Why did George Nichols employ so many photographers?

From Photohistory of Sussex

Photographers

Bob wrote to ask if Thomas Owen Rolph could have worked with George Albert Nichols in Croydon, before George moved to Wormley and later Hitchin. On re-examining the census returns I found an error in FindMyPast indexing and George's 1871 census entry actually continued over the page. The household included one [photographic artist] apprentice and five photographers. If we include George Nichols and neighbour Thomas Rolph we have eight photographers - a very big photographic organisation for 1871. But a search on google and ebay failed to produce any photographs produced by the business, which was taken over by Jesse Holloway a few years later. When George arrived in Hertfordshire he was clearly working on a far smaller scale - did he have financial difficulties that caused him ti leave Croydon?

As this involves out-of-Hertfordshire research I will not be following this up myself - but it would be interesting to know more ...

Information on George Albert Nichols

Three Victorian Photographers (Hertford, Hitchin & Ware)

Pictures

I have just added examples of the work of three Victorian photographers linked to Hertfordshire, with short biographies of each.

Cabinet Card by Henry Newton

Henry Martinson appears to have been working as a photographer in Ware for a short time around 1890, moving away and apparently giving up photography as a profession after his marriage in 1892.

Henry Newton was a photographer working in Hertford between about 1891 and 1912, his business having been taken over by J M & C W Sneesby by 1914.

CDV by Nichols

George Albert Nichols seems to have moved around a bit but two carte de visite show he worked in Hertfordshire, apparently in the late 1870s. One is a portrait of an elderly gentleman which give an address in Wormley - which was surely to small a village to support a professional photographer. The other is a school group with a similar back and a Hitchin address.

A unknown school near Hitchin

An unknown School near Hitchin circa 1875
Click here for larger or very large image

A school with about 60 pupils, mainly girls, with teachers, lined up outside an unknown school. An excellent case for the Rogues Gallery - where the aim is to try and identify the missing details - If we knew the school it could well be possible to identify the head mistress. And perhaps some one who is descended from one of the girls has a copy and can identify one or more of the children's faces.

It was taken by a professional photographer (as judged by the inscription on the back) called G. A. Nichols, of Croydon Road, Station Road, Hitchin. Initially I was unable to identify him but subsequent research (see comments) has identified him as George Albert Nichols - who must have been in Hitchin between 1871 and 1881 - giving the date for the photograph of around 1875.