Before examining Friends' interest in photographic portraiture
per se, it is necessary to explore further the extent
of their contact with, and knowledge of, photography itself.
The earliest reference found (1)
is in the journal of Barclay Fox, who was a friend of Robert Hunt
(secretary to the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, and later
to be a founder member of the Calotype Club). On the 20th
November 1840 he noted:
Hunt to dinner. He has much simplified the mode of preparing
the Daguerrotype [sic] & has made some curious experiments
on the properties of the chemical & calorific rays in reference
to vegetation. (2)
And the following April he recorded hearing 'An
interesting lecture from Hunt. The effects of the spectrum on
paper sensitive to light are curious.' (3) In 1842 he attended a lecture
on galvanism, by Hunt, who described what appears to have been
a form of infra-red photography—certainly the permanent recording
of impressions in perfect darkness, Hunt's own researches demonstrating
the agency to be heat, not light. (4)
There are other
links with early photographers. John Dillwyn Llewelyn, though
not himself a Quaker, came of Quaker stock and mixed in Quaker
circles. (5) His uncle, Richard
Dykes Alexander (6), was both a
practising Quaker and an amateur photographer, many of whose images
are still accessible at the County Record Office in Ipswich. Alexander
was a banker, like his friend Joseph John Gurney
(7). Given Gurney's extensive contacts within Quakerism,
it seems permissible to speculate that he himself may have helped
(though not necessarily intentionally) to spread knowledge of
photography among British Quakers (8).
Interestingly, there is a tantalising link, too, with the Quaker
poet Bernard Barton, referred to above, who worked for 40 years
at the Alexanders' bank. (9)
Francis Frith's
position straddling the worlds of Quakerism and photography has
been amply explored by Michael Wigg (10),
and no attempt will be made to duplicate his efforts. But there
is one source on the Frith/Rosling circle which Wigg appears to
have overlooked, which merits a passing glance: Mary Jane Taylor's
A Dear Memory (11). Taylor (12) was friendly with the Roslings
in the 1850s. There is a particularly interesting passage in a
letter, bearing date 3rd March 1854, in which she described
attending the last Photographic Soirée, with enjoyment:
I have also
been twice besides to inspect the photographs; if they are still
exhibited and thou has not seen them, do go; they are well worth
a visit. Some of the coloured portraits are like paintings on
ivory, so exquisitely soft, and some of the stereoscopic portraits
look like wax. The landscapes of some exhibitors are beautiful.
Didst thou read in the 'Morning Chronicle' of a few weeks back
the account of the Queen's visit to the rooms in Suffolk Street,
Pall Mall, when Alfred Rosling and others conducted her about?
She was much pleased, and has since had Mr. Fenton to Windsor
to take the portraits of her children; Alfred Rosling showed them
to one or two at the Soirée, but they were not for public
exhibition, so we saw them in another room; they were in quite
an unfinished state, but some of them looked nice; in one instance
the Prince of Wales was dressed as a young Forester.
(13)
In
June 1860 she writes of preparations for Frith's wedding to Mary
Ann Rosling, and notes that 'Frank
Frith has returned home from his year in Egypt, having taken 400
photographs, I believe.' (14)
Overall, though,
there are so many sources on which to draw, with any attempt at
a thematic treatment rendered problematic by their cross-cutting
nature, that for the remainder of this section on photography
in general a narrative account in approximately chronological
sequence will be employed. Fortunately, in the available material
in The Friend and The British Friend there will
probably be found a sufficient thread—or perhaps, in the way
they circled round each other, a more appropriate metaphor might
be the double helix.
Surprisingly, photography-related
advertising appears in The Friend at a very early stage
in its history. From March to June 1845 a firm of opticians, T.
& R. Willats, of Cheapside (15),
placed the following advertisement:
Photographic
Manual, Nos. 1 & 2. Plain Directions for obtaining Photographic
Pictures, by the Calotype and Energiatype processes. Price Sixpence.
No. 2. –
Practical Hints on the Daguerreotype. Being simple Directions
for obtaining Portraits, Views, Copies of Engravings and Drawings,
Sketches of Machinery, &c., &c., by the Daguerreotype
Process; including the latest Improvements in Fixing, Colouring,
and Engraving the Pictures; with a Description of the various
Apparatus, Illustrated by Engravings. Price 1s.
(16)
By July the manual
was into its second edition, and covered other processes including
chrysotype, cyanotype and chromotype. The revised advertisement
ran in July and August that year. (17)
In January 1847
an article appeared in the monthly magazine of the Friends' school
at Croydon. Signed 'A.R.', the article on 'The Wonders of Modern
Science' included a passage on photography. Interestingly, there
is already the hint that Friends may find it acceptable for portraiture:
Another
striking instance of the progress now making in science is the
invention of the Daguerreotype. In this instrument the well known
chemical effects of the rays of light on nitrate of silver are
brought into operation, for the purpose of producing a portrait
of an individual or a representation of a scene or a building,
which, arising from an image of the actual object, must be most
strictly correct. The portraits taken with this instrument are
accordingly so strikingly faithful that it is rapidly coming into
general use. (18)
This is the earliest
reference to photography from any of the Quaker schools. However
there are photographs of staff and pupils at Bootham School in
York from the 1840s (19), quite
possibly taken by William Pumphrey (20),
and it is known that William S. Clark and others were awakening
an interest in the subject at Bootham in the early fifties; and
there was a further upswing in interest there in the middle sixties,
under Henry Richardson Procter (21).
Neither fully took root, owing, it seems, to the comparative difficulties
of the wet-plate process. A Photographic Society was not to be
successfully formed at Bootham till the mid 1880s.
(22)
In 1849 William
Lucas recorded in his diary going to see the daguerreotype likeness
of Sir C. Napier, in Regent Street, immediately after visiting
a panorama of Switzerland. This is the first recorded occasion
when a Quaker saw a daguerreotype of anything other than a member
of their own family. (23)
The Friend
in 1851 carried advertisements for dioramas
(24), as well as for J.C. Dennis, 'Optician, Astronomical,
Philosophical and Optical Instrument Maker, among whose products
were Calotype Cameras and Phantasmagoria Lanterns and Slides. (25)
In May 1852 The
Friend included its first technical articles on photography,
both being reproduced from the Athenaeum. The first,
on 'Gutta Percha in photography', reported on demonstrations by
a 'Mr Fry' at the Photographic club, of pictures on glass obtained
by a combination of gutta percha and collodion, a preparation
of 'extraordinary sensibility'. (26)
The second gave very detailed instructions for a new albumen process
for sensitizing glass plates. (27)
With these articles one has the sense that the editors are testing
the waters, for the degree of interest they attract. In fact this
degree of technical coverage is rarely tackled again.
(28)
Bootham
staff, 1848
From May to October
1856 a Bristol optician and 'photographic artist', Charles F.
Ravis, agent for Smith & Beck, London manufacturers of achromatic
microscopes &c, advertised in The Friend his 'Stereoscopes
and Stereoscopic Pictures, and Optical instruments generally' (29); as a photographer, he is discussed
further below (see p. 91).
Francis Frith first
features in The Friend, as a photographer, in December
1857, with an anonymous review of his 'Stereoscopic Views in Egypt,
Nubia, &c.' Brimming over with enthusiasm, the reviewer pronounces
them 'without fear of contradiction, the finest and most interesting
pictures of their kind ever taken.' Equally, though, the reviewer
shows familiarity with technical developments in photography,
and takes it for granted that readers will be familiar with and
'admire' the 'photographic marvels' of the day. The author concludes,
of the catalogue, that it would form 'a collection thoroughly
worthy of a place in any drawing-room.'
(30)
By the end of 1858
the publisher A.W. Bennett (31)
was advertising in The Friend the patent 'Clairvoyant'
stereoscope and collections of stereographs. Though the basic
model was available for 10/6, it could be had, for a guinea, enhanced
with gilt pillars, silk velvet, and mahogany case—hardly plain
furnishing for a Quaker, but as noted above (p. 40),
plainness was approaching the end of its shelf-life.
(32)
In May of 1858 The
Friend reported that, after a lecture at Friends' Library
in White Hart Court, Joseph Beck had exhibited photographic views
of the Holy Land. (33) In the
same month The British Friend, in a review of Dillwyn's
Gathered Fragments, noted that the publication included
two 'unexceptionable photographic illustrations'; the choice of
wording is interesting as both acknowledging that some photographic
illustrations might be exceptionable (the stance one would expect
from this periodical), and conceding that not all were.
(34)
In January
1859 Francis Frith gave what was described as an 'unusually interesting
lecture' at Friends' Library, on Egypt, Syria & Palestine,
his scenes on the Nile being 'illustrated by his own beautiful
stereoscopic photographs, which were placed in a magic lantern,
and the picture thus thrown onto a white sheet within view of
the whole company, by which means every detail was shewn with
wonderful accuracy and distinctness.' Interestingly, Frith aired
for this audience the views he published that year
(35) on the potential for harshness shown by photography,
by possessing too much truthfulness. The anonymous reviewer
for The Friend exalted Frith to a position among photographers
'second, we believe, to none in the country', and noted that the
lecture had attracted 'one of the largest and best audiences we
have ever seen in these rooms.' (36)
In June of that
year were published three sets of six stereoscopic views of Ackworth
school, the Flounders Institute (37),
and parts of Ackworth village. It is not clear where these originated,
although the school itself seems a likely source. Two different
booksellers advertised the stereo sets for sale.
(38) Stereoscopic photography was evidently becoming
of considerable interest, as later that year Alfred Bennett was
advertising others series, on English, Continental and American
scenery; he was still also promoting Swan's 'Clairvoyant.' (39)
It is at this time,
too, that we first encounter evidence of the use to which such
images were put. Joseph Buckley (40)
wrote in a letter to his daughter how he and his host had 'spent
the evening in reading, conversation, and looking at a numerous
collection of Cornish and other photographs, also views in Devonshire,
some of them beautiful places. The very pictures made me feel
I should much like to see the reality.'
(41) And the literary Friend, Mary Howitt (who, with
her husband, William, were friends with Alfred Bennett
(42)), in a piece of travel writing published in the
Eclectic Review, toyed with the idea of reversing convention
and presenting scenes from an excursion as comparable to photographs;
for Mary Howitt, 'Sun-Pictures, as secured by the photographic
art, are amongst the most beautiful and interesting discoveries
of the present day.' (43)
In 1861 photography
begins to attract brief coverage in every issue of The Friend,
in a column headed 'Scientific Notes,' initially attributed to
William Tallack, though later contributors are often anonymous
or give the initials 'R.J.F.' or 'R.J.E.' In a column packed densely
with photographic news in January Tallack notes that photography
'continues to extend its practical applications;' he reports on
the plans of Colnaghi & Co. to publish a photographic historic
gallery; notes a new method for taking gigantic photographs, developed
in France, which allows for life-size portraits; flags up the
possibility of photography by artificial light derived from thin
magnesium wire; and reports that 'Photographic visiting cards
are becoming increasingly used in this country, having been previously
common in America, where they are said to be produced at the rate
of twenty for a dollar.' (44)
In February Tallack
notes a new type of negative produced in Vienna, reducing exposure
times; and progress being made in photographing onto wood. (45) In March the superiority of
French negative paper is shown to be from their use of starch
instead of animal size; and James Clark Maxwell's new theory of
the three primary colours is announced.
(46) In April the columnist recommends the new edition
of Hardwick's Photographic Chemistry, noting that 'The
season is now getting so advanced, that our friends who practise
Photography will begin to look up their apparatus with a view
to making a beginning for the year.' This is a real indication
that Friends were actively engaged in amateur photography. (47) R.J.F. recommends the trial
of a new process for preserving the sensitivity of collodion plates,
as well as perseverance with stereo photography onto albumenised
glass plates, as so successfully achieved by Ferrier & Soulier
of Paris; and the successful taking of photographs by electric
light is reported. (48) In May
a process for transferring photographs onto glass is announced;
the writer notes
Fixed in
the sashes of a library, these ornaments would give a great repose,
and exclude external sights; and, judiciously selected by the
inhabitant, might fully sustain the character of the apartment,
by presenting views of famous locations or portraits of famous
men. What an imperishable gallery of friends' likenesses might
not a man gather upon his window-panes!
(49)
One is reminded
of Amelia Opie and her prisms (p. 26).
In May 1861 Alfred
Bennett inserted a substantial display advertisement
(50) for his Stereoscopic Scenes, Card Portraits, and
Portrait Albums—wholesale and retail.
(51) In the following issue W. Wood of Liverpool was
also advertising stereoscopes and stereographs.
(52)
R.J.E.'s column
in June 1861 takes up most of a page with a back-to-basics review
of 'What is a photograph?', describing the daguerreotype, calotype,
waxed paper and other processes. (53)
The April issue
of the following year carried a report from the Birmingham Friends'
Reading Society, of an exhibition of artistic work by local young
Friends, which included a large number of photographs: 'The beautiful
foreign photographs and transparencies brought prominently before
the eyes of the visitors, the rapid progress that photography
and art-manufacture have made on the continent in the last few
years . . .'. (54) The 'Scientific
Notes' column, in May 1862, reported on a life-size photographic
portrait of the Prince of Wales having been taken at Munich by
Herr Albert. (55) In the December
issue there was a long report of a lecture on photography given
the previous month by Edward Smith of Sheffield at the Friends'
Institute (56)). The lecture was
copiously illustrated, and drew heavily on Frith's photos of Egypt.
Smith described the advantages and disadvantages of photography,
and outlined some of its utilitarian applications, noting among
other things its increasing use by the police for photographing
criminals, and for illustration in courtrooms, to obviate the
trouble and cost of visits to the scenes of crimes.
(57) Smith's concluding observations are given almost
verbatim by the reporter, as especially worthy of notice by readers,
and they are also directly of interest here:
. . . should
any one . . . call in question the propriety of our thus endeavouring
to gather information on subjects that are not of a decidedly
religious character, I must demur to his conclusions. It is no
part of our compact as a religious community, to withdraw ourselves
from the active walks of life, nor to live in wilful ignorance
of useful things with which we have to do from day to day. (58)
The same issue of
The Friend published a half-page advertisement for photographic
materials, including for the first time photograph albums and
a growing series of published cartes de visite of Friends (see
below). (59)
At a date no later
than 1862, Louisa Pease wrote a 'Fragment', published among selections
from her private memoranda that year, entitled 'Whether we take
photographs'. In this she concludes that photography is a recreation,
and that recreations are perfectly acceptable, provided too much
attention is not given to them: 'God's glory is not abused so
long as the right spirit is prevailing.' Additionally, as we can
please others by our recreations, this can contribute to 'loving
our neighbour as ourselves.' (60)
The Friend's
'Scientific Notes' in March 1863 included a paragraph on
the application of photography to popular instruction.
(61) Even The British Friend, in June that
year, noted The Book of Photography in its list of publications
received. (62)The Friend's
column, now renamed 'Scientific and Natural History Notes', reported
in July 1864—following an article in the American Journal
of Photography—on the new technique for obtaining photographic
portraits in direct sunlight, by the interposition of a medium
of pure blue. (63) The following
month The British Friend—showing the extent to which
photography was by now accepted even here—carried a report from
the Science Section of the Dublin Friends' Institute, on an recent
excursion. It related how
Two or three
of the visitors occupied themselves during the day in taking photographs
of the more interesting ruins, as well as some beautiful views
along the river. An occasional glance at some of these on the
study wall or in the portfolio, will recall to memory scenes and
occurrences of a pleasant and profitable day, such as it is not
the privilege of many frequently to enjoy.
(64)
In the November
issue of The Friend the editors drew attention to newly
published photographs by W. Runicles, of Jordan's meeting house,
observing that 'we have pleasure in stating that we can cordially
recommend them as well-executed productions of what should be
to Friends very interesting objects. (65)
In February 1865
The Friend's 'Scientific and Natural History Notes' reported
on a new collodion process that replaced silver with a 'double
salt of uranium', images made by which were 'absolutely permanent.' (66)The British Friend
of November that year included a paragraph
(67) headed 'Wonders of Photography', on the achievements
of microphotography. (68)
A final incursion
to note, from the wider world of photographic history in the 1860s,
is the following curious small advertisement from The Friend
of August 1869:
A Photographer,
Felix Bonfils, of Beyrout, who has been in Syria for about two
years, informs A.L. Fox, Falmouth, that he is the possessor of
a fine collection of 600 to 700 Photographs of Egypt, Palestine,
Syria, and Greece; size 80 centimetres by 30. He wishes to receive
an offer for the entire collection. (69)
1. This is not to disregard the evidence
for Thomas Young's involvement with Wedgwood and Herschel, which
is, however, largely circumstantial.
2. Brett, ed. (1979): 213.
3. ibid.: 227.
4. Brett, ed. (1979): 294-5.
5. Morris (1999).
6. 1788-1865.
7. It is on record, for example, that Gurney
signed the total abstinence pledge at Alexander's house. Braithwaite,
ed. (1854): II.383.
8. No direct evidence for this has been
found, beyond a single use by Gurney of the concept of the magic
lantern, as a metaphor (Braithwaite, op. cit.: II:501).
9. Verrall (1893): 27.
10. Wigg (1995, 1997 & 1998).
11. Published in 1914.
12. Who incidentally—in the Quaker way
of everyone seeming to be related to everyone else—was a close
relation [niece?] of the Samuel Lucas referred to above.
13. Taylor (1914): 126.
14. ibid.: 177. There is also an interesting
story recounted by Edwin Waterhouse, which has apparently not
been noted before: 'In carriages my father had his particular
taste. A large roomy vehicle for station and monthly meeting use
was designed for him by Bristol carriage builders. . . . When
we were about to leave Sneyd Park [1855], we made the acquaintance
of Frank Firth [sic], the photographer of Egyptian temples
and scenery, and photography being then in its infancy, he was
struck with this carriage, as being just the thing he required
in his travels as a place in which to 'develop' his photographs.
It accordingly became his property, and was filled with yellow
glass windows, and shelves etc. for the apparatus needed.'—Jones
(1988): 60.
15. The 1881 census shows Richard Willats
as a 61-year-old Optician's assistant and chemist, of Hackney
(TNA: RG 11/309).
16. The Friend III.27:71, 28:95,
30:152, 31:175.
17. ibid.: III.31:175, 32.198:200.
18. Croydon School Monthly Magazine
(1847): 67. The first professional photographic studio in Europe
had been opened in London by Richard Beard in 1841, and within
a matter of months studios were opened in Plymouth, Bristol, Cheltenham,
Liverpool, Nottingham, Southampton, Brighton, Norwich, Hull and
Oxford (Gernsheim 1982: 106, 125-26, 130, 182, 245).
21. 1848-1927; later England's first professor
of tanning. OYSA (1935); Procter appears in the 1881 census as
a tanner (leather) in Tynemouth (TNA: RG 11/5082).
22. Pollard, ed. (1926): 126.
23. Bryant & Baker, eds (1934): II.428.
24. 'The Overland Mail to India', 'Our
Native Land', and R. Marshall's 'Great Diorama of the Cities and
Scenery of Europe'
25. The Friend, IX.97-104, advertisement
sheets.
26. The Friend, X.113:98. 'Mr
Fry' could have been the Quaker Samuel Fry, of whom more
later; but there were certainly other photographers of the name—notably Clarence Fry (partner in the prominent studio of Elliott
& Fry)—not known to have been connected with the Society
of Friends. [2007-05-02: In fact Clarence Edmund Fry was a Friend. See
www.photohistory-sussex.co.uk/BTNFryWAH.htm].
27. loc. cit.
28. The next occasion on which The
Friend comes close to a photographic article is also its
last of the 1850s. In a short piece entitled 'Lightning Daguerreotype',
published in August 1854, it relates an extraordinary tale of
a man struck dead by lightning in 1736, with the image of a pine
tree delineated in colour on his chest, the lightning
having struck through the tree.—The Friend XII.140:144,
August 1854.
29. The Friend XIV.161:96, 162:115,
163:136, 165:174, 166:194, May-Oct 1856.
30. The Friend XV.180:224, Dec
1857.
31. Now also, more than coincidentally,
editor of The Friend, as he was to remain until 1861.
The Friend eds (1943).
32. The Friend XVI.192:229, Dec
1858.
33. The Friend XVI.185:82, May
1858.
34. The British Friend XVI:135,
May 1858.
35. In 'The Art of Photography'.
36. The Friend XVII.193:6-7, Jan
1859.
37. A Quaker teacher's training college.
38. The Friend XVII.198:118, June
1859; seven more photographic views of Ackworth were also advertised
for sale in the issue of May 1863 (29:120).
39. The Friend XVII.201:174, 203:212,
Sept & Nov. 1859.
40. Who was a convinced Friend, having
joined the Society in 1829.
41. B., H., ed. (1874): 330.
42. Entry for Mary Howitt in Dictionary
of Quaker Biography.
43. Howitt (1859): 770.
44. The Friend, N.S. I:10-11,
Jan 1861. The carte de visite craze would peak by 1864, but at
its height it is estimated that three to four hundred million
cartes were sold annually in England (Linkman 1993: 73, Gernsheim
1988: 201.
45. ibid.: I:36, Feb 1861.
46. The Friend I:66, Mar 1861.
47. There are other scattered references
in the literature: the Epping naturalist Henry Doubleday, for
instance, was an early experimenter, and is said to have attempted
the photography of insects (Mays 1978: 87).
48. The Friend I:101, Apr 1861.
49. The Friend I:133-4, May 1861.
50. Roughly ¾ page.
51. The Friend I: advertisement
p. 8, May 1861.
52. The Friend I:192, June 1861.
53. The Friend, 7:162, June 1861.
54. The Friend, 15:53, Apr 1862.
55. The Friend, 16:96, May 1862.
56. Probably this was the Edward
Smith, 1800-68, who owned an iron & steel rolling mill in Sheffield, and was an
elder of his meeting.—Annual Monitor, 1869.
57. The lecturer—perhaps as an industrialist
himself—seems to have been especially excited by commercial
possibilities of the new process of photo-lithography invented
by Herr Burchard.
58. The Friend 24:289-90, Dec
1862.
59. The Friend 24:310, Dec 1862.
60. Pease (1862): 34.
61. The Friend 27:67, Mar 1863.
62. The British Friend XXI:155,
June 1863.
63. The Friend 43:163, July 1864.
64. The British Friend XXII:194-5,
Aug 1864. One of these amateurs may have been T.N. Harvey, who
describes an accident with his photographic apparatus in 1868,
in his Autobiography:74-75.
65. The Friend 47:5, Nov 1864;
Runicles was still working as a photographer at the time of the
1881 census, but his connection with Quakerism is not established
(TNA: RG 11/1458); Mathews (1974): 132.
