Sepia Saturday 282: Derbyshire Photographers: John Mellor Hampson

Instead of going with the Sepia Saturday image theme this week, I'm continuing my intermittent series of posts featuring Derbyshire photographers. Since 2002 I've been compiling a historical database of studio and portrait photographers operating in the English county of Derbyshire, with much of the accumulated data, research material and images presented online: Derbyshire Photographers & Photographic Studios.

The information about photographers and studios comes largely from trade directories, census records, historical newspapers, genealogical databases and a variety of other sources. Examples of portriats by these photographers come partly from my own collection, but mostly by kind contribution from several hundred contributers around the world who have been in touch with me since the web site was launched in 2002. The database now includes over 500 separate photographers, with detailed profiles on over a third of them, but due to other projects competing for my time and interest - such as Photo-Sleuth - updates to the web site have stalled in recent years. My research, database compilation and collection of relevant images continues, however, and I still welcome further contributions.


Portrait of unidentified child, taken c.1880-1885
Carte de visite by John M. Hampson of No. 9 Birch View, Birch Vale
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Although most of the documentary and archival sources where records of photographers might be found hve now been extensively scoured, I still come across the occasional name that is completely new to me, mostly from the discovery of portraits. This, a typical example, is a carte de visite portrait that I came across on eBay recently and purchased for my collection. Like most photos that are sold on eBay, it is not annotated, and has no documentation of provenance, so I have no idea who the subject was. It appears to be a child - possibly a girl, although the short hair makes me wonder a little - in a velvet dress with abundant ornamentation in the form of knotted braid. The chair on which she is sitting is covered with a plaid blanket, while another chair to her right has a floral cloth covering.


Reverse of card mount
by photographer John M. Hampson of Birch Vale
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The reverse of the card mount has a design which Roger Vaughan calls the Early Large Letter design, used in the late 1870s and early 1880s. I suggest this particular example is from the early to mid-1880s.

John Mellor Hampson was born on 3 February 1846 at New Mills, Derbyshire, son of a wheelwright James Hampson and his wife Martha. By the age of 15, he had already left school and was working as a millwright in nearby Hayfield. He married Maria Bates Randle at Hayfield on 11 May 1870; she had been working as a cotton doubler in one of the local mills. The following year, John was a foreman/millwright at a print works in Hayfield, presumably associated with the cotton mill industry. The censuses of 3 April 1881 and 5 April 1891 both found him living at number 9, Birch View in the small village of Birch Vale, near Hayfield, describing himself as a millwright. By 1901 he and his wife had moved to Hayfield Road, Hayfield, and then by 1911 to Macclesfield Road, Staley Bridge (across the border in Cheshire), but he was still working as a millwright. He died at Whaley Bridge on 13 March 1913, aged 67, and was buried at Hayfield two days later.

I've found no evidence in the usual documentary records for John M. Hampson working as a photographic artist, although the Bulmer trade directory for 1895 lists him as a coal merchant. However censuses were only taken every ten years, while trade directories provide a fragmentary record at best, and it appears that he must have briefly tried his hand as a photographer during the late 1870s or early 1880s.

Sepia Saturday 224: The Servants at Quantock Lodge

The Sepia Saturday image prompt this week shows a woman watering her artichokes while a man, presumably her husband, stands with a pipe firmly clenched in his mouth and holding a shovel. He's perhaps pretending that he's just finished the weeding, but is clearly not dressed for the task. My contribution to the meme this week is a group of servants, including gardeners and groundsmen, who may be in their best clothes, but they don't look quite as out of place in the garden.

In something approaching the manner popularised by fellow Sepians Tattered + Lost and Mister Mike, I will attempt a deconstruction and/or reconstruction of the occasion.


Quantock Lodge Servants, 79/August, Cabinet card portrait
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
This early cabinet portrait mounted on plain card was a fortuitous purchase on eBay a few years ago, lucky in that such items often attract furious bidding which very quickly puts them totally out of my reach costwise, but if I remember correctly I was the only one to show any interest in this. It is unusual not only for the subject matter, a large group of servants from a big house, but also that the location and date are written on the card mount.

Quantock Lodge is a mansion built as a holiday residence in the Gothic revival style during the mid-19th century for Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton (1797-1869), and described by Nocolas Pevsner as "a large rather dull Tudor house ... Gothic Stables, a specially crazy Gothic Dovecote and a big Gothic Lodge." Although Baron Taunton's second wife inherited the estate on his death in 1869, his eldest daughter Mary Dorothy Labouchere (1842-1920) lived there after her marriage in 1872 to Edward James Stanley, D.L., J.P. (1826-1907), later a British Conservative politician from 1882 until 1907. By August 1879, when this photograph was taken, the Stanleys had a son and a daughter, both born at St George Hanover Square, London, and a second son was born on 30th August, also in London.


Cabinet card portrait by Monsieur Bernard's Prince Imperial Photographie Francaise, 8 Alphington St, Exeter
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Rather than using printed card mount, the photographer has used a small paper label with his details pasted on the back of the card.

MONSIEUR BERNARD'S
PRINCE IMPERIAL
MEMORIAL
Photographie Francaise.
-:o:-
8, Alphington St. EXETER.
Copies may always be had.
No.
I've been unable to find records of a photographer named Bernard working in either Exeter or Somerset. However, there was a Daniel Bernard of Austrian origin living at 12 Smythen Street, Exeter in April 1881 who described himself as picture frame dealer. That he had links with Somerset is demonstrated by the birth of his two children at Bristol in 1875 and 1878. Bernard's use of the name "Prince Imperial Memorial" was particularly opportunisitic, considering that Napoléon, the Prince Imperial, had been killed in Zululand only a couple of months earlier, and the "Prince Imperial Memorial Fund" set up in mid-June.


Detail of Quantock Lodge servants
This group of servants - 10 male, 9 female and a young lad - is large, indicative of a fairly wealthy household, which the Stanleys certainly were. Mary's mother and paternal grandmother were members of the Baring banking family. The census record of Quantock Lodge, Over Stowey, Somerset for 3 April 1881 (p1 & p2), only 20 months after the photograph was taken, shows 21 servants - 8 male, 12 female - as well as a governess and a young boy, with three additonal male employees living in married quarters nearby. In order to compare the census list with the people we see in the photograph, I have extracted their details:

Name	Age	Occupation	1871--1891
Eleanor E. MAJOR	22	Governess
Annie REID	40	Butler's wife (Visitor)
Caroline FARLEY	49	Housekeeper
Emile WELLS	30	Cook
Elise REDFLEUR	31	Ladies Maid [sic]
Mary MAY	25	Nurse	Housekeeper, 1891
Thomas REID	45	Butler
Walter REID	37	Valet
William DAVIS	28	Under Butler
Thomas WALKER	30	Footman
James GRANDFIELD	25	Footman	Under Butler, 1891
Henry WATTS	32	2nd Coachman
James STACEY	23	Groom
George LUCAS	22	House Servant
Mary A. PRICE	26	Kitchen maid
Alice E. TOFFS	19	Kitchen maid
Elizabeth VINCENT	22	House Maid
Gerald A. ELLIS	8	Scholar (Nephew)
Clara PACKER	31	Head Housemaid
Hannah HUTCHINGS	28	Still Room Maid
Elizabeth WALTER	28	2nd Housemaid
Jane HOOPER	19	3rd Housemaid
Caroline THORNE	18	4th Housemaid
William ISTED	39	Head Coachman
Archibald BOUSIE	60	Head Gardener	Head Gardener, 1871
John MARSHALL	56	Head Gamekeeper

The boy was actually Mrs Stanley's nephew, Gerald Arthur Ellis, but I've included him in the extract because he is, rather oddly, listed among the servants. Gerald's father Major-General Sir Arthur Ellis was Equerry to the Prince of Wales, and Gerald himself became a Page to Queen Victoria.


Status and heirarchy of servants in a Victorian house
Image © and courtesy of BBC News Magazine
I can't give an authoritative source for this, but I have the impression that census listings for such households generally show the servants in order of seniority. It is interesting to note that the head gardener had been there since 1871, while two of the servants were still working at Quantock Lodge a decade later in 1891. In those ten years Mary May had worked her way up from Nurse to Housekeeper, while James Grandfield had undergone a similar promotion from Footman to Under Butler.


The Butler and the Housekeeper, Quantock Lodge
The two central figures in this tableaux, also probably the oldest, are almost certainly the most senior male and female servants in the household, the butler and the housekeeper. The butler looks to be in his forties. Thomas Reid was shown as 45 in the 1881 census, but 46 or 47 when he died at Quantock Lodge in February 1884 - depending on source - and is therefore a good candidate. His wife Annie is described as a visitor in the census, and was therefore not a regular member of the household. After her husband's death, she continued to live nearby in Taunton, described in the 1891 Census is "living on her own means."

The housekeeper at Quantock House in April 1881 was Caroline Farley. She gave her age as 49, but I've been able to track her through the remaining census records from 1841 to 1901, and it appears that at the time the photograph was taken in the garden of Quantock Lodge in August 1879, Caroline was probably in her mid-fifties. The housekeeper in the photograph looks a little older than this, perhaps in her sixties, but there are no older women in the census list, so this may be Caroline Farley's predecessor - it's difficult to be sure.


The Valet, Quantock Lodge
Thomas' younger brother Walter Reid was also at Quantock Lodge in 1881, aged 37 and employed as a valet. Judging by his clothing, his age and the similarity of their facial features (in particular ears, nose and mouth), I think he may be standing in the back row, second from right, with his right hand resting with some degree of familiarity on the shoulder of a woman seated on the butler's right, and possibly his left hand on the shoulder of another young woman. Walter was the executor of his brother's will dated April 1884, in which he left a personal estate of £480. I've been unable to find any record of Walter after this date.


The Under Butler and the House Servant, Quantock Lodge
Judging by their clothing, their ages and their proximity in the lineup to the butler, I believe that the two young men standing in the back row, directly in line with the butler and the housekeeper, are probably the Under Butler (right) and male House Servant (left), listed in the 1881 census as William Davis (aged 28) and George Lucas (aged 22). George Lucas was an inmate of the Dorchester Union Workhouse at Fordington in 1871, his mother having died when he was very young.


The Two Footmen and the 2nd Coachman, Quantock Lodge
The double-breasted coats with large brass buttons worn by all three young men standing at the right hand end of the back row makes them likely to have been footmen and coachmen. In 1881 Thomas Walker (30) and James Grandfield (25) were the two footmen, while Henry Watts (32) was the Second Coachman. It is difficult to tell whether that is the order they appear in the photograph.


The Cook and the Head Housemaid, Quantock Lodge
Unfortunately these two are in a part of the photograph which has been overexposed, with a resulting loss of definition. From their clothing, seniority dictated by their position seated to the housekeeper, and their ages, I believe them to be the Cook (left) and the Head Housemaid (right). In 1881, these positions were filled by Emily Wells (30) and Clara Packer (31). I tracked down Emily/Emma Wells to the magnificent Petworth House in Sussex in 1871, where she was employed by the 2nd Lord Leconfield as a Still Room Maid, the most junior servant in the household.


The Governess and the Lady's Maid, Quantock Lodge
There are only two women dressed in dark clothing, both of them fairly young, and they must, I think, be the Governess and Lady's Maid. The young woman seated on the grass at the far left of the group has a substantial hat, and appears to be of an appropriate age to be the 22 year-old Governess, Eleanor E. Major. Ten years later she was working as a Governess to the family of her previous employer's sister, Mina Frances Ellis, and was still employed as a governess in 1901. The woman holding a dog on her lap may be the 31 year-old Elise Reafleur (or Redfleur), the Swiss-born lady's maid to Mary Stanley.


The Nursemaid, Quantock Lodge
Five months prior to the sunny summer morning when Monsieur Bernard visited Quantock Lodge, the Honourable Mrs. Stanley placed an advertisement in the Morning Post, a conservative daily London newspaper "noted for its attentions to the activities of the powerful and wealthy," looking for a "superior Nurserymaid to help in the care of two children (see below). Pregnant with her third child, she was obviously anticipating the extra work load. It would be nice to think that Mary May, the 25 year-old "Nurse" listed in the 1881 Census, who was still with the Stanleys ten years later at Quantock Lodge as housekeeper, came to them in response to this advertisement. My feeling is that she is seated at far left, between the butler and the governess.


Advertisement in the Morning Post, 18 March 1879
In 1898 Mary Ann May married the under-butler James Grandfield and the couple moved to Kensington where James found work, now as a butler. The 1901 Census shows the Stanley household without a butler. James was still working as a butler in London in 1911 and died in 1919, while Mary died in 1939.


The Kitchen and House Maids, Quantock Lodge
The three remaining women in the group, standing immediately behind the butler, housekeeper and cook, look to be in their early to mid-twenties, and could be either kitchen or house staff. Unaccounted for in the census are two kitchen maids, four house maids and a still room maid. Presumably some were either too busy to outdoors engaging in such frivolities as a photographic portrait (read camera-shy), or absent on the day.


The Head Gardener, Quantock Lodge
The man standing at the extreme left of the group may be the Head Gardener, Archibald Bousie, who lived with his family in the gardener's cottage on the estate. He was born on 9 March 1821 at Markinch, Fife, Scotland and, judging by the number of credits in The Flora of Forfarshire by William Gardiner, published in 1848, he was a very knowledgeable and active botanist as a young man. Mr Bousie was employed from c. 1848 by Henry Labouchere, Lord Taunton, as the head gardener in the famous gardens laid out by Capability Brown and Humphry Repton at Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire. He won numerous medals and prizes for his fuschias, rhododendrons, calceolarias, fancy pelargoniums, figs and desert apples in flower and fruit shows at the Crystal Palace, Royal Botanic Society and Royal Horticultural Society between 1855 and 1863.

After Stoke Park was sold in 1863, Bousie moved to Quantock Lodge where he worked in a similar capacity, first for Lord Taunton and later for his daughter and son-in-law, the Stanleys. He died at Over Stowey on 20 December 1910, aged 89 years, after having passed on the reins at Quantock Lodge to his son David Alexander Bousie.


The Head Gamekeeper and the Groom, Quantock Lodge
As we get further down the list, I feel on more shaky ground regarding identifications. The man with a large stick and an even more impressive beard seated on the grass is dressed as an outdoor servant, but I don't believe he can be the Head Coachman, so I think it more likely that he is a gardener or a gamekeeper. The 1881 Census shows one John Marshall, aged 56, Head Gamekeeper, living near Quantock Lodge and it seems likely this is him. The man seated at far right, holding onto a dark-coloured poodle, is probably the groom, shown in the census as James Stacey, aged 23.


The Young Lad, Quantock Lodge
Finally, we have the well dressed young lad sitting cross-legged in front of the housekeeper and the cook. There is only one boy shown in the census, Gerald Ellis, nephew of Mrs Stanley, but in August he would have been only six years old, and this chap looks to me to be around 9 or 10, at least. The Stanley's eldest son Henry Thomas Stanley was a year younger than Gerald, so it's not likely to be him either. I suspect that he was a local lad employed as a Hall Boy.


Quantock Lodge servants
Possible identification of individuals in Quantock Lodge Servants photo:

1. Archibald Bousie, aged 60, Head Gardener
2. Walter Reid, aged 37, Valet
3. Unidentified Kitchen or House Maid
4. George Lucas, aged 22, House Servant
5. Unidentified Kitchen or House Maid
6. William Davis, aged 28, Under Butler
7. Unidentified Kitchen or House Maid
8. James Grandfield, aged 25, Footman
9. Thomas Walker, aged 30, Footman
10. Henry Watts, aged 32, Second Coachman
11. Mary May, aged 25, Nurse(maid)
12. Thomas Reid, 45, Butler
13. Caroline Farley, aged mid-50s, Housekeeper
14. Emily Wells, aged 30, Cook
15. Clara Packer, aged 31, Head Housemaid
16. Elise Reafleur/Redfleur, aged 31, Lady's Maid
17. James Stacey, aged 23, Groom
18. Eleanor E. Major, aged 22, Governess
19. John Marshall, aged 56, Head Gamekeeper
20. Unidentified Hall Boy

Of course I understand that most readers will have decided, probably well before getting to this point, that my IDs are at best tentative, and in the worst case, rather unlikely. My aim at putting this list out in the cybersphere is to generate some interest and possibly further information about the servants who worked, perhaps not straight away, but hopefully in due course.

For more gardening of the sepian variety, I can recommend visiting the other Sepia Saturday contributers.

Sepia Saturday 221: The Photo Boat

Travelling photographers catered for quite a different section of the portrait trade from those who had established studios in larger towns. The population of smaller towns and villages just didn't generate enough business to keep a full time permanent studio viable year round. In order to make ends meet, the photographer who either lived in or wished to cater to a small town needed to either find extra work in an alternative trade, or travel further afield in search of customers.

In previous articles here on Photo-Sleuth I have written about several of these itinerant tradesmen who worked in Derbyshire, England: "Professor" Frank Simpson, Charles Tyler and Charles Warwick all owned caravans and toured the countryside, often following the circuit of summer fairs.


J.B. Silvis' U.P.P.R. Photograph Car
Image © and courtesy of Richard D. Sheaff
In North America the rapid settlement of vast expanses of land in the late nineteenth century meant that practitioners who wished to ply their trade there needed to be inventive. Much of the expansion took place along the network of railroads, it is therefore not surprising that railroad photographers set up business to service these disparate communities. The most famous of these was perhaps John B. Silvis, proprietor of the Union Pacific Rail Road car, who took portraits and sold stereoscopic and other landscape views along the Union Pacific and other companies' railway tracks from 1870 until 1882.


F.E. Webster's Dental and Photo Boats, Lake Charles, Calcasieu, Louisiana
Mounted paper print, 204 x 153mm
Image © and courtesy of Jana Last
In parts of the United States, however, communities were linked by waterways rather than roads or railways. Many tradespeople serviced their customers from riverboats, but I had never come across a photographic studio housed on one until I saw this image shared by Jana Last on her family history blog. Jana's maternal great-grandfather Frederick Emory Webster (1864-1946) graduated from the Western Dental College, Kansas City, Missouri in April 1896. Some time during the next decade he appears to have operated a dental surgery from the boat shown at centre in the photograph above which, according to the handwritten caption, is on the shore of Lake Charles in Louisiana.


Detail of F.E. Webster's Photo Boat, Lake Charles, Calcasieu, Louisiana
Moored alongside is an almost identical craft with a sign reading "F E WEBSTER PHOTO BOAT." (Click on the image above for more detail.) That it does indeed house a photographic studio seems quite plausible, as the end of the boat closest to shore has large windows and a special skylight with pitched roof which I believe was the actual room where portraits would have been taken.


F.E. Webster's Dental and Photo Boats, unknown location
Mounted paper print, 202 x 124mm
Image © and courtesy of Jana Last
Jana has at least two more photographs of her great-grandfather's boats, although the photographer's studio has now been replaced by the premises of an optician. That the same boat was converted from studio to eye-testing rooms, and presumably a dispensary (or how would he have made a living, since the eye-tests were advertised as free?), is fairly certain because the characteristic skylight is still just visible in both photographs.

In fact, the Photo Boat may have been Webster's first craft, as the name painted on the prow appears to read "F.E. Webster No. 1," while that on the dental boat is quite clearly "No. 2." I've not been able to decipher the caption fully (it is written in either Portuguese or Galician, in neither of which I am proficient), but it appears to state that the floating theatre is towed by the steamboat with two smokestacks.


Detail of F.E. Webster's Dental & Photo Boats, Lake Charles, Louisiana
That steamboat appears to be a different one from that in the first photograph taken at Lake Charles (see detail above). Judging from the apparent lack of paddles or smokestacks on the floating studio and surgery, they were not self-propelled, but rather barges towed by a paddle steamer. It's not clear whether Webster owned his own steamer, or whether he just hired one to tow the two barges whenever they had exhausted the opportunities for business in one location and wanted to move to another. However, I did note that the steamboat superstructure also has "Photographer" signwritten on the wheelhouse.


F.E. Webster's Dental and Optical Boats, Natchez, Mississippi
Mounted paper print, 205 x 153mm
Image © and courtesy of Jana Last
The caption on the third photograph indicates that it was taken at Natchez, Mississipi. Locations in FE Webster's timeline show a general migration south, away from his former residences in Stockton (Kansas) and Kansas City (Missouri), down first the Missouri River and then the Mississippi, although since none of the photographs are accurately dated it is difficult to be precise about his movements. By April 1899, when he was granted a patent for a dental handpiece, and shortly after the granting of a divorce from his first wife, he gave his address as "Clarendon, Monroe, Arkansas." It may have been an address of convenience, perhaps that of his lawyer, as presumably he was on the move much of the time.


Portrait of Cynthia Maria Webster née Waterman (1834-1895)
taken by The F.E. Webster Photo Boat, c.1894-1897
Albumen print (47 x 61mm) mounted on printed card (60 x 77mm)
Image © and courtesy of Jana Last
Jana is also very fortunate to have a portrait taken F.E. Webster's Photo Boat studio. Although identified as the photographer's mother, who died in September 1895, I think it's possible it might be the portrait of one of her daughters. Whoever it is, we can see from the card mount that it was produced on the boat, and I believe from the wide sleeves worn by the subject that it was taken in the mid-1890s.


Frederick (Watson) Emory Webster (1864-1946), taken c.1890-1896
Cabinet card print by David P. Thomson of Kansas City, Missouri
Image © and courtesy of Jana Last
Webster, pictured here in Kansas City while he was studying to be a dentist or on his graduation, may not have lasted very long in the photograhic trade, but his choice of studio was pretty unusual. I've not yet found evidence of any other portrait photographer using this mode of transport, although there may well have been some.


Doremus' Mississippi Views Photograph Gallery, c.1870s
J.P. Doremus was a portrait photographer from Patterson, New Jersey, who in 1874 constructed a floating photographic studio which he used to travel down the Mississippi:

... from St Paul, Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico photographing steamboats, waterfronts, bridges, lumberyards, log rafts, and river towns. Doremus would then convert these images to stereo card views which he described in a short work entitled "Floating Down the Mississippi" (1877).

While there are plenty of extant stereoviews by Doremus, there is no evidence that he took any portraits in this studio. Perhaps Webster's studio was one of a kind.

I'm very grateful to Jana Last for the opportunity to use these photographs from her private collection. Thanks also to Dick Sheaff for the use of one of his fine images. You may or may not find similar modes of water transport in this week's Sepia Saturday contributions, but I can guarantee that there will be plenty of interesting images.

Post Script 31 March 2014

Mike Brubaker has very kindly drawn my attention to a collection of photographs of Photo Studio Boats on the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library web site, which demonstrates that Mr Webster's venture was not the only one of its kind. From this page, I extracted details of the following:
- Williams Photo Boat, Sistersville, West Virginia, 1896-1900, and on the Muskingum River, Marietta, Washington County
- H.O. Schroeter's Floating Photo Studio, Green River, Kentucky, 1900
- Doremus Photo Gallery No.1 named Success and No. 2 named Flora
- Thornton Barrette's Photograph Boat, Russell, Ky., 1899-1900
- Little Gem Floating Pictures, unknown location and date
- Eureka Photo, unknown location and date
Clearly more research can be done on this topic.

Post Script 14 March 2021

A further communication gratefully received from Gary Saretzky has shed much more light on the fascinating activities of John P. Doremus and his floating Photograph Gallery between 1874 and 1881:

You mentioned lack of evidence that Doremus took any portraits on his floating gallery. There are frequent mentions in his diary that he did and I’ve seen examples of a tintype and a cabinet card, although these portraits seem to be quite uncommon compared to his stereo views taken on his travels down the river from 1874 into the 1880s.  Excerpts from his diary are available online in Stereo World 30:5 and the entire diary from March 1874 to the end was published in S. & D. Reflector in sections from March 1992 to December 1993, also available online.  Doremus did not take all the portrait himself as he had a camera operator as well as other staff.  When he was away from the boat for an extended period, he let his operator continue taking portraits for a percentage of the gross.  The quality of the portraits I have seen are not impressive and I suspect those were taken by his operator.  On one occasion mentioned in his diary, he got into a physical fight with an unsatisfied inebriated customer.

References

Last, Jana (2014) The F. E. Webster Dental and Photo Boats, Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog, 3 February 2014.

J.P. Doremus, on the Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium web site.

Stereoviews by J.B. Doremus, from George Eastman House.

Sepia Saturday 171: Before the humble postcard

Although the picture postcard is almost as old as the postage stamp, it wasn't until the 1890s that postcards with pictures of scenic views and landmarks were published in large numbers. After the United Kingdom and United States postal services gave a green light to the use of divided backs, in 1902 and 1907 respectively - message on one half, address on the other, thus freeing the entire one side of the card for the picture - the craze reached fever peak in the decade up to the Great War. Due to two world wars and the introduction of the telephone in most private households, postcards were never again produced in quite the number and variety as during the pre-war heyday, but they remained enormously popular for most of the remainder of the century.

The widespread availability of email, text, skype and smartphone services has understandably been followed by a decline in the use of postal services, and postcards have likewise diminished in popularity. A study last year claimed that the proportion of British tourists sending postcards home had declined from a third in the 1970s to an astonishing 3% (although another survey gives a more believable figure of 16%). Similar trends have been reported elsewhere, such as in India, and I can report that I struggled to find any postcards, let alone decent ones, in Honiara last year.


Conway (Conwy) Castle, Wales, c.1890-1900
Photomechanical print by the Detroit Photographic Company, 1905
Image courtesy of Library of Congress
I think it's still a little early to assume the complete extinction of the postcard - viz. Alan and his Twitter for Gentlefolk campaign, and the huge Postcrossing project, responsible for almost half a million postcards a month - but I'll sadly admit the chances of a major revival are slim. On a more positive note, and prompted by this week's Sepia Saturday Photochrom image of Conway Castle in Wales, I thought we'd take a look at what people kept as mementos from their vacations before the advent of postcards.


The Great Pillars, Baalbek, Lebanon, c. 1857-1860
Albumen silver print, 203 x 153mm, by Francis Frith
Image courtesy of National Gallery of Canada
Albumen-based cartes the visite were the first popular and affordable medium for portraits in the early 1860s, which tends to overshadow the fact that albumen prints were already well established in photography by then. Developed in 1850 by Blanquart-Evrard the albumen print quickly superseded the calotypes or salt print. Paired with the wet plate collodion process, many print copies could be made of a single photographic glass plate negative. One of the first to take advantage of this was Francis Frith, who established a huge business selling both mounted and unmounted prints of views produced from three trips to the Middle East between 1856 and 1860.


Dovedale, Derbyshire, c. 1850s
Stereoview by the London Stereoscopic Company, 54 Cheapside
Image © and courtesy of John Bradley
The sale of paper prints was boosted considerably by displays of the stereoscopic photograph at the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851, and the subsequent production of views in enormous numbers by firms such as Francis Frith and the London Stereoscopic Company. The stereoview - also referred to as a stereogram or stereocard - used two images of the same scene, taken from slightly different view points, mounted side-by-side on card which, when viewed with a special device with lenses, gave the appearance of a three-dimensional picture.

After a revival in the 1890s, stereoviews remained popular well into the twentieth century, but seem to have fallen from favour after the Great War.


Buxton Crescent from The Slopes, Derbyshire, c.1860s
Carte de visite by Francis Frith (Frith's Carte Series)
Image © and collection of Brett Payne

Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, c.mid- to late 1870s
Carte de visite by William Potter of Matlock Bath
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
For the duration of the carte de visite's heyday, in the 1860s and 1870s, many countrywide firms like Friths, as well as local photographers such as William Potter of Matlock Bath produced views of the countryside in great numbers. These two Derbyshire views showing the popular Victorian tourist destinations of Buxton and Chatsworth are typical examples.


View of unidentified building, possibly in Derbyshire, c. mid-1880s
Cabinet card by Alfred Seaman of Chesterfield
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The larger format of the cabinet card, first introduced in the late 1860s, but which did not really catch on until a decade or so later, lent itself to scenic views, so it is perhaps a little surprising that they are not more common. This example from Chesterfield photographer Alfred Seaman depicts an unidentified building, possibly a hotel or a hyrdopathic establishment and presumably somewhere in northern Derbyshire; it is from the mid-1880s.


Wallis' Furnishing Ironmongers shop, Bakewell, Derbyshire, c.late 1880s
Collodion positive (ambrotype) by unidentified photographer
Image © and courtesy of Nino Manci
It is clear from Seaman & Sons' display of mounted scenic photographic views in the shop window of Wallis' Furnishing Ironmongers shop (click image above for a more detailed view of the display) in Bakewell, where they did not have a branch studio, that they did offer scenic views.


Ashby Castle, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, c.late 1860s-early 1870s
Albumen print by J.W. Price of Derby & Ashby-de-la-Zouch
(mounted on card, later roughly trimmed)
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Seaman and many others published loose and mounted prints of landscapes and other views in a large variety of formats. This example of a mounted print (roughly trimmed) depicts the ruined Ashby Castle and has the backstamp of photographer J.W. Price. At 138 x 98mm, it is slightly larger than the size of a postcard. A scene in Sir Walter Scott's popular historical novel Ivanhoe is set in Ashby Castle, and this attracted visitors to the town of Ashby throughout the 19th Century. Harrod & Co.'s 1870 directory states,

Ashby is highly celebrated on account of its baths and springs, and its ancient castle ... Tradition states that Mary Queen of Scots was confined within one of the upper chambers.

Price no doubt sold this print and others from his studio on Ivanhoe road.


All Saints Church and St Mary's Gate, Derby, 1884
Albumen print (126 x 171mm), attributed to Richard Keene of Derby
(mounted on album page)
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Loose prints, such as this 1884 view of All Saints church - now Derby's cathedral - were sold by Derby photographer, printer, publisher and stationer Richard Keene from his premises just around the corner at number 22 Irongate, still within full view of the church. A visitor could then paste the print into a large format album together with others from his trip. This particular print sits alongside two other Derby views on an album page, with photographs of Bournemouth on the reverse.



(Left) Unidentified view of ruined building on cigarette box, by Davis & Sons, Barrow-in-Furness (Right) View of The Promenade, Matlock Bath on glass, mounted on velvet frame, by William Potter of Matlock Bath
Images © and collection of Brett Payne

Cover of Buxton and Derbyshire booklet of views, publ. F. Wright, Buxton


Matlock Dale and High Tor, Derbyshire, c.1892, published mid-1890s
Photomechanical print by Valentine and Sons of Dundee
Images © and collection of Brett Payne
It was also possible to buy sets of photographs, either loose or in booklet form, such as this collection of 24 Derbyshire views published by Francis Wright, stationer and bookseller of Buxton. The photographs were taken and printed by the Dundee firm of Valentine and Sons, and sold by Wright from his premises at 1 Spring gardens and Devonshire colonnade.


High Tor and Dale, Matlock, c.1892
Colourised postcard by Valentine & Sons, Dundee
View #17206, registered 1892, published c.1905-1906
A decade or so later this exact view was republished a number of times by Valentine and Sons in postcard format, a colourised example from c.1905-1906 being displayed above. Although other print formats would continue to be sold, nothing would rival the postcard for many decades.

Next time you're on holiday and send a postcard to someone back home - and I hope you do (a few each year can't be too bad for your carbon footprint) - spare a thought for its forerunners. If you head over to Sepia Saturday, you may well find a few more ancestors to the postcard on display amongst this week's contributions.

References

Spiro, Lisa (2006) A Brief History of Stereographs and Stereoscopes, on Connexions

J.G. Harrod & Co.'s Postal and Commercial Directory of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland and Staffordshire, 2nd Edition, 1870, from the University of Leicester's Historical Directories

Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire & Rutland, 1895, Kelly & Co. Ltd., from the University of Leicester's Historical Directories