The use of large-format wet collodion glass negatives in the 1850s enabled photography to be used more extensively for photomechanical printing and reproduction. For map-making and surveying the development and application of this nineteenth century photo-reprographic technology had great advantages over expensive and elaborate processes based on traditional engraving and lithographic methods.
In this talk it will be discussed the importance of photographic, printing instruments and techniques that were specially designed to be used in the second half of the nineteenth century for photomechanical map production. An emphasis will be made on the photographic section of the Portuguese Geographical Institute founded in 1872 and its collaboration with other European cartographic institutions that employed extensively the photomechanical techniques.