Vaniman erected 30 metre high poles to elevate his cameras. Here he's photographing the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company's works at Belfast, Christchurch, New Zealand, 1902. Weekly Press, 28 May, 1902. Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, NZ, Ref. 6422

Vaniman's early life on a farm made him an expert in agriculture, he also had mechanical aptitude which proved useful in his later careers.

His first ambition was as a singer and he toured the States and Canada for eleven years until the opera company went broke and dissolved. During this time he developed an interest in photography and photographed places he visited.

Around 1900 after leaving the opera company in Hawaii, he decided to use his photographic skills professionally.

Using his mechanical skill he designed and built an improved panoramic camera of swing lens design. His photos were made in two sizes, 9 1/2" x 30" and 15 1/2" x 47" and were always platinum contact prints. It has to be assumed he used two different sized swing lens cameras with the same field of view as photos of the same scene found in both sizes were taken several minutes apart, this can be seen in cloud and shadow movement.

Haleiwa Hotel, Honolulu 1902, platinum contact print 6.5 x 28.5 in. Ref. PAN US GEOG - Hawaii no. 10, Library of Congress WASHINGTON, D.C. USA

After making impressive panoramas of Hawaii, Vaniman was hired by the Oceanic Steamship Company to photograph cities and places visited by the shipping company in New Zealand and Australia. These would be used for tourist promotion in America, Australasia and Europe.

In 1902 he went to Auckland, New Zealand and over a 12 month period photographed the major cities and tourist destinations. To acheive the panoramic views he wanted, he sought high vantage points including ships masts, erected poles and later in Australia, captive balloons.

Between early 1903 and late 1904 Vaniman photographed the major cities of Australia. Based in Sydney he visited the New South Wales area, Queensland area, Melbourne and Tasmania. Later he moved to Western Australia to photograph that area.

More information about his photography in Australia can be found here.Vaniman in Australia.

After Australia he moved to Europe with the intention of photographing the major cities but was unsuccessful because of the atmospheric conditions. He gave up photography and turned his attention to aeroplanes and ballooning.

With Walter Wellman (1858-1934), owner of The Chicago Record-Herald newspaper and explorer,he made two unsuccessful attempts to be the first to the North Pole, both attempts were in a dirigible. Beaten in 1909 by Robert Peary (1858-1920) who led a dog sled team to the pole, Wellman and Vaniman decided to do the first aerial crossing of the Atlantic.

It was during Vaniman's second attempt in 1912 that he lost his life after the "Akron" exploded less than 2 kilometres from the point of accent.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Alan Tierney, Melvin Vaniman (1866-1912) A Biographical Note (published by Alan Tierney, 132 Coromandel Street, Goulburn NSW 2580, Australia)