Anne Hathaway's Cottage c. 19th century

Francis Bedford created this photograph of Anne Hathaway's Cottage using the wet collodion process, a popular method in the mid-19th century. Looking closely, the material qualities of this photographic process give the image its distinctive sepia tone and soft focus. It involved coating a glass plate with chemicals, exposing it in the camera while still wet, and then developing it immediately. This painstaking, alchemical process required skill and speed, and the resulting photograph, like this one, captured a wealth of detail. The choice of subject matter, Anne Hathaway's Cottage, also speaks volumes. In the 19th century, there was a growing fascination with the lives of literary figures. Bedford's image of the cottage catered to that interest, presenting an idealized and picturesque view of rural life. The image, with its thatched roof and timber-framed walls, romanticizes the past. Bedford’s photograph shows how the cottage became a site of pilgrimage and, in a way, a commodity. The cottage embodies a romantic vision of a pre-industrial way of life and highlights the connections between material culture, historical narrative, and the burgeoning tourism industry of the Victorian era.