NORTH EAST DAGUERREOTYPISTS AND DAGUERREOTYPES

We are researching North East Photographers of the Victorian period and are trying to find Daguerretypists and their images.

Names, dates, locations, images etc.any information, links or images would be greatly appreciated.

 

We hope eventually to put together a directory of North east Photographers up to 1901.                       At present we have over 150 Photographers and over 250 studios and we are compiling as many images of the period as possible in CDV, Cabinet, Daguerreotype and other formats of the period.

We have only managed to find 2 studio Daguerreotypists to date, a Miss Wigley who left very early for London.

And a Brown from Grainger Street, Newcastle, who used a case maker called Coleman.

Many Thanks

 

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Replies

  • On Jane Wigley, see John Werge, The Evolution of Photography (London: Piper and Carter, June 1890), 30.

  • Marcel,

    The cartedevisite.co.uk website itself carefully and accurately describes its coverage as being "Great Britain and Ireland", and for the purposes of historical and political accuracy, it would probably be best to leave it at that!

    Michael


  • Marcel Safier said:

    Hi Paul, you may recognise my name as the moderator of the Yahoo wood and brass camera list. An extensive listing of photographers for the whole of Great Britain, Scotland and Eire up to 1940 has been compiled by Ron Cosens and Sandy Barrie (both members of this forum) and a massive database underpins Ron's website www.cartedevisite.co.uk which I assist with. A small fee however does apply to access photographer information. There were at least 8 photographers active in the daguerreian period in Newcastle alone, and others whose period of activity spanned the introduction of the ambrotype so reference to period adverts would assist clairfying which media they worked with. The RPS has previously issued a booklet (that you probably have, but which I mention for other readers) by S. and K. Eva "Professional Photographers in Newcastle, Gateshead and Sunderland 1873-1920, a period too late for daguerreians, but there will obviously be some that fall into your time frame of pre-1901 and we over 300 photographers/studio active in Newcastle alone for that time period. I would imagine that most of the NE daguerreotypes bear no studio identification and then it would be down to subject and provenance to prove their NE connection. Cheers! Marcel, Brisbane.

    Thanks Marcel,

    I will look into the Ron Cosens site and continue the search.

    Regards

    Paul

  • Hello Robert,

    Thanks for the suggestions.

    We have searched most local newspapers and come up with some interesting details but not much on actual Daguerreotype photographers at present.We will continue the search.

    Regards

    Paul

    Robert Pols said:

     

    Some suggestions:

     

    Keith Adamson’s More Early Studios, Part 2 (in The Photographic Journal, RPS, July 1988, p307) has a little information on Jane Wigley and a Mr Lightly.

     

    A Faithful Likeness – the first photographic portrait studios in the British Isles, 1841 to 1855 by Bernard & Pauline Heathcote (Heathcote, 2002) is likely to be of great help. The book includes brief career/biographical notes on many early photographers, and a town-by-town gazetteer shows which are relevant. But not all early photographers were daguerreotypists (though, of course, some wet collodion practitioners started out producing daguerreotypes).

     

    Advertisements and reports in local newspapers can, as Marcel points out, prove very useful in identifying the process used. I don’t know what’s available on microfilm and for free in your local library, but if resources are limited, the British Newspaper Archive (at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) could be useful. Select the north-eastern region and a suitable date-range, and type in ‘daguerreotype’. If the results appear promising, you might think it worth the required fee to look properly at the relevant pages.

     

  •  

    Some suggestions:

     

    Keith Adamson’s More Early Studios, Part 2 (in The Photographic Journal, RPS, July 1988, p307) has a little information on Jane Wigley and a Mr Lightly.

     

    A Faithful Likeness – the first photographic portrait studios in the British Isles, 1841 to 1855 by Bernard & Pauline Heathcote (Heathcote, 2002) is likely to be of great help. The book includes brief career/biographical notes on many early photographers, and a town-by-town gazetteer shows which are relevant. But not all early photographers were daguerreotypists (though, of course, some wet collodion practitioners started out producing daguerreotypes).

     

    Advertisements and reports in local newspapers can, as Marcel points out, prove very useful in identifying the process used. I don’t know what’s available on microfilm and for free in your local library, but if resources are limited, the British Newspaper Archive (at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) could be useful. Select the north-eastern region and a suitable date-range, and type in ‘daguerreotype’. If the results appear promising, you might think it worth the required fee to look properly at the relevant pages.

     

  • Hi Paul, you may recognise my name as the moderator of the Yahoo wood and brass camera list. An extensive listing of photographers for the whole of Great Britain, Scotland and Eire up to 1940 has been compiled by Ron Cosens and Sandy Barrie (both members of this forum) and a massive database underpins Ron's website www.cartedevisite.co.uk which I assist with. A small fee however does apply to access photographer information. There were at least 8 photographers active in the daguerreian period in Newcastle alone, and others whose period of activity spanned the introduction of the ambrotype so reference to period adverts would assist clairfying which media they worked with. The RPS has previously issued a booklet (that you probably have, but which I mention for other readers) by S. and K. Eva "Professional Photographers in Newcastle, Gateshead and Sunderland 1873-1920, a period too late for daguerreians, but there will obviously be some that fall into your time frame of pre-1901 and we over 300 photographers/studio active in Newcastle alone for that time period. I would imagine that most of the NE daguerreotypes bear no studio identification and then it would be down to subject and provenance to prove their NE connection. Cheers! Marcel, Brisbane.

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