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In a ceremony at Kensal Green cemetery today, Saturday, 1 May 2010, Frederick Scott Archer was honoured with the unveiling of a plaque on his grave. In addition, those present were able to see for the first time a surviving link to Archer with the re-erection of the original head stone recording his death that had long been lost. Also, John Brewer announced that photo-historians had incorrectly recorded Archer's death as 2 May 1857 when, in fact, he had died on 1 May 1857.
The event was organised by a group of artists called The Collodion Collective who started work on a plan to honour Archer and to put a headstone on his grave. Money was raised through the publication of a book World Wet Plate Collodion Day 2009. The group arranged a demonstration of the collodion process after the plaque unveiling and organised an exhibition of modern wet-collodion images on glass and on paper.
Brewer while researching Archer went back to his original death certificate to discover the correct date of his death. A number of historians including Helmut Gernsheim had relied on incorrect contemporary reports of his death was they incorrect ascribed to 2 May. The newly located headstone also correctly records Archer's date of death.
Archer by all accounts was buried in an unmarked grave but his death was subsequently recorded on the headstone of his sister, Sarah and brother, James who were all buried in the same plot. The headstone was hidden by vegetation and removed and was only discovered close by the plot as plans for the commemoration were made. It confirms Archer's correct date of death and his siblings.
The headstone reads: The Sacred to the Memory of Sarah Archer who died 3rd Decr 1839 aged 24 years. Also of James Archer and brother of the above and third surviving son of Thos. Archer, formerly of Hertford, who died March 17th 1819 aged 36 years. Also Fredk. Scott Archer, brother of the above, 105 Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, who died May 1st 1857 in his 44th year.
Finally, as I walked through the cemetary I spotted memorials to another photographic notable, the society portrait photographer Alexander Bassano (10 May 1829–21 October 1913)...
Michael Pritchard
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Victoria and Albert Museum's photography collection
National Science and Media Museum
RPS Journal 1853-2012 online and searchable
Photographic History Research Centre, Leicester
Birkbeck History and Theory of Photography Research Centre
William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné
British Photography. The Hyman Collection
The Press Photo History Project Mapping the photo agencies and photographers of Fleet Street and the UK
The correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot
Historic England Archive
UAL Photography and Photography and the Archive Research Centre
Royal Photographic Society's Historical Group
www.londonstereo.com London Stereoscopic Company / T. R. Williams
www.earlyphotography.co.uk British camera makers and companies
Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock.
National Portrait Gallery, London
http://www.freewebs.com/jb3d/
Alfred Seaman and the Photographic Convention
Frederick Scott Archer
© 2019 Created by Michael Pritchard.
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