has generally been
accorded to Peter Britt, a Swiss-born emigrant who became
southern Oregon's most distinguished pioneer artist and
photographer. Arriving in the United States in his
mid-twenties, Britt studied the new art of daguerreotype
photography for five years under the renowned frontier
photographer J.H. Fitzgibbon. From him Britt bought his
first camera, a small wooden daguerreotype box, which he
transported carefully to Oregon in 1852 along with several
hundred pounds of equipment, including a Voigtlander lens
No. 2115 and a stock of glass plates and chemicals.
Britt bought
the large wet plate camera that, in 1874, went with him and
a small party of friends to Crater Lake, still an unknown
sight to most people. In addition he packed in his wagon a
stereoscope camera and two large boxes, weighing more than
100 pounds each, containing glass plates, plate holders,
chemicals, trays, and other related equipment necessary for
coating the plates on the spot and then immediately
developing them after exposure. Despite overcast skies and
intermittent rainfall, Britt was able to take several
pictures of the lake and vicinity. Although this historic
event did not receive much attention at the time, it was
these black-and-white photographs that would eventually help
convince scientists and a budding conservation movement that
steps should be taken to record and preserve the lake's
significant features.
excerpted from:
Crater Lake National Park Historic Resource Study, Chapter
6. Steps leading toward establishment of Crater Lake
National Park, B. Crater Lake Meets the Camera.
The original photograph is held by the
Southern Oregon Historical Society.
