Early Bristol Photography

Introduction

Bristol was a centre of early photography and many of these early photographs dating back to the 1800's are well preserved. Some of the earliest appear in books such as James Beasley's "A Small Light in the Far West" published in 1996 in conjunction with the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and Reece Winstone's "Bristol's Earliest Photographs" first published in 1970, but even these very interesting books have very sparse information on the photographers themselves.

Alfred Barber

Barber was born in Nottingham on March 19, 1808, the son of Thomas, a portrait painter, and Mary. He married Eliza Gill on August 23, 1831. At first a bookseller, printer and stationer, he established Nottingham's first daguerreotype studio on October 2, 1841. It was not a financial success and after a court action initiated by Beard, the studio closed at the beginning of 1843.

He moved around a little. In April 1843, he started a business in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, then visited St. Helier, Jersey. He made several return visits to the Channel Islands during the next three years. In May 1846, initially in conjunction with John F. Goddard, he opened a studio at Winchester and at Southampton early in 1847. He also paid short visits to Basingstoke in 1848 and Reading in 1850. In 1852 he moved to Reading, and had a brief stay in Oxford in 1854.

In the summer of 1855 he finally settled in Bristol, where for the first five years he was in partnership with George Marks. In 1855, they were working from 18, Park Street. He continued as a photographer until 1867 when he became a jeweller. He died in Totterdown on March 8, 1884.

Cyrus Voss Bark

In October 2009, I purchased what was described as a CDV (Carte-de-Visite) of the Victoria Rooms, Bristol.

Victoria Rooms, Bristol - photograph by Cyrus Voss Bark

The photo seems to be one of a series created by Bark - this is number 626. The back of the photograph gives his address as Strathearn House. The King Edward VII Memorial Fountain was added to the front of the builsing in 1912. Bark and John Beattie were working together until 1868 but Bark was working from 1 Westbourne Place, Clifton in 1869 so the photograph can be dated to either 1868 or 1869.

Reverse of the above photograph

Strathearn House was located at 1 Westbourne Place, Clifton, Bristol. According to Roger Vaughan's Old & Antique Prints and Photographs website, Bark was operating out of this address around 1870. Bark was born Cyrus Herbert Voss-Bark in 1848 in Leicestershire and he died in 1913. John Beattie, one time partner of Bark, also operated out of this address, probably from 1864 to 1868.

In December 2020, Charles Scott sent me this image of Eagle House, Brislington that had been taken by C. V. Voss.

Cyrus Voss Bark's photograph of Eagle House, Brislington

Over the years, various trade directories give Beattie and Bark various addresses...

1860 John Beattie, 25 Triangle, Queens Road.
1864 Strathearn House, 1 Westbourne Place, Clifton.
1868 Beattie & Bark
1869 1 Westbourne Place, Clifton
1891 C. Voss Bark, 88 City Road
1892 Bark, C. Voss, Engineering & landscape photographer
1897 Bark, Cyrus Voss, 31 Meridian Place, Clifton
1906 Bark, C. Voss, Photographer, 71 Ashley Road 1913 (Last entry)

Roger had several nice websites. These were online from 1999 to around 2016, but the only place they seem to exist after that is on the Internet Archive.

Like me, Roger used a variety of free sites to store his webpages. A list of all his old sites can be found on the Internet Archive.

John Beattie

In February 2002, I received an email from Lloyd Wright in Michigan. He very kindly sent me a scan of a full plate daguerreotype he wants to know more about. It was taken by J. Beattie of Bristol. Beattie is listed in the trade directories associated with C. Voss in various premises between 1860 and 1868. Lloyd thinks the daguerreotype was taken earlier, around 1852. One interesting thing about this photograph is that there is the Freemasons emblem in the bottom right of it.

From my own researches I've found that C. Voss may have been the Cyrus Voss Bark mentioned in the City Directories operating from a studio near the Victoria Rooms between approximately 1870 and 1890.

In February 2008, I received an email from Australian photographic historian Marcel Safier (Internet Archive) whose friend, Sandy Barrie, is working on a directory of British photographers and his earliest date for John Beattie in Bristol is 1858 at Rysdael Place, Queen's Road, Bristol in 1858. Sandy has him listed in various parts of the country but nowhere near Bristol between 1852 and 1858 (including a visit to Stowmarket in 1854). He is listed in the 1861 census as an artistic photographer residing at 25 Triangle, Bristol. In the 1851 census he is listed as a photographist residing at 6 Cross St, Goole, Yorkshire. It is quite possible this dag was taken in 1858. Another perhaps remote possibility (but something that I have come across before) is that someone has rehoused a dag in a Beattie ambrotype case.

In May 2020, I received an interesting email from Jim Ireland of Andrew James Books. He had a scarce delux leather-bound copy of "Mariquita" by Henry Grant published in 1863. You can see the photograph and its inscription of John Beattie, Clifton in the Internet Archive's scan of the book.

Frontispiece image of "Mariquita" by Henry Grant published in 1863

Beattie was born in Scotland around 1820. In August 1851, whilst working as a daguerreotypist he met Frederick Scott Archer who introduced him to his method of obtaining pictures on glass; although it was some years before Beattie used this process.

He became an itinerant photographer, and is known to have visited Bury St. Edmunds and Yarmouth, Norfolk in 1852 and the following year went to Harrogate, Stamford, and Grantham. In 1854 he was in Huntingdon and later revisited Bury St. Edmunds. He remained in the Eastern Counties in 1855, practising at Diss, Bungay, Colchester, and Ipswich. After spending some time in Leicester he eventually moved to Bristol in March 1858.

He became an enthusiastic and prominent contributor to the photographic press. His studio in Bristol, was by 1870, transferred to his former partner, C. Voss Bark.

William & Clementina Brunner

William was born in Hungary around 1829. A former lieutenant in the Hungarian Army, in 1854, he was granted a licence to use Talbot's (alleged) patented process. Talbot regarded him as a political refugee and waived the licence fee.

The year he got the license, he took photos in Whitehaven, Cockermouth, Keswick, Carlisle, and in 1855 at Penrith, and Barnard Castle. He moved to Sunderland sometime in the mid 1860s, where in addition to being a photographer he was also a teacher of languages

His wife Clementina took an active role in the business, claiming that she was a "pupil of Mayall." In 1872, she opened a studio in Clifton, Bristol.

John Jabez Edwin Paisley Mayall (September 17, 1813 - March 6, 1901), was a photographer who in 1860 took the first carte-de-visite photographs of Queen Victoria.

Richard H. Burke

A former portrait painter, he worked as a photographer in Bristol from 1855 at 58, Park Street, to around 1857.

William Callaway

Callaway was a photographer in Bristol from 1855 at 60, Park Street, to the mid-1860s. In the 1860s, he had a studio in Torquay for a short period.

Robert Thompson Cartwright

He operated in Bristol from 1850 to 1869, at first assisted by his wife. He does not appear to have one of Beards licenses and was one of Henry Vines' competitors. From 1950 to 1855, he was working at 33/34 Broad Quay. From 1853 to 1854 he also had a studio at White Ladies Cottage, near Hampton Terrace, West Clifton. From 1855, he had a studios at 5 and 13 Claire Street.

Early photographic studios required a lot of light, so many were at the top of buildings. Cartright offered special facilities for invalids at ground level in a separate building where a wheel chair could be drawn in and a portrait taken without physical inconvenience to the sitter.

William Clark

In April 2019, I got an email from James Cooper. He had just bought a photo of pioneering Alpine mountaineer of Francis Fox Tuckett. The photogrpah has been taken at Tucketts home by William Clark. Clark was an early Bristol photographer. James' photograph is signed by Tucket and dated March 1870. Clatk's address is also on the back of the photograph as 27 Park Street, Bristol. Clark must have moved studios later as in the 1890 edition of Mathews City Directory he is listed as being at 87 Park Street.

William Clark was born in 1834, and lived until 1903. He was the father of photographer Bennett Clark (1863-1937) who later worked in Wolverhampton.

I had never heard of Francis Fox Tuckett, so I read a little about him. He born on February 10, 1834 at the Old House, Frenchay Common, Bristol. During his lifetime he climbed 269 peaks and the crossed 687 passes. A man of wide interests ,Tuckett was vice-president of the Alpine Club, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of Clifton Antiquarian Club. He also designed one of the first sleeping bags and the alcohol-fuelled "Rob Roy" or "Russian Furnace" portable stove. He died on June 20, 1913 at his birthplace, the Old House, Frenchay Common, and was buried at the Friends' Meeting House in Frenchay.

Francis Fox Tuckett in 1868

In May 2019, Bartok Gruszka gave me a mystery I have not yet been able to solve. Bartok sent me two images, one of a baby taken by William Clark of Bahnhofstrasse in Grünberg, and the other of William Clark's signature:

A baby taken by William Clark of Bahnhofstrasse in Grünberg

William Clark's signature

Both date from around 1895. Grünberg was in Schlesien, formerly Germany, now Zielona Góra in Poland. In 1894, William married Ida Scobel from Grünberg

The mystery is, is Bristol's William Clark the same man as Grünberg's William Clark?

James Mitchell Cox

Cox was a miniature painter from London who having made a financial arrangement with Beard, succeeded to the daguerreotype studio of William Turner in Bristol between 1847 and 1848 at the Photographic Institution, at the top of Park Street. By the early 1850s he had returned to London to resume miniature painting, but by 1863 he was back to being a photographer in London for a short time.

James Fisher

Fisher was a miniature painter who exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1849 and 1858. He was also a photographer in Bristol from 1855 until at least 1872 with a studio at 1 Vittoria Pace, Whiteladies Road.

William Friese-Greene

Friese-Greene was born in College Street, Bristol on 7th September 1855 and died in London on 5th May 1921. He was apprenticed to Maurice Guttenberg, a photographer of Queens Road, in 1869. This may well be the M. Guttenberg mentioned in the Mathews Bristol city directory of 1870. It may have even been the same studio as The Triangle and Queens Road actually merge into eachother. In 1851 there were only around 50 professional photographers Britain, by 1871 there were nearly 8,000. His early experiments in cinematography were done at his home near Christ Church, Clifton but he soon left Bristol. Within six years had set up his own studios in Bath and Bristol, which he named the "Photographic Institute". He married Helena Friese on 24th March 1874 and decided to add her maiden name to his.

Between 1885 and 1890 he built a series of four prototype motion-picture cameras. The cost of developing these made him bankrupt and he spent a short time in debtor's prison. Between 1889 and his death he registered 78 patents but, unfortunately none became popular. He worked on stereoscopic film, stage effects and colour film, he developed a process for producing photographic cigarette cards and another invention of his became the first X-ray examination system in Britain. Other patents covered items as diverse as Inkless Printing, Electrical Transmission of Images and Air Cars & Gyroscopically levelling Airships.

Friese-Greene constructed a camera for taking a series of photographs on a roll of perforated film moving intermittently behind a shutter, the basic principle of a motion-picture camera.

It was in Bath that he made the acquaintance of John Arthur Roebuck Rudge, a tall gaunt bearded inventor of magic lanterns. Rudge had the 'Biophantoscope', which could display seven slides in rapid succession, giving the illusion of movement. William found the idea amazing and irrisistible, and started work on his own camera - a camera to record real movement as it occured.

Early one Sunday morning in January 1889, Friese-Greene took his new camera, a box about a foot square with a handle projecting at the side, to Hyde Park. At the west of Apsley Gate, he placed the camera on a tripod and exposed 20 feet of film - his subjects, "leisurely pedestrians, open-topped buses and hansom cabs with trotting horses". Then, he rushed to his studio near Piccadilly and laboured into the small hours developing the celluloid film he himself had also invented. His toil was rewarded, when he became the first man to ever witness moving pictures on a screen.

His experiments cost him a great deal of money and he constantly had financial troubles. When he was 66 he attended a meeting of film makers in London. As he stood up to speak he slumped back into his chair, dead. He had just a shilling and 10 pence in his pocket. When he was buried all the cinemas in Britain halted their films and held a two minute silence in belated respect to "The Father of the Motion Picture". His son Claude, a distinguished cinematographer, developed one of the early processes of colour cinematography. To many, William Friese-Greene, was a charlatan, personally I think he was just unlucky.

Marcus Guttenberg

Guttenberg was born in Poland around 1829, son of Marcus, a schoolmaster. Hw was married twice, the first time to Elizabeth Pheasant on January 3, 1853. She was the daughter of William, a gunsmith, of Snaith, Yorkshire. His second marriage was to Henrietta Pflaum.

He started his career by practising as a daguerreotypist in Hungary, Prussia and Poland and arrived in England about 1852. He set-up a temporary studio in Harrogate in 1854 and at Malton in 1855. In 1858, he settled in Scarborough and then sometime later, established galleries at both Stockton and Darlington.

By 1866, Guttenberg had transferred his business to Bristol. His last move was undertaken by 1880 when he went to Manchester. He filed two patents; the first in 1878 relating to photo-mechanical printing (No. 1502) and the second, in 1890 to photo-finishing (No. 10,145).

After his death in Manchester on June 11, 1891, the business continued in Manchester under the management of one of his many children, Alexander Percy until the turn of the century.

Humphries

In January 2017, I received an email from John Humphries regarding his grandfather and a photgraphic studio near Bristol Bridge around 1910.

John's grandfather and his grandfather's brother set up a photographic studeio near Bristol bridge around 1910. He fought in World War I and survived it, but on returning to Bristol there was little money around for people to afford family portraits so he was forced to take a job as caretaker of Bishop Road School in Horfield.

Latham's Photographic Rooms

In December 2017, David Baxendell sent me some interesting images:

David explained that the photograph is of Sarah Reddy and is an Ambrotype (image printed in negative on glass and rendered positive by a matte black card behind) 2 I/2 inches x 2 Inches, probably taken as an engagement keepsake for his great grandfather.

David also used Roger Vaughans site to find that Latham was listed in the trade directories as "Latham, J W 1859 31 Trenchard 1867 Last entry"

I think this is referring to James W. Latham.

George Marks

Marks was in Southampton from 1848 to 1850, Devizes in 1852, and Swansea from 1854 to 1855. He then entered into a partnership with Alfred Barber, and by August 1855, they had opened premises in Bristol which specialised in photographic portraiture on paper. His association with Barber continued until I860. Details of his later career are unknown, although he may have been the George Marks who worked as a photographer in London from 1870 to 1879.

W. H. Midwinter

In September 2021, I received an email from Paul Kiser as well as some wonderful scans of photographs. Scroll down to Watts & Co. for more information. Some ofthe photographs Paul sent were taken by William Henry or possibly Walter Harvey Midwinter. According to the trade directories Midwinter was at the following addresses:

1861 - W. H. Midwinter, Artist & photographer, 5, Bridge Parade
1863 - 24, College Green. His home address is given as Lancefield Villa, Stapleton Road
1879 - 49, Park Street
1888 - W. H. Midwinter & Co., 48, Park Street

The last entry is 1921. We are assuming they were at the 48 Park St. location from 1888 to 1921, which would fit with our guess on when the first 4 of these photographs of John and Mary Kay were taken.

Bridge Parade is at the south end of Bristol Bridge, on the Victoria Street and Redcliffe Street side.

Bristol Bridge looking towards the High Street in 1901. Bridge Parade would be on the right of this photograph.

Midwinter's application to the Royal Photographic Society was read at their meeting at 50, Great Russell Street, London on Tuesday, May 14, 1895 and he was accepted as a member at the meeting on Tuesday, June 11, 1895 at 12, Hanover Square, London.

In 1864 and 1865, photographer T. S. Swatbridge had a studio somewhere in Bridge Parade and in 1876 to 1878, photographer James Emmens also had a studio there, unfortunately that street number is not recorded either.

I tried to find more information about Lancefield Villa but could only find a genealogical record for Catherine Brewer. She was born in Walcot, Bath on 1831 to Henry Brewer and Louisa Durrant. She passed away on January 18, 1870 in Lancefield Villa.

Henry Mower

Luckily, Brett Payne has done a lot of research into Henry Mower, producing pages such as Index to Victorian & Edwardian Photographers, Photographers' Profiles, Portrait Photo Collection, and Topic: Henry Mower

Mower seems to have been a prolific photographer and businessman, owning studios in Torquay, Exeter, Bath, Bristol, and Birmingham.

Henry Mower (c.1831 - 1896) was born at Calne, Wiltshire around 1831. He married Sarah Jane Eden in Bristol in 1875, and he appears to have opened studios in both Bath and Bristol shortly afterwards.

Henry had a studio at 8, Ruysdael Place in 1876, although Sarha's sister, Elizabeth, was operating at that address under her own name in 1879. In 1880, Henry had a shop at 31 Park Street (another entrance on 3 Park Row), while Elizabeth was at 8 Triangle South, Queen's Road. The Park street premises remained open through the 1880s, and by April 1891, two of Henry's sons, Marston Mower (1865-1896) and Thomas Henry Mower (1861-) were also working as photographers, Marston probably with his father and Thomas Henry with Elizabeth Eden in premises at 9 Clare Street.

In the late 1890s, Henry's youngest son Percival "Percy" M. Mower (1876-) also became a photographer, probably taking over the busines of his elder brother Marston at 23 Clarence Road, Bristol, on the latter's death in 1896. He was shown at that address until at least 1931. In 1914 Thomas Henry's wife, Emily Mary Mower (1866-) was listed in premises at 14 Hanbury road, Clifton, Bristol, while the old family business, which had been referred to as Mower & Co. since at least 1899, and continued at these premises until 1928. It was possibly a successor to Mower, Eden & Co. which operated c. 1892 at 39 Park Street, the name Eden being dropped after the death of Elizabeth in 1895.

Phillips, Miles & Co.

In February 2021, I received an email from Kim Board asking about Phillips, Miles & Co.

I could find very little about this company. Joseph Phillips & John Miles had studios in several parts of Bristol over the years. The trade directories give their addresses as:

1862 - 3 St. Johns Bridge
1863 - 4 St. Johns Bridge
1865 - Joseph Phillips, 9 Clare Street
1870 - Phillips & Miles, 9 Clare Street
1871 - Clare Street
1875 - 15 Royal Promenade
1876 - Phillips, Miles & Co., 9 Clare street & 15 Royal Promenade
1883 - J. Phillips, Photographer, 5 Clare Street
1883 - John Miles & Co., Photographer, 6 & 9 Clare Street
1885 - Joseph Phillips & Co., 22 Clare Street

The 1876 address did not come from the usual city directories but from the 1876 edition of The Post Office Directory of Chemists and Druggists (page 360 - Internet Archive).

I'm not sure if the company split and the men went their separate ways or something else happened that Phillips and Miles should sometimes be listed separately.

Phillips and Miles specialized, as many did at the time, in carte de visite, small photographic portraits. They were also portrait painters, both life-size and miniatures in oil, water colors and crayon. Miniatures could be painted onto ivory or porcelain.

The following advert appeared in the July 30, 1886 edition of The Photographic News...

Mungo Ponton

Mungo Ponton, who although Scottish by birth, died in Bristol at 4, The Paragon in 1880. In 1839 Mungo Ponton discovered a new process based on the light sensitivity of bichromates. When added to gelatin, bichromates render the coating insoluble upon exposure to light. In other words, wherever light touched the coating, that part of the emulsion would not dissolve away. Carbon black was one of the first pigments used, hence the name - carbon prints. Sometimes pigments were chosen for their ability to mimic albumen print image colors. The beauty and durability of carbon prints was undisputed, but they were too time-consuming and difficult to challenge the silver papers.

Thomas Seed

In August 2018, I got an email from Caroline Hess asking about Thomas Seed.

Robert and Jane Seed by Thomas Seed in 1853

These are Caroline's Great Great Grandparents Robert Seed was born in 1822 and his wife Jane Taylor in 1822. She feels that these are paintings that Thomas Seed photographed in 1853.

Originally from Preston in Lancashire, Thomas was born in 1807. He began as a portrait and miniature artist, married in Southampton, moved to Jersey around 1838, moved back to mainland and settled in Bristol early 1850s.

In 1855, he was operating out of 45, Park Street but from 1858 until at least 1874, he was living at and working from No. 4, Ruysdael Place, opposite Byron Place, The Triangle.

Ruysdael Place is not noted on any map that I can find, but it is opposite Byron Place in the Upper Berkeley Place triangle og properties.

Upper Berkeley Place, Bristol on an 1893 map

Thomas Seed had a son, Thomas Edward Seed who was born in 1836. By 1865 he was working as a photographer in Weston-Super-Mare. He died young, on June 22, 1874, aged just 38, at his father's house in Bristol.

Caroline very kindly added a list of newspaper cuttings from 1855 to 1874 to view.

Frederic William Taylor

In March 2026, Paul Taylor emailed me about his great, great uncle, Frederic William Taylor. Frederic was a photographer based in Ambra Vale, Clifton Wood, Bristol. Paul very kindly sent some images to me. In fact, Paul sent so much material that I was pleased to give Frederic his own page.

Some of Frederic William Taylor's photos used as colourized postcards

William Turner

In the spring of 1847, a new Regimental dress had been issued to the Royal Gloucestershire Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry. Turner, who had one of Beard's licences which covered Bristol and a six mile radius of the city, opened his rooms especially early in the mornings, and offered the additional incentive of a reduction of 25% off his normal charges to uniformed Cavalry personnel.

He was a Beard licensee, andwas in Bristol from 1846 to 1847. He took over the original Photographic Institution from 1846 to 1847, which in turn was later taken over by James Mitchell Cox.

George Villiers

Villiers was an itinerent daguerreotypist who worked in Norwich from 1852 to 1853, Cromer, Holbeach, Leeds, Leicester, and Worcester. he also went to Newport, Monmouthshire in partnership with Andrews. He had a long career in photography with studios at various times in Tenby, Torquay, Newport, Cardiff, and Bristol between 1856 and 1880.

He seems to have operated with a Mr. Quick and they were at:

1879 - 46 Park Street
1885 - 52 Park Street
1887 - 42 Park Street
1912 - last entry in the directories

Villiers and Quick were in partnership from 1879 to 1912.

Henry Vines

In January 2010, I was contacted by Hans Rooseboom, Curator of Photography, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The museum had recently purchased a portrait by Bristol photographer, H. Vines and was looking for some information about him.

Vines was born in Grittleton, Wiltshire around 1812. He was a Beard licensee and was active between the early 1840s and late 1870s. From 1948 to 1851, he was operating out of The Horticultural Rooms. He is listed in old Bristol directories as operating from 32 Park Street from 1852 to 1855, and from Glencairn Villa, Queen's Road, opposite Buckingham Place, Clifton, Bristol in 1856. Buckingham Place is still there but eveything opposite in Queen's Road was torn down in 1909 for the Bristol University student union building.

Vines also wrote a book, "A Brief Sketch of the Rise and Progress of Photography, with Particular Reference to the Practice of Daguerreotype" in 1852. Unfortunately, I've never seen a copy of this book and have only ever seen fleeting references to it. He was a respected photographer whose career spanned 30 years.

Hans Rooseboom of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam very kindly gave me permission to reproduce the labelling of the back of the August 1856 photograph by Vines on these pages...

Back of photograph produced by Henry Vines in August 1856
by kind permission of Hans Rooseboom of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The text reads...

No. 8927
This photograph was taken August ?? 1856
at the
Photographic Institute
Queen's Road, Clifton
Open from 10 till 4
Proprietor Mr. H. Vines

The photograph that started the whole page, now attributed to Bristol photographer Henry Vines, can be seen in the PDF document "Selected Works" from the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art website. When the document opens you can see the image on page 269 or search for Henry Vines or R. H. Alexander, which will take you to it.

Early photographic studios required a lot of light, so many were at the top of buildings. Vines advertised that at his studio vistors were not required to "ascend higher than the Drawing Room floor."

Watts & Co.

In September 2021, I received an email from Paul Kiser as well as some wonderful scans of photographs. Paul has an interesting story behind these photographs and his family. He wrote:

I came across some images taken by Watts & Co. of Bristol.

Allow me to briefly explain her family history for reference to these photos.

John Kay was my wife's maternal great-grandfather. He was born in 'Lemberg, Austria' which is now Lviv, Ukraine. I am confident that he was Jewish, but it was meant to be a family secret. My spouse's grandmother finally told my spouse's father that his grandfather was Jewish near her death. I believe John Kay immigrated to England between 1861 and before 1893 when he married Mary Bagshaw. There is no further information about his parents or siblings in the family history or through Ancestry.com. This leads me to believe that his family changed their name when they immigrated. The first census that records his name is the 1901 census.

What we know about John Kay is that he was a tailor, and on one census he is listed as a Ladies Tailor. His wife was also listed as a tailor on that census. They lived in the Derby area but they seem to also have lived in or have a connection to Bristol. We also know he died in 1918 and is buried in the Jewish cemetery.

The first images I'm sending are from Watts & Co. My research indicates that the photographer was recorded in 1894 at 48 Queen’s Road, in 1910 at 59 Queen's Road, Clifton. The final entry for that photographer in the Annual Trade Directory was in 1921. We do not believe that these are family members but rather, women that the family did tailoring work for and they gave them the image to post in their ship. One is signed, "To Mrs. Kay with love from sincerely Jessie Davis." I have found no information about her as a performer in Bristol and there is no other inscription on the photo cards. Both photo cards have pinholes in the corners as if they were posted on a wall.

Watts and Co. have the address, 15 Royal Promenade, Clifton on their card under the image. I found that there are several photographers in that era at or near that address.

My spouse's family has several images of John and Mary Kay. Four images (2 of each person) are mounted and labeled, but with no dates. The photographer is W. H. Midwinter & Co. of 48 Park St. in Bristol. One of the images has John Kay's business card pasted below. Our guess is that the first images are a few years before the second images, both being around 1890 to 1910.

The Annual Trade Directory show the following addresses for the company:

1861 W. H. Midwinter, Artist & photographer, 5 Bridge Parade
1863 24 College Green
1879 49 Park Street
1888 W. H. Midwinter & Co., 48 Park Street

The last entry is 1921. I'm assuming they were at the 48 Park St. location from 1888 to 1921, which would fit with our guess on when they were taken.

None of these images are dated, nor do they identify the person; however, the family believes that these are images of John Kay. The images would be about the correct time and we don't know of any other family members living in the Derby or Sheffield areas. The photo cards do not have pinholes in the corners, so they were not posted on a board.

A & G Taylor operated stores in Derby, Nottingham, and Sheffield and spans several decades. William Williams of 120 London Road in Sheffield is not listed in a Google search.

Paul very kindly sent a set of photos in addition to the above information and I am glad to be able to show them here:

Unfortunately I cannot add much to what Paul sent. I cannot find anything about Watts & Co., not even his first name or who his partners were. Some of the photgraphs were very well looked after and turn up now and then on online auction sites. Interestingly, although the logos they used changed the ones scanned by Paul and the ones online allshow the same address - 15 Royal Promenade, Clifton.

Bristol & West of England Amateur Photographic Association

The Association was formed in 1865. It had 80 members and its own dark room equipped with an "enlarging and reducing lantern". It held its first exhibition in what is now the Royal West of England Academy in 1880.

A Brief Sketch of the Rise and Progress of Photography :-

Bob Pullen is looking for information about a book. The full title of it is "A Brief Sketch of the Rise and Progress of Photography, with Particular Reference to the Practice of Daguerreotype" by H. Vines, published in Bristol 1852.

The early history of photography in Bristol is not at all well documented. If anyone has any information about anything on this page we'd be grateful if you could contact me at

The Photographic Institute

There were several photographic studios with the same name in Bristol at various times. There was one set up by Hentry Vines at least as early as 1856 and he used a photograph of the entrance of this on the back of the photographs that he produced.

Entrance to Hentry Vines' Photographic Institute, 1856
by kind permission of Hans Rooseboom of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

William Friese-Greene also set up Photographic Institutes in Bath and in Clifton, Bristol in 1875 or 1876. I do not know whether this had any connection with Henry Vines or if Vines had retired by then.

I've been unable to find anything much else at all about these Photographic Institutes. I've had a look and even used Google maps photo utility to find a building anything like the picture that Hans supplied. Although the architecture of several of the buildings is similar, especially near the Victoria Rooms and Royal West of England Academy end of Queen's Road, I assume this building was one of those that were demolished in the early 1900's when part of the road was redeveloped.

Sources & Resources

A Small Light in the Far West by James Beasley, 1960, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and Reece Winstone's "Bristol's Earliest Photographs"
A Faithful Likeness : The first photographic portrait studios in the British Isles, 1841 to 1855 - by Bernard & Pauline Heathcote, 2002. One of the most useful books for anyone researching early photography in Britain. Also see Appendix A for many of the advertisements that appeared in Bristol newspapers.