Frank Birch, photographer of Derby

While researching the recent article on the Nag's Head Yard, off St Peter's Street in Derby, I was reminded by an entry in an 1899 trade directory that photographer Frank Birch had a studio located there for a few years around the turn of the century. He was born in Litchurch in September 1859 and shortly afterwards, the family moved into the nearby parish of St Peter's Derby, where his father George Birch (1831-1915) had work as an iron moulder. As a young man, Frank followed his father into that trade, but by April 1891 he was working as an "artist (crayon)," and it is possible that he was employed by a photographic studio hand colouring portraits.


Frank Birch married Mary Bellamy in mid-1892 and two years later, in 1894, he took over Edward Smith's studio in Bramble Street (Craven, 1993 & Adamson, 1997). The 1899 edition of Kelly's, presumably compiled in late 1898, shows that he had by then moved to a new studio in the Nag's Head Yard, 64 St Peter's Street.


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The electoral register for the years 1899 and 1900, each compiled in October, also show him at this address, as does the census taken on 31 March 1901. In 1903, he became manager of the Derby Stereoscopic Company, when he ceased trading under his own name, and operated from studio premises at 36 Victoria Street until at least 1912.


This rather battered carte de visite by Frank Birch belongs to David Lamb, who sent me the image last year. Although he assumes the young lady is a family member, the indentity of the subject of this delicately vignetted portrait unfortunately remains unknown. The fashion seems appropriate for the turn of the century, when the "leg of mutton" sleeves so characteristic of the 1890s were giving way to square shoulders, high collars and ruffles.

References

1841-1901 Census Records from Ancestry
Adamson, Keith I.P. (1997) Professional Photographers in Derbyshire 1843 - 1914, The PhotoHistorian, No. 118 Supplement, September 1997, ISSN 0957-0209.
Anon (1891, 1895, 1899 & 1912) Kelly's Trade Directories for Derbyshire, University of Leicester's Historical Directories
Craven, Maxwell (ed.) (1993) Derby Photographers 1852-1952, in Keene's Derby, Breedon Books, Derby, pp. 200-202, ISBN 1-873626-60-6