Approach to Photography
Marian "Clover" Hooper Adams kept a record of her early photography in the small, lined notebook presented below. In it she carefully listed exposure times and whether she made a print from the exposed glass plate. She also took notes from at least one book on contemporary photographic methodologies.
Notebook with lists of photographs by Marian Hooper Adams, 1883-1885
A Few Nineteenth Century Sources on Photography
Marian Hooper Adams's notes, which appear on pages 35-36 of her notebook, are taken from William de Wiveleslie Abney's A Treatise on Photography. First published in 1878, the exact edition she used is unknown.
Pasted on the back cover of the notebook is an article on "Hydrokinone." This article appeared in Science: An Illustrated Journal Vol: II, Number 34, 28 September 1883, page 445.
The leaflet below provides instructions about creating platinotype photographs. (It is possible that Clover consulted this leaflet since it was found with other family papers.)
On Clover's Photography
...I've gone in for photography and find it very absorbing...
— Marian Hooper Adams, 7 September 1883
…my wife does nothing except take photographs…
— Henry Adams to Elizabeth Cameron, 26 July 1883