The four volume exhibit is now on permanent display at the Marine Search Center.
Willis Vail's glass plates from his time on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, 1902-1905.
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Portfolio Volume I
The Pier
Portfolio Volume II
The Railroad
Portfolio Volume III
Early Gulfport Buildings
Portfolio Volume IV
The Timber
The Dry Plate
Willis Vail made his ‘views’ with a large format field camera. He used a dry plate to make his exposures, a 5x7 glass plate coated with silver bromide. The dry plate replaced the wet plate that had to be coated in the dark, and exposed while it was still wet. It also had to be developed in the dark within 15 minutes of coating. The dry plate could be pre-coated and stored until exposure, and after exposure it can be brought back to a darkroom for development at leisure. The dry plate could be factory produced, and by the 1870s it was commercially available, until the the 1900s when celluloid replaced the glass.
Photography was in its infancy at the beginning go the 20th century. Determining exposure for subject brightness was a skill few mastered.
