History of Photography. An American Century of Photography. From Dry Plate to Digital. the Hallmark Photographic Collection by Keith F. Davis.

Hallmark Cards/Abrams, 1995. First edition. Fine, like new with protected fine dust jacket.  423 pages. 321 illustrations, including 297 in tritone, 22 in full color, and 2 in duotone. Includes both well known and hitherto unknown works by major photographers of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Well written and thoroughly researched with more than 900 endnotes citing sources and bibliography.  Note: reflections in photo of cover accompanying this listing.  Heavy book, requires more postage than most books. Summary:

An American Century of Photography: From Dry-Plate to Digital, The Hallmark Photographic Collection by Keith F. Davis (published 1995) is a comprehensive visual and historical survey of American photography from the late 19th century into the digital era. The book was produced to accompany major exhibitions drawn from the Hallmark Photographic Collection, one of the United States’ most important corporate photography collections assembled by Hallmark Cards and later housed at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Richly illustrated with hundreds of photographs—ranging from iconic images to lesser-known works—the book traces the evolution of the photographic medium alongside major artistic, technological, and cultural developments. It begins with the advent of dry-plate technology and the hand-held camera in the 1880s, which helped expand photography’s use beyond specialized studios into both artistic and documentary practice. From there, Davis presents a chronological narrative showing how photographers explored different styles, subjects, and ideas over the 20th century and into the early digital age.

The text is structured historically, situating images within their broader context of social change, artistic movements, and technological innovation. Through essays and image captions, Davis discusses themes such as pictorialism and modernism, documentary and journalistic photography, post-war creative experimentation, and the impact of digital imaging on artistic practice.

By juxtaposing well-known masters of the medium—such as Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus, and Cindy Sherman—with often under-recognized photographers, the book offers readers a broad and nuanced understanding of American photography’s complexity and diversity.

Overall, the book functions as both an authoritative historical account and a beautifully presented art book, making it valuable to historians, photography enthusiasts, students, and general readers interested in the visual culture of America over the past century.