Sepia Saturday 178: Polyfoto, The Natural Photography

I do appreciate that, for Saturday Sepians at least, sepia is a state of mind rather than a colour, shade or bygone photographic hue, but this week I will share a photograph in the traditionally sepian style from my aunt's family collection.


Lieutenant Charles Leslie Lionel Payne, 1941
Unmounted silver gelatin print (76 x 98mm)
Image © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
Her father - my grandfather - had served as a machine gunner in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the Great War but, when the Second World War broke out, at 47 he was a little old to head off abroad, and was commissioned as an officer in the Pioneer Corps. Judging by the number of passport-style shots of my grandfather taken during the war years, he and the rest of the family were rather proud of his achievements, and justifiably so. In early 1942 he was promoted from Lieutenant to the rank of Captain, and by mid-1943 he was Major Payne, Officer Commanding 315 Company at Newport, Monmouthshire.


Reverse of silver gelatin print (76 x 98mm)
Image © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
The back of an almost identical print has the remains of stamp edging stuck to the four edges, suggesting that it may at one time have been affixed to a mount or frame of some sort. Both this and the previous print have a small number 60 pencilled on the back, in the lower right-hand corner.


Lieutenant Charles Leslie Lionel Payne, 1941
Unmounted silver gelatin prints (each strip 110 x 37mm)
Image © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
The prints are sepia-toned enlargements of a negative which also resulted in the two strips of 1¼"-square portraits above, and are almost certainly a product of the Polyfoto process. Unfortunately the reverse only has the date 1941 (corrected from 1940) written in blue ink by my grandmother. Derby had its own Polyfoto studio during and after the war, situated first at The Spot, and later in the Midland Drapery Co. Building on the corner of St Peter's and East Streets.


Two portraits of an unidentified woman, undated, estd. c1935-1945
Unmounted silver gelatin Polyfoto prints (37 x 37mm)
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
One of these two similar-sized head-and-shoulders portraits from my own collection fortunately does have the remnants of the manufacturer's name on the back, as well as the number 22 written in purple pencil, although the subject sadly remains anonymous.


The Polyfoto camera, made in England by Kodak Limited, 1933
Image © and courtesy of the National Media Museum
The camera used to produce these photographs was a rather unusual one, employing an automated process which reduced costs dramatically, although it did not, such as with Photomatic photobooths, dispense with the need for an operator. Originally of Danish design, and subsequently manufactured under license in England by Williamson Maunfacturing and Kodak Ltd from 1933, they used a repeating back, a series of 48 half-inch-square exposures being made on a 7" x 5" glass plate negative as a handle on the side was cranked.


Taking portraits in a Polyfoto studio, c.1949
Image © and courtesy of the Polyfoto web site
They were deployed in booths located in all the major towns in England, Scotland and Wales. Caulton (2010) lists 109 of them existing around 1950, most operated as concessions in large department stores, although there were a number of stand-alone studios in busy central locations.


Sabrina at a Polyfoto studio in a department store, 1956
Image © and courtesy of British Pathé
British Pathé has a wonderfully evocative film clip of Sabrina in her sweater (for those among you familiar with the Goon show) having her portrait taken at a Polyfoto booth in Bourne and Hollingsworth's department store (click on image above to view the clip). They advertised themselves as "the only system of photography giving natural and truly characteristic portraits, since the sitter can move and converse freely whilst the 48 photographs are being taken."

The sitter was asked to look this way and that. Sometimes the session was stopped, to remove a hat or coat. The photographer would chat to the sitter to put them at ease and often induced a genuine smile. Children were often given a ball or balloon to play with.

(Geoff Caulton, 2010)

A former employee of Polyfoto describes here how the camera was operated and the glass plates then dispatched to the Head Office and factory at Stanmore in North London (later located at Boreham Wood, Hertfordshire) (Anon, 2006).


Polyfoto proof sheet envelope
Image © and collection of Brett Payne, courtesy of Anthony Norton
After developing the glass plate negative, 48-photo proof sheets were printed using fixed-focus enlargers and sent back to the studios. The envelope shown above, marked with the address of Derby's Polyfoto studio at number 3 The Spot, is presumed to be one in which the proof sheet was delivered to the studio, ready for collection by the customer.


Yvonne Chevalier, De Gruchy's Department Store, St Helier, Jersey, c.1948
Proof sheet (silver gelatin print, 225 x 300mm) and numbered plastic sleeve by Polyfoto Ltd.
Image © and courtesy of Alison Richards
This proof sheet shows 48 different photographs arranged in a 6x8 grid, together with a numbered plastic sleeve or overlay, from which the customer could choose to have one or more shots enlarged at an additional cost.


Variation in degree of sepia-toning of Polyfoto print enlargements
Images © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
The enlargements could be supplied in a number of different formats, ranging from 4" x 5" to 10" x 12", and with a variety of finishes, including sepia toning and colouring.


Enid Joan Goacher, Sussex, c.1948
Proof sheet (silver gelatin print, 225 x 300mm) by Polyfoto Ltd.
Image © and courtesy of George Plemper
Of course the individual prints on the proof sheet could themselves be used and, as Geoff Caulton notes (2010), many carefully selected shots were cut out and "carried in purses, wallets and paybooks in every theatre of war."


Paul Godfrey, Arnold's Ltd., Great Yarmouth, 1949
Mounted proof print, taken by Polyfoto Ltd in a department store booth
Image © and courtesy of Paul Godfrey
Many proof prints were individually mounted behind simple pre-printed passe-partout card frames, such as this cute example from fellow photohistory enthusiast Paul Godfrey.



Geoff Caulton also has a number of fine specimens displayed on his PhotoDetective web site (click the Gallery button), most of which appear to have been taken during the war years, and I suspect this is when the Polyfoto attained its greatest popularity.


Mary Lavender Wallis in WAAF uniform, before June 1942
Booklet of proofs by Polyfoto Ltd.
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
One could also chose to have the proof sheet cut up into blocks of six and mounted in a plastic-covered album, such as this booklet ordered by Nigel Aspdin's mother, and probably taken at a Polyfoto branch in London shortly before she received a commission in the WAAF in June 1942. She visited the studio for another session in her new officer's uniform sometime after that date, for which Nigel also has an almost complete proof sheet.



It appears that Polyfoto was not restricted to the United Kingdom. The above unidentified and undated print is from Denmark, and I have also seen a characteristically diminutive print originating from Leipzig, Germany. I'd be interested in hearing from readers who have seen examples from even further afield, as I am unsure whether the cameras ever reached North America or the Antipodes.


Former Polyfoto studio in Hainstrasse, Leipzig, Germany
Digital image taken with Sigma DP2s camera, 19 February 2012
Image © and courtesy of -fs-
It is not clear how long the Polyfoto network lasted although certainly by the late 1960s, when the head office moved to Watford, its popularity was on the wane. Several sources claim that the reason for its demise was the coin-operated photobooth although I have my doubts, since the operator-free booths were already well established prior to the Second World War, when the Polyfoto network was expanding rapidly.


Duc de Coimbra, c.1860
Albumen print (201 x 237mm), uncut carte de visite sheet, by Disderi
Image © and courtesy of George Eastman House (GEH NEG:13908)
The idea of exposing multiple frames on a single photographic plate was not a new one. In fact, it had been around for nearly seven decades prior to the Polyfoto camera's debut in 1933, and indeed formed the basis of popular commercial photographic portraiture in the 1860s and 1870s, as introduced by Disderi and others with the carte de visite format in the mid- to late 1850s. Using a multi-lens camera several (usually eight) exposures were made on a single collodion wet-plate which was contact-printed on albumen paper. The images were then cut up and mounted on card separately as cartes de visite.


Simon Wing Ajax Multiplying Wet Plate Camera, c.1899-1900
Image © and courtesy of David Tristram Ludwig's Antique Cameras Photo Gallery
This technique of taking several frames on a single plate also found very popular use in the production of gem tintypes, which I will cover in a forthcoming Photo-Sleuth article. The multiplying wet-plate camera designed by Simon Wing and shown above, had a mechanism surprisingly similar to that of the Polyfoto camera of 1933. So, as some say, there is nothing new under the sun.

Before you head over to see what the rest of the Sepia Saturday folk have in store for you this week, have a look at this poignant two-and-a-half-minute Polyfoto compilation by Daniel Meadows about his parents.

References

Polyphoto Portrait Photography Studios web site. [retrieved 19 May 2013]

Anon (2006) Reviving the Polyfoto, on Camster Factor, 2 March 2006. [retrieved 19 May 2013]

Anon (nd) Polyfoto Vintage Style Photobooths, on Ian Johnson Wedding Photographer. [retrieved 19 May 2013]

Caulton, Geoff (2010) The Polyfoto and Polyfoto Studios, on PhotoDetective. [retrieved 19 May 2013]

Coe, Brian (1978) Cameras: From Daguerreotypes to Instant Pictures, United States: Crown Publishers.

Sepia Saturday 167: In Search of Mammoths - Journey to the Coldest Place on Earth

A few months ago Diana Burns sent me some scans of photographs in an album that she had just purchased. Taken during the northern hemisphere summer of 1914, the 22 snapshots appear to depict a trip down the River Lena in a remote part of Siberia. Although I did some research at the time Diana sent me the images, my work at the time precluded anything more than a cursory hunt on the net. This week's Sepia Saturday photo prompt includes a steam-powered river boat, which stimulated me into some further exploration, resulting in a breakthrough which I'd like to share with readers.

The twenty two photographic prints are housed in a red bound album with a gilt art nouveau title and black pages, a style that became very popular in the first couple of decades of the 20th century, as amateur photography took off with great gusto. The prints measure roughly 3½" x 5", which probably equates to the 122 film used by a No. 3A Folding Pocket Kodak camera.

Taken on the Buriatric Steppe, on the road from Yakutsk to Irkutsk (#2)
Paper print (roughly 95 x 126mm/3½" x 5") by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns (Yakutsk Album)
Right from the start it is made clear by the compiler of the album that the journey documented in these pages is no ordinary one. The first image is at the very least bizarre, showing four dead sheep or goats mounted on the tops of some spindly trees, perhaps poplars or a similar species [silver birch family, thank you Mike].

A caption handwritten in pencil on the back of the print specifies the location - "on the Buriatric Steppe, on the road from Yakutsk to Irkutsk" - but leaves the interpetation of the subject matter completely up to the viewer. Although the term "Buriatric" does not seem to have entered common usage, the Buryats are the largest indigenous ethnic group in Siberia, living in the region surrounding Lake Baikal.

11 am 24 June Oost Eelgeenskaya, View of posting boats, River Lena (#3)
Paper print (roughly 95 x 126mm/3½" x 5") by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns (Yakutsk Album)
The next two photos in the album quickly move on to the means by which this remote and inhospitable region was accessed, the Lena River. This view of "posting boats" is followed by a blurry shot in which a man standing on top of a boat is identified as "Digby," with the added information that it was taken at 3.15pm on 24 June 1914.

View of Paddle S/S "Yakut" off Oostkootsk. 30th June (#8)
Paper print (roughly 95 x 126mm/3½" x 5") by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns (Yakutsk Album)
By 30th June, they had transferred to a paddle steamboat the Yakutsk, which took them all the way downstream to the town of Yakutsk, in a region often described as the coldest place on earth. For a westerner to make a journey into the Siberian heartland in 1914 seemed to me rather unusual. Large deposits of gold and other minerals were discovered in Siberia in the 1880s and 1890s, resulting in the development of Yakutsk as a significant centre, but westerners were still the exception, even by 1914.

Image © Brett Payne & Google Maps
The diary transcript of an expedition by intrepid Australian ornithologists Robert Hall and Ernie Trebilcock down the River Lena a decade earlier (Robin & Sirina, nd) shows that they must have taken the same route, probably because it was the easiest way to get into Siberia at the time. Given the fragmentary record of Diana's Yakutsk album, I've taken the liberty of including extracts from the diary and some additional photographs taken by them. Transport technology is unlikely to have changed much in the intervening years, so the length of the journey (14 days) was probably similar, and the added detail will help to illustrate the 1914 journey. The full transcript of Trebilcock's diary, for those who are interested, may be found here.

I've also read Sokolnikov's account of a journey to Siberia in 1899 for further background material. My task was was complicated by the multitude of spellings of place names:

• Vercholensk = Verkholensk
• Gigalowa = Zhigalov = Zhigalovo
• Oostkootsk = Oustkoutsk = Ust-Kut
• Olekminsk = Olyokminsk
• Jarkutsk = Yakutsk

Horse and wagon transport Siberia, 1903
Glass plate negative by Hall & Trebilcock
Image © State Library of Victoria and courtesy of Robin & Sirina
The travellers would have started their journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway, which reached Irkutsk in 1898. The first stage of the journey from Irkutsk by post horses, shown in the image above, took about three days:

Left Irkutsk early in morning by post horses – two conveyances ea having three horses. Bells – two small bells suspended from the top of the arch over the middle horse. Carriage slung on poles, no springs! Each stage is about 20 to 35 versts long. At the end of each there is a real house where a supply of fresh horses is always ready, & where the traveller can get a samovar, or if necessary free shelter for 24 hours. The horses travel very quickly, their drivers often urging them into a gallop, much to the discomfort of the traveller if he is not well provided with pillows & cushions ... Bells on arch above horse have to be tied up while in towns to prevent their ringing.

3.15pm 24 June 1914, View of Boat, Digby standing on top of boat (#4)
Paper print (roughly 95 x 126mm/3½" x 5") by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns (Yakutsk Album)
From somewhere in the vicinity of Zhigalovo - I wasn't able to find the place referred to as "Eelgeenskaya" - they would have transferred to a long, thin, shallow bottomed boat (Sokolnikov refers to them as pauzki):

This distance (335 versts) we did in a boat, mainly by drifting with the current, in four days & three nights. Our boat, which was one of the usual kind used on the Lena for such purposes was about 40 ft. long, & had a deck house wh. though not high was large enough to shelter us & our luggage at night.

11.30am 25 June. P S/S Alexandra & barge in tow, River Lena (#7)
Paper print (roughly 95 x 126mm/3½" x 5") by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns (Yakutsk Album)
Our intrepid explorers passed the paddle steamer Alexandra towing a barge upstream, similar to those described by Trebilcock:

Passed a number of merchants barges drifting down stream. These are veritable floating warehouses, doing both a wholesale & a retail biz at an enormous profit, giving credit & charging for it.

Music aboard the Lena River barge 1903
Glass plate negative by Hall & Trebilcock
Image © State Library of Victoria and courtesy of Robin & Sirina
When they reached Oost Kootsk (Ust-Kut) the Lena became considerably wider and they were able to board the more spacious and comfortable paddle steamer Yakut for the remainder of the journey downstream. In 1903 the company included a couple of women, a samovar was on the boil, and even musical entertainment was provided.

Very comfortable considering locality – very little diffce betn 1st & 2nd class except in price. But third class! Meals not supplied for the fare – meal tariff very high. Boat travels very fast. Russians cross themselves on starting their journey ... Had a very pleasant evening of a social nature. French was the language. Got on very well with two young Russian ladies.

One hopes the later travellers enjoyed similarly salubrious company.

12.00pm 5th July. Olekminsk. View of the church (#13)
Paper print (roughly 126 x 95mm/5" x 3½") by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns (Yakutsk Album)

Спасский собор, Olyokminsk
Image © 2008 voluntas_tua and courtesy of Panoramio
During the 1914 journey a brief stop was made on Sunday 5th July at the riverside settlement of Olekminsk (Olyokminsk), perhaps to attend a church service. This snapshot produced in 1914 shows a church that has changed remarkably little in the century since.

Wooden building, gateway and courtyard in unidentified location (#15)
Paper print (roughly 126 x 95mm/5" x 3½") by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns (Yakutsk Album)
A few days later, they reached the town of Yakutsk. There are no photographs in the album that are captioned with the town's name, although there is a view (shown above) which includes a substantial wooden building with very ornate window frames, a courtyard with what might be stacks of firewood, just visible through a large signposted gateway, flanked by street lamps, and adjacent to an unpaved road. It is almost certainly the premises where the next four images were taken.

Displaying a collection of fossil bones (#18-21)
Paper prints (roughly 4" x 5") by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns (Yakutsk Album)
Among the last few photographs in the album are four slightly larger images (roughly 4" x 5", used by a variety of roll film formats) which have less of a sepia tint. In fact, their quality is so much better than the others, in terms of focus, composition, exposure, even processing, that I find it difficult to believe they were taken with the same camera, even by the same photographer. They depict a man (in one photo he is accompanied by three others) with a trilby hat and pipe displaying a number of fossil bones; using my rudimentary knowledge of palaeontology I have been able to identify tusks and jaw bone of the woolly mammoth, as well as a woolly rhinoceros skull and horn.

Russian newspapers or broadsheets (#22)
Paper print (roughly 126 x 95mm/5" x 3½") by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns (Yakutsk Album)
The final image in the album is perhaps merely a curiosity. It depicts a couple of pages from a Russian newspaper or broadsheet pinned up on boards, leaning against the wooden boards of a wall. It is not well focussed and my understanding of Russian is slim to non-existent, but I think I can make out the following (what it really means, I haven't a clue):

YAKUTSK CIRCUIT ... RENTING BICYCLES

Apart from the mention of "Digby" and "D." in the captions to three of the photographs, there are no clues as to the identity of the subjects, or to the owner of the album. Nor is there any real indication as to the purpose of the trip. Given that Europe was on the cusp of war, it would have been a tricky time to be travelling abroad. Prior to doing further research my own impression was that the tusk/horn/fossil photos, despite being at the end of the album, actually provided a focus point and could have formed the primary reason for the expedition.

Bassett Digby, correspondent for the Chicago Daily News, 1918
Glass plate negative (4" x 5") of paper print tacked on board
Chicago Daily News neg. coll., DN-0003451, courtesy of Chicago History Museum & American Memory from the Library of Congress
I won't relate the full story here, but using the words Digby, mammoth and Yakutsk in a Google search yielded the first clues: a book written in 1913 recounting a trip through Siberia by R.L. Wright and Bassett Digby, a paper on "the provenance of Bassett Digby's contributions to the Natural History Museum, London, and the British Museum" written by his grand-daughter, and a book written in 1926 by Bassett Digby himself, "The Mammoth and Mammoth-Hunting in North-East Siberia."

Woolly mammoth model at the Royal British Columbia Museum
Image © 2011 Flying Puffin & courtesy of Flickr
Bassett Digby was a journalist who followed in the footsteps of Mark Twain and others by funding his adventures with travel writing. After the publication of Through Siberia: an Empire in the Making in 1913, Digby returned to Siberia the following year. It is not clear what the primary purpose of the trip was but, as is clear from his book and research carried out recently by Susan Digby (2004 & 2008), mammoths featured prominently. Apart from the scientific interest, there was also a significant commercial trade:

In the early twentieth century there was an active market for mammoth ivory, and Yakutsk was the location of tusk yards maintained by middlemen who bought ivory and other fossil finds from native peoples for sale to southern traders. Good quality mammoth ivory was used as an alternative to elephant tusks for such things as piano keys, combs, jewellery, chess sets and billiard balls.

Although Digby provided the "first written comprehensive English-language information on [the mammoth]," Susan notes:

Digby’s involvement in this financial side of mammoth ivory collection is unknown ... [his] journey to Yakutsk was definitely enmeshed with the story of trade and potential riches. His acknowledgement read: "I wish to make my acknowledgements to a certain genial and enterprising gentleman who took a sporting chance on my being able to find a big hoard of mammoth-ivory for him." This acknowledgement, together with a collection of photographs in an album, suggests that he funded his travel and collecting interests by locating ivory for an ivory trader.

Valuation of mammoth jaws and tusks, Ivory trade in Yakutsk, July 1914
Series of paper prints (3" x 2") mounted on black card album page
Image courtesy of Susan Ann Digby, Adsbol family album
The following extract from Digby's 1926 book describes his discovery of a hoard of mammoth ivory in the trader's store room, later arrayed, photographed and valued in the yard outide, as depicted in images #15, #18-#21 from Diana's Yakutsk album. A further series of photographs of the hoard was discovered by Susan and her brother, in an album originally owned by Martinus Adsbol, who had accompanied Digby on the journey to Yakutsk.

Our luck was in. One morning we located a really big hoard. A key was turned in a massive padlock. With a muffled clang the sheet-iron door was flung open. We stepped out of the blinding July sunshine into pitchdarkness ... and, dimly at first, then more and more clearly, this great heap of Arctic loot appeared, like the slow developing of a photographic plate. Huge horns that curled this way and that ... No, not horns; but tusks, mammoth tusks by the dozen, by the score – hundreds and hundreds of them, cairn upon cairn, stack upon stack. Tons and tons of prehistoric ivory.

The snapshots in the Adsbol album are smaller, measuring approx. 3" x 2" although they are roughly trimmed. This may correspond to the 129 film format developed by Kodak for the Houghton Ensignette No 2 and Deluxe cameras first produced in 1912-1913.

Woolly rhinoceros depicted in rock art at Chauvet Cave, southern France
Image © 2006 Inocybe and courtesy of Wikipedia Commons
Susan has worked with Natural History Museum staff in London to successfully identify several specimens and artefacts in the museum's collection as being those which her grandfather provided upon his return from his second Siberian trip. The woolly rhinoceros horn in particular was an especially rare find.

Mammoth-hunting in Siberia, by Bassett Digby
Published in The Graphic, 6 March 1915
Whilst the identity of the photographer of the majority of the photographs in the Yakutsk album remains unknown, if there is any doubt whatsoever that they were taken on the same trip, this is dispelled by another find on the net. An article written by Bassett Digby and published by The Graphic in 1915 includes two of the photographs which appear in Diana's album.

Like the Adsbol family photos discovered by Susan Digby, Diana Burns' Yakutsk album plays an important role in piecing together the history of the early 20th Century exploration of Siberia. We can be fairly sure that there were three separate cameras recording the trip, and probably three men participating in the expedition - the search to identify the "third man" continues.

If you've survived this far, then have a quick look at the remaining photos in Diana's Yakutsk Album before adventuring further afield in search of more Sepian discoveries.

Yakutsk Album

Acknowledgements

Diana Burns has very kindly shared many of her "photofinds" with me, and I'm grateful for permission to use scans of the photographs in her private collection here on Photo-Sleuth. It's not very different from the crowdsourcing collaboration between various archival institutions and members of the public through Flickr's "The Commons" project.

Staff of the State Library of Victoria responded most promptly to my request for further information regarding Hall & Trebilcock's glass plate negatives.

I am also indebted to Susan Digby for giving me access to her engaging Ph.D. dissertation about her "ordinary" grandfather's extraordinary life and travels, as well as excerpts from articles that he wrote about the trip to Siberia, and for pointing me to other resources relating to Bassett Digby.

References

Buryats, River Lena, Trans-Siberian Railway, Yakutsk, Woolly mammoth and Woolly rhinoceros, from Wikipedia.

No. 3A Folding Pocket Kodak, from Historic Camera

The Ensignette Camera, from Early Photography

Roll film, from Camerapedia

Photograph of Chicago Daily News correspondent Bassett Digby, DN-0069953, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum, from American Memory (The Library of Congress Archive)

Letter to the Times - #2, from Gimcrack Hospital

The Ninety-Foot Plum Tree, Filling Some Gaps, by Mammoth Tales

Digby, Bassett (1915) Mammoth Hunting in Siberia, The Graphic, 6 March 1915, p.312.

Digby, Bassett (1916a) Along a great Siberian river, Travel 25 (June): 18–21, 46, 47.

Digby, Bassett (1916b) Yakutsk – A Siberian outpost, Travel 25 (July): 18–21, 45–48.

Digby, Susan A. (2004) Mammoths and wars, travel and home: The geographical life of journalist and natural historian Bassett Digby (1888-1962), unpubl. Ph.D. Dissertation (Geography), University of California, Los Angeles.

Digby, Susan A. (2008) Early twentieth-century collection of extinct mammals from northern Siberia: the provenance of Bassett Digby’s contributions to the Natural History Museum, London, and the British Museum, Archives of Natural History 35 (1): 105–117.

Gustavson, Todd (2009) Camera, A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital, New York: Sterling, 360 pp.

Robin, L. & Sirina, A. (nd) Siberian ornithology - Australian style, 1903, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University.

Sokolnikov, Prokopy N. (1899) Wives and Children of the Doukhobors (translation), from the Doukhboro Genealogy Website.

Tolmachoff, I.P. (1935) The carcasses of the mammoth and rhinoceros found in the frozen ground of Siberia, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 24 (Part 2, June 1935), 11-74.

Trebilcock, R.E. (1903) Diary of Expedition to Siberia (transcript), from the State Library of Victoria (MS 9247).

Wright, R. L. and Digby, B. (1913) Through Siberia: an Empire in the Making, New York & London: McBride, Nast & Company, Hurst & Blackett.