ABSTRACT
Despite photography's unbounded novelty in the nineteenth century, it followed the pattern of other arts and sciences in the West during the period-that is, an institutionalization by male champions. Unlike the proverbial treehouse, then, the sign for “No Girls Allowed” was not always explicitly nailed to the door. Beyond the unflattering characterization of women in such a scenario (cast either as tarts or as sexual police), the fear of puerile snickering voiced in the final objection reported by "Perplexed" might strike us today as simply pathetic, rather than as proof of intent to suppress women photographers. Unlike such excursions after 1890 when women amateurs joined men as members on an equal basis to photograph the picturesque outdoors, in 1860 it was understood that women friends served a strictly ornamental purpose. Future historians of photography could help correct this imbalance by revealing in greater detail how family members learned and practiced early photography together.
