Special Features - Slideshow

Representing Fossil Footprints

"Ichnographs of the Connecticut River Sandstone", plate 16, p.113. Image courtesy of Historic Deerfield Library, Deerfield, Massachusetts.

About this Image

This is Plate 16 from Deane's "Ichnographs from the Sandstone of Connecticut River," published after his death. It is a salted paper print, where the image is transferred from a negative onto the paper. The texture of the rock is clearly visible and informs the viewer that the surface was not perfectly smooth and that there were visual distractions from the simple form of the foot. It is therefore a more realistic image than the "ambrotype sketches" used by Hitchcock, in which an intermediate step transformed the image from the glass negative into a lithograph, and Hitchcock instructed the printer to smooth out any imperfections in the surface of the rock so that the footprint would show more clearly.