ABSTRACT
Photography grew into an important anthropological tool during the last three decades of the nineteenth century. It supported the practices of anthropometry and comparative anatomy by helping scientists to standardize modes of representation as well as amass a large number of observations. Images produced within cultural anthropology showed material culture, work, and ritualstypically were thought primarily to have an illustrative function. The idea of vulgarized race for the masses, as it was disseminated through visual documents, could be considered the second form of anthropological knowledge. Societies of scholars were now able to dictate how they gathered data, and no longer had to bend to the needs of spectacles or the contingencies of maritime commerce. Historiographers have noted the failure of typological atlases and anthropometric photography to meet the criteria outlined by the field of anthropometry. Images were a central feature of this project. They both informed the scientific gaze and contributed to the creation of a shared culture.
