A Treasure Trove Of Photographica; Jack Naylor's Unmatched Collection

Will Move On

by Rosalind Smith  -  Sep 1, 2006

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For the past 55 years what has captivated collector Thurman (Jack) Naylor about photography is just about everything. He has amassed a private collection that has extended from the pre-photography days of Chinese mirrors and the earliest daguerreotypes to a miniature digital camera used today as a spy device. It has been a labor of love for Naylor and an unforgettable experience for those of us who have been privileged to visit the private underground museum where the majority of the collection resides.

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A recent visit to the museum stirred both nostalgia and a touch of sadness since Naylor has decided to put what may be the world's largest private collection on the market. Many of us shall miss his pride and hospitality and his wonderful tales about collecting these treasures.

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Now 87 years old, Naylor is a retired president of a company that employed more than 6000 people for over 30 years.

 

Back in the 1980s he became editor of Shutterbug for two years, changing the format of the magazine and adding color to the publication. Twenty-five years ago he built his current estate in Brookline, Massachusetts, creating a 4000-foot area below ground to house his collection of cameras, photographs, and memorabilia. Climate controlled to 68 degrees F with regulated humidity, the rooms are sound-proofed and surveillance cameras peek from the ceiling.

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On the first level, paintings by Mondrian, De Kooning, and family portraits by Andy Warhol seem strange bedfellows for the early portrait of a member of George Washington's family or the magnificent Edward Curtis images and work by Naylor's close friend "Maggie," Margaret Bourke-White.

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A few steps up to the main living room there resides one of Naylor's favorite "gems." Called a "Megaletoscopio" and patented in 1859 by the Venetian photo-grapher and inventor Carlo Ponti, this unique and exquisite teak and inlaid ivory camera produced the illusion of a color photograph 79 years before anyone con-ceived of such a vision. Peering through a lens at the front, an 11x14" wet plate photograph, hand-painted in color on its reverse side, miraculously becomes a richly colored photograph. This dramatically inlaid Megaletoscopio happens to be the only one in the world.

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Another star in the collection is the largest daguerreotype ever made, the mammoth plate taken by John Adams Whipple of Boston, showing a family of 14 from Maine. It is one of the most beautiful images I have ever seen.

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As we descend to the museum I nod a hello to Alfred Eisenstaedt's "VJ Day" and Joe Rosenthal's cover of LIFE magazine showing the US Marines as they raise Old Glory on the summit of Mount Suribachi at the end of World War II. Sam Shere's image of the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 and the signing of the peace treaty with Japan aboard the USS Missouri are also part of the collection, as is a small flag that Naylor proudly points out, telling me, "This flag went to the moon with Alan Shepard, the Navy commander who was the first astronaut to land on the moon in 1961."

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Naylor has made many friends over his years of collecting and looks back on visits from Ansel Adams as he shows me Adams' own favorite photograph, "Moon and Half Dome," taken at Yosemite. Adams presented this to Naylor and it takes its place with Adams' portrait of Georgia O'Keeffe and Orville Cox.

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Large glass cases contain the jewels of the collection, including the only known daguerreotype of the midget Tom Thumb. Many of the thousand daguerreotypes in the collection were taken by the well-known Boston photographers Southworth and Hawes, and nearby are letters written by Southworth. These are pricey images, the larger ones valued close to half a million dollars each.

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Every picture has a story. Naylor tells of how General Eisenhower asked "Doc" Edgerton to select some of his associates at MIT to take pictures of Normandy Beach prior to D-Day. Taken from an A20 bomber the two images show Normandy Beach one month before and again, the night before the invasion, to ensure there were no warning signs that the Germans may have become aware of the planned attack. "These are the first pictures ever taken in the dark of night from a plane, using Edgerton's electronic flash," Naylor says.

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When Margaret Bourke-White died she bequeathed her entire collection of cameras to Naylor, including the camera she used to take the first cover for LIFE magazine. From Mathew Brady's rare group of 19th century Civil War images to Jackie Onassis sunbathing nude on the Greek island of Scorpio, the Naylor Collection is surely diversified.

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"The Bradys stand alone, though," Naylor says. "They are all from the original negatives. If you look at them through a magnifying glass you can see the difference in the paper. It was less glossy before the turn of the century and of course lenses were not as good, so the print itself was never as sharp."

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The most fascinating part of the collection stems from Naylor's interest in espionage. During the Cold War his business was producing heat exchangers for planes and Russia was interested in acquiring information as to how these were built. A Russian Army general disguised in civilian clothes paid a visit to Naylor and agreed to gain access for him into Russia through Finland.

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"I was met at the airport by a KGB spy who became my escort for the trip," Naylor recalls. "We went to the southern part of Russia where we discussed plans to build my heat exchangers. I told my escort of my interest in rare espionage spy equipment--cameras, knives--anything...

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"When I arrived home from Russia a package came to the United Nations for me and I got a call from a man I didn't know at the Russian Embassy, requesting that I meet him at a small restaurant on Third Avenue. `There will be a package lying on the seat next to me from your friend at the KGB,' he told me.

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"There was no conversation and I left him an envelope with the payment we had agreed upon. I didn't open my package until I got home. I felt as much like a spy as anyone could have at that point. Inside I found knives, guns, and cameras. A month later a second package arrived and this is how my spy camera collection was formed."

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In one glass case there is now a lady's delicate handbag with its place for make-up and a hidden compartment for her spy camera. A German homing pigeon holds a camera strapped to its stomach; cigarettes in a package contain tiny spy cameras; small weapons are disguised in a cane. Nothing here is what it appears to be. "The FBI still visits me yearly to show new members the tools used in those early days," Naylor says.

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After 3 1/2 hours I am still wandering through the museum. Here is Jacques Cousteau's favorite camera and the exquisite violin that belonged to concert violinist Leopold Godowsky who, with Leopold Mannes, developed color film.

"When Godowsky died his wife Frankie called me and said, `Jack, Leopold wanted you to have all of his files, letters, and research papers as well as his violin. Bring a truck!'"

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In one corner sits the world's first movie projector and I turn the crank to see pictures in motion! And here is the world's largest camera that Naylor acquired from a German professor at Boston College and, of course, the world's smallest one, a Soviet KGB camera measuring 1 5/8" in length by 5/8 of an inch wide.

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A special camera using 70mm film displays a 35-foot long color photograph that covers the length of the glass case while a large underwater spy camera that is self-propelled and made by Benthos Corporation on Cape Cod is a major piece in the collection. It is currently used to search for underwater mines. This camera was a crucial tool in the finding of both the Titanic and the Bismarck.

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Such memorabilia would be incomplete without the large wooden Playboy camera that took the 8x10 centerfold pictures for 30 years. I suspect there are a number of these images in the collection, but have yet to be privy to them.

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A sadder memory shows George Eastman's suicide note while another relic is Queen Victoria's purse with her portrait on the outside, each a treasure in the history of photography.

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Naylor's former collection sold to the government of Japan for the price of $9,000,000, and this 30,000 piece collection is priced at $20,000,000. It is a photographic history of our world and we shall miss it when it finds its new home.