Agnes and Dora Bulwer Photographic Collection

Collection

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection includes landscape and travel photography of Italy, France, Greece and documents the vast interests of both sisters for people, social life and customs, art, archaeology and architecture. It is difficult to establish which photograph was taken by which sister, but we can confirm that those included in 'Album A' were taken by Agnes, who was also a draftswoman. While the negatives are all on nitrate film, the photographic prints show different printing processes, from albumen prints to platinotypes and gelatin silver prints.

More than 600 photographs from the Bulwer Collection were included by Thomas Ashby in his own Album collection. Their subject matter is mostly concerned with landscape and town life of various Italian regions, especially villages and towns in Lazio. A particular attention is given to archaeological sites and ancient remains in Rome and in the Campagna Romana. Other photographs were assembled in albums and porfolios and are testimony to their interest for France with beautiful images of Arles, Nîmes, Fréjus and Marseille.

Reference number

PA-DAB

Dates

1890 - 1930?

Creator

Bulwer, Agnes, 1856-1940 (British painter, amateur photographer and collector) (Photographer, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

The items from the Agnes and Dora Bulwer Collection are accessible by appointment with the archivist.

Biographical note

Agnes and Dora Bulwer were two British expatriates who spent a significant part of their lives in Italy. Daughters to Archibald Redfoord (or Bedford) Bulwer (1821-1904), who is listed amongst those foreigners buried in the old Protestant Cemetery in Naples, they lived in the Neapolitan city until 1877 and then moved to Rome, where they enjoyed the company of a lively Anglo American community. Grand-daughters of Reverend James Bulwer (1794-1879), they inherited a collection of his paintings and some artworks of his contemporary artists, including John Sell Cotman. Their father worked as shipping agent in Naples for the British company Holme & Co., established in 1866, and while in Naples they were living in Villa D'Angri at Posillipo.

Although little is knwon about their lives, we can undoubtedly affirm they were acquainted with the Scottish photographers James Graham and Robert MacPherson, and probably they were able to acquire some of their photographs, which were subsequently bequeathed or donated. The passion for collecting objects and artworks must have been a key feature of their family. In fact their grand-father, the Reverend James Bulwer (1794-1879), is acknowledged as an English collector as well as a naturalist, artist and patron. The Bulwer sisters are also listed as members of numerous societies, including the British and American Archaeological Society, founded by John-Henry Parker in 1865, and the Roman Society, set up in 1911. The Bulwer sisters were generous patrons and keen supporters of the BSR Library and of the whole institution and in 1948 Dora bequeathed part of their estate to it.

Extent

619 Photographic Prints (glued in Ashby Albums 8 and 9)

70 Photographic Prints (in Album A) : 1 box

99 Photographic Prints (in Album B) : 1 box

57 Photographic Prints (in Album C) : 2 boxes

153 Photographic Prints (in Album D)

165 Photographic Prints (in Album E) : 1 box

105 Photographic Prints (in Album MISC) : 1 box

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Collection of photographs and negatives belonging to Agnes (1856-1940) and Dora (1864-1948) Bulwer, amateur photographers, donors and supporters of the BSR.

Arrangement

These photographic prints were originally grouped in albums and portfolios, some of which were dismantled. Apparently, six portfolios were identified and were named in alphabetical order from A to E when the material was appraised, re-assessed and rearranged during the cataloguing of the whole collection in 2002-2005. Other photographs, initially unattributed to the Bulwer sisters, were then grouped under 'Album MISC'. A substantial group of prints were included by Thomas Ashby himself in his own Album collection (Album 8 and Album 9, respectively).

The photographic prints are therefore arranged in six albums: Album A; Album B; Album C; Album D; Album E and Album MISC.

The negatives, all of them on nitrate film, were originally stored in boxes and envelopes and are now stored in 3 containers according to the numbers attributed to the photographic prints in the albums.

Physical Location

The Agnes and Dora Bulwer Collection is located in the New basement (Photographic Archive, cupboard n. 6).

Immediate Source of Acquisition

From a note on a box of negatives beloging to Agnes Bulwer, we can assume that part of their collection was presented to the BSR Library in 1925. We can not exclude that the series of photographs glued in Thomas Ashby's private photographic albums were given to him as a personal gift, and then came to the BSR through the purchase, in 1931, of his huge collection of prints and rare books as well as his personal manuscript notes and notebooks.

Related Materials

The fonds of Reverend James Bulwer are preserved in the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives (https://www.gallery.ca/library/ngc146.html#a16).

Separated Materials

Six drawings executed by Agnes Bulwer are also preserved in the BSR Archive. One of them depicts the Colosseum and it is dated 1871.

Bibliography

Viggiani, D. (1989), I tempi di Posillipo. Napoli: Electa.
Bucci, A. (2007), ‘La Collezione Fotografica Bulwer e i Manoscritti Lanciani’, Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae, 14, pp. 95-118.
Caruso, M. (2022), 'Everyday Italians in modern Italy: the photographs of Agnes and Dora Bulwer', in Pelizzari, M.A. and Scott, W. (eds) The idea of Italy: photography and the British imagination, 1840-1900. New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, pp. 228-233.