STORM TRACK: May 31, 1980 (Volume 3 Issue 4)

Photography is a major tool of the tornado investigator. In recent years, careful analyses of both still and motion pictures of tornadoes have provided the scientific community with much of the current understanding of tornadic airflows. A question of related historical interest concerns the "first" tornado photograph. I have recently undertaken a small spare time project to determine where and when, and by whom, the first, picture was taken. This is motivated by a strong suspicion that this event occurred about 100 years ago. Since photography has been such an important tool to researchers, I feel that the centenary should be duly and appropriately noted. My inquiries to date have produced four candidates:

a) August 28, 1884: Huron and Howard City. Miner County, Dakota Territory (now part of South Dakota). Apparently, at least three pictures were taken on this day. J.C. Judkin of Huron is reported to have made a "tin type" of a tornado at some distance from that town. F.N.(possibly F.W.) Robertson of Howard City took two glass plate, wet emulsion photos as a tornado approached Howard City later in the day. To my present knowledge, only retouched copies of the second of Robertson's pictures -referred to as the "large picture" by contemporary writers- are still existant today. This remarkable picture shows a very strong central vortex flanked by two smaller ones, one on each side of the central column. It has appeared in many publications (often with erroneous credits), including Flora's 1953 book and the cover of Science, 176 (4042), 30 June 1972. The Judkin "tin-type" and Robertson's "small picture" have apparently been lost.

b) April 26, 1884: near Garnett, Anderson County, Kansas. This photograph -by one A.A. Adams of Garnett shows a long, rope like funnel. Finley includes an engraving (pg. 33) made from this picture in his book of 1890. Apparently this photograph was recently reproduced in a publication by the State Historical Society of Kansas: Kansas, A Pictorial History (1961), pg. 144. However, I have not been able to obtain a copy

c) June 26, 1883: near Fort Worth, Texas. Finley also displays another engraving in his 1890 book (pg. 21), claimed to be made from a photograph. The copy of the engraving I have is of poor quality (I suspect the original was, also), but I cannot discern a tornado funnel anywhere in it.

d) May 30, 1879: vicinity of Delphos, Kansas. Faye, in his 1897 text "Nouvelle Etude sur Les Tempetes" (in French), pages 16 to 21, displays and discusses a series of engravings claimed to have been made from photographs. However, one looks remarkably like the Robertson picture of 1884; the others like sketches in Finley's report of 1881 on this severe outbreak. Finley made an exhaustive study (it runs some 200 pages) of this day, but does not mention a single photograph.

These are my leading candidates. I would appreciate any comments from readers, particularly in regard to additional dates and/or locations of early (pre-1890) photos. I find several questions of particular interest:

- What equipment was used to produce the photos?

- Who retouched Robertson's "large picture?" In all existant copies I have seen, the clouds look rather artificial.

- What happened to the Judkin "tin-type" and Robertson's "small picture?"

- Did Adams take more than one picture?

I can be contacted care of Department of Geosciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907. My telephone number is (317) 494-8171, Ext. 58.