MATHEW J. STEFFENS (page 5)

3 page Article - "The Well-Made Print -Steffens"

 by Sidney Allan (pen name for Sadakichi Hartman)

SADAKICHI HARTMAN, PEN-NAME  SIDNEY ALLAN WAS A VERY INTERESTING AND CONTROVERSIAL CRITIC OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND ARTS IN GENERAL. I WAS VERY SUPRISED

WHEN I FOUND THIS ARTICLE IN AN ARCHITECTURAL JOURNAL OF ALL PLACES...

THOSE WHO KNOW  HARTMAN'S WORK  WILL UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT, OTHERS WHO ARE UNFAMILIAR WITH HIM SHOULD BY  ALL MEANS RUN A GOOGLE SEARCH AND LEARN ABOUT THIS ENGAGING, INTERESTING AND LEGENDARY FIGURE.

AND ALTHOUGH THIS PIECE BY

HIM IS NOT A BIG DEAL WHEN IT

COMES TO PHOTO HISTORY,

IT NONTHELESS IS QUITE INTER-

ESTING THAT HE WROTE WHAT IS

BASICALLY A VERY NICE ACCOUNT

OF STEFFENS' PRINTWORK.

PAGE1

American Architect & Building News, 1906

Page 2 below (needs to be recopied-sentenece missing at top)

Sadakichi Hartman

(Sidney Allan)

1925 View of Steffens with a contact

 printer of his own design.  In the 1923

City Directory Steffens is listed as

a maker of "scientific instruments."

In an 1886 patent office publication,

Steffens has applied for an aerial photographic

 aparatus (using a ballon to carry camera)

with an electricly fired shutter using a battery

      BELOW

Another invention was a so-called "photographist"

machine which would take a photo and process

it in 20 seconds. The patent was applied for in 1889,

(not yet known if approved) Although not as

successful as was hoped, it was a forerunner of things to come.

Illustration courtesy of Steve Howard

Page 3