Some Early (1850s) Hertford Photographers.

I have updated the information on some of the earliest photographers in Hertford.

The Monson brothers visited Hertford on two occasions in 1853. I have added further information to show how they were related and their later careers as photographers.

Thomas Vipond was another travelling photographer who visited Hertford in 1859/60. I have now discovered he continued as a travelling photographer for some time, based in Aylesbury, but later settling in Grantham. In 1864 one of Thomas's Aylesbury portraits was used by police to try and trace earlier activities of a pickpocket in other towns, which seems to be a very early example of the use of photographs in detective work.

In 1857 James Craddock set up a studio in Hertford with Hart (I have still not been able to identify Hart) but within a year the studio had passed to Arthur Elsden and James had "vanished" - except that I now know that he became a significant photographer in Simla, India, and that he, or one of his sons, was taking photoghraphs in England in 1880,
Arthur Elsden took over from James Craddock in 1858 and I have acquired an interesting carte de viste take in connection with a play "Payment on Demand" put on by the Hertford Grammar School in 1874. It shows "Vincent Elsden" but it is not certain which of the Elsden brothers, Arthur or James, it was. (Arthur Vinsent Elsden continued the Hertford photographic business after his father died.)

I would be interested to know of any surviving pictures from the 1850s taake by the above - or any other Hertfordshire photographer. Any earlier examples of photographs being used for detective work could also be of interest.

Prince of Wales visits Panshanger and Hertford in 1874

The Library at Panshanger

Old News

In 1874 the Prince of Wales visited Panshanger and he and some other gentlemen spent part of the time in shooting, and had excellent sport, bagging in one day no fewer than 760 pheasants, besides partridges, rabbits, and hares. The Princess planted a chestnut tree in the grounds in commemoration of the visit. The visit (which included the town of Hertford) was described by The Graphic which printed engravings based on photographs taken by Elsden, of Hertford.

While doing the update I added a press cutting dating the opening of Elsden's Mill Bridge studios to 1872 - providing a benchmark for dating his old photographs, and also an advert from 1876.

The First Hertfordshire Photographers

Photographers

David Simkin, who runs the Sussex Photohistory web site kindly drew my attention to the fact that P & C Monson had been taking pictures in Hertford as early as 1853. I decided to follow this up by using the British Newspaper Archive, via FindMyPast, to see if I could reconstruct the early history of commercial photography in Hertfordshire, using references in the Herts Mercury and  the Hertfordshire Guardian, both of which have been digitised for the relevant period.

Newspapers

It turns out that a photographer called Mr Williams had been at the Bull Inn, Hertford, in 1851. The first local photographist was a daguerreotypist called H F Cox in Fore Street in 1856 while Hart & Craddock were operating from North Crescent (later Arthur Elsden) in 1857. Charles Forscutt was operating at the Old Cross by 1859 and a plumber called John Charles Garrood started taking photographs in Ware Road, Hertford, in 1864.

More Information

I have also added many early photographic adverts to the Arthur Elsden page.

A Dateable Family on CDV - Maynard of Cottered

John Maynard, died 1876

Photographers

 While  it is possible to make some conclusions about the dating of single carte de visite of unknown individuals the ideal situation is to find a collection of named photographs, by known photographers, with negative numbers, and where dates can be at least approximately ascertained.

I recently acquired five cards of the Maynard family - who turned out to be farmers at Cottered. Two were taken by George Avery of Hitchin, one by T. B. Latchmore of Hitchin (who took over George Avery's business), one by Arthur Elsden of Hertford, and one by an unknown photographer. For details of the Maynard family, and the CDV dating, see Maynard, Cottered, 19th century and the photographer pages.

A Crinoline from Hertford in the 1860s

Lady in Crinoline

Photographer

This carte de visite of a lady wearing a crinoline helps me to build up a picture of the early photographs of Arthur Elsden, a "photographist" of Hertford who set up business in 1857. 

The crinoline was at the peak of fashion in about 1860, and the photographer details on the back are comparatively simple and do not mention that Arthur Elsden had been "Patronised by H.R.H. the Price of Wales" - wording which appear of a card from a collection of CDV of schoolboys from Haileybury College which are unlikely to be later than 1871.

Hertford

This raises an interesting future task - to try and find out when Arthur took a photograph of the Prince of Wales - as any photographs mentioning this must be later. Perhaps the Prince of Wales visited Hertford circa 1870?