Need any info on female Itinerate photographers

[Tintype Bob]

Hi all, I have a strange request, my wife is am author and needs any information on women Itinerate photographers working around the period from 1860 to 1900. I have been unable to find any information, but was think that if women during that time would fake being a man to go into the army then there might have been some female photographers.

[memorris]

There were more women photographers in that period than men but they rarely got any recognition. Because of this information on them is very difficult to find. I have a friend who is very much into photography history. I will ask him what sources may be available.

[Steven Tribe]

Bob - I think your wife has had a very good idea. Either as a non-fiction or fictional subject.

[Tintype Bob]

This would be a fictional subject but she wants to be as accurate as possable
Thanks for looking and any help you can give I knew this would be the right place

[lenser]

Bob, I just did a quick "Google" under 'Women photographers in the west' and popped up several interesting articals and at least one non-fiction book on your subject. You might want to check that out. One under Women artist in the west (which was the second or third to pop up) lists a good many by name which might allow you to follow that stream on Google or through historical societies. Good luck.

Tim

[Brian Ellis]

Itinerant photographers tended to be portrait photographers. Virtually none of them - male or female - has gained much recognition. They tended to be unemployed engravers, draftsmen, failed painters, and the like who turned to photography as a means of making a living. Since people in those occupations tended to mostly be men, the photographers of that era - itinerant or otherwise - likewise tended to be men. They were businessmen, not artists, and their portraits were for the most part monotonously similar - straightforward, solemn, frozen. Surely somewhere there's a book or a thesis about female itinerant photographers, or at least itinerants in general or female photographers in general, that could be adapted to your wife's character, but I don't know of any.

The only American female itinerant (I think) photographer whose name comes to mind is Mary Ann Meade. If there are no better sources, your wife might start by searching for information about her but I doubt that she'll find much. There were more female photographers in Europe during that general period who are known today - Anna Atkins, Julia Margaret Cameron, Genevieve Disderi, Clementina Hawarden, and Constance Talbot - than American. But I don't know to what extent they worked as itinerants. In general, like the itinerant male photographers of that era, the women don't receive much attention in the standard histories of photography.

Unless your wife's plan is to stress aspects of itinerant photography related exclusively to being a female (e.g. risks of travel, discrimination, etc.)I wouldn't think it makes a lot of difference whether she draws her sources from information about men or women. Both groups were doing the same thing in the same way with the same objective. Certainly technical information about processes, chemicals, working methods, etc. would be the same.

[lenser]

Bob,

Two other thoughts occur.

One is that several years ago, I encountered a beautiful print of a Washington mountain that was made by one of Edward Sheriff Curtis' daughters. I know nothing else about her, but the quality of that print convinces me that she followed her father's love of photography and his skill in print making. Whether she also followed his work as an itinerant with creating portraits of native American peoples or the northwest landscape, I have no knowledge.

The other is a local Missouri author named Suzann Ledbetter. At an earlier point in her career, she did a series of fictional novels about very strong and independent women in the old west. She also did a book about several very "uppity" women in history and their effect on society.

Clearly, she did a great deal of research and it is possible that she may have encountered information on women photographers in the west.

I have seen Suzann (yes there is no "e") speak on a couple of occasions and she seems quite approachable as she stayed and enjoyed long conversations with the audience after her talks. Her web site is suzannledbetter.com.

Perhaps your wife would find her of some help in either direct knowledge or with research suggestions.

Best of luck.

Tim

[Frank Petronio]

I wonder if there is some sort of registry of all the thousands and thousands of MFA art history, photography, and feminist studies thesis/Masters projects?

Some earnest feminist art historian had to have done this research....

[John Powers]

Bob,

I some times buy books in batches. I have not read this book yet, but looking through, I think your wife might want to look for a copy.

“Until recently, little was known about early female daguerreotypists….Bertha Beckman learned the process from a daguerreotypists in Prague and then worked with her husband, Ehemann Eduard Wlhnert in Leipzig until his death, producing both paper and metal images. In 1849 she journeyed to New York, where for several years she listed herself as a maker of “phototypes,” first alone and then in partnership.

“Other women daguerreotypists were making portraits during the early 1840s in the United States and Canada. About one hundred names have turned up-constituting, it is thought, about 2 percent of those pursuing the profession. Often they were itinerants, traveling a circuit of small towns and outlying settlements and operating either from portable darkroom wagons or from rented spaces. In some instances they may have been the first to introduce camera portraiture to a particular area, prompting others to set up more permanent establishments. For example, in 1843 a Mrs. Davis arrived in Houston for a stay of “two or three weeks,” during which the local populace was invited to obtain “accurate miniatures”; soon afterward a daguerreotype salon was opened by a male resident.” pages 42-3

From the Contents page:
Chapter 1
At the beginning, 1839-90

Chapter 2
Not Just for Fun: Women Become Professionals, 1880-1915

Chapter 3
Porraiture, 1890-1915

Rosenblum, Naomi; A History of Women Photographers; Abbeville Press; Paris, London, NY; 1994


There is also a movie she might want to acquire:
Another Man, Another Chance 1977 Genre: Drama
Director: Claude Lelouch
Cast: James Caan, Genevieve Bujold
Set in America's West during the 1870s, this is the story of a widower veterinarian (James Caan) and a young French itinerant photographer widow(Genevieve Bujold) who find love the second time around.

Hope this helps. I would love to read the result.

John

[Struan Gray]

In Europe the cartes de visite craze created a respectable career for young, unmarried middle class women - one of the very few which gave them independent economic power, unlike, say, becoming a governess.

Frank's wrong, the hardcore feminists haven't paid these women much attention - mostly because they reciprocally antagonise the normative hermaneutics of gendered discourse. Regular historians with the eye for a good story have however documented their activities, and a search on 'Cartes de Visite' will turn up any number of local history sites and books with women portrait photographers.

Here's one for my town, Lina Jonn, who hit the mother lode with a portrait of the Swedish king, and who did in fact start adult life as a governess and use photography as a way of breaking free and running her own life:


http://www.bokus.com/b/9789174867763.html

And a random one from the first page I got on google:


http://www.photohistory-sussex.co.uk/BexhillPhotgrsJP.htm

However, these women were not itinerant, although the famous ones like Lina Jonn did travel to make portraits on commission. Part of the social acceptability of their position was that they had a 'proper' studio and were engaged in an artistic pursuit: think genteel silhouette or pen-and-ink portraits but on a scale sufficient to earn a good living. That said, for a novel it would be easy enough to bend history a tad, especially a novel set in the American West, where itinerant photographers in general were much more prevalent.

[Steven Tribe]

Lina Jonn's life was dramatic but very short! She trained up two of her sisters to be photographers and third one became an artist. A year after her marriage she died in connection with childbirth aged about 30. Reality is often more dramatic than fiction. Giving her sisters an "education" looks like a good fictional storyline for "Mrs" Bob.
Perhaps we could extend this thread to propose a complete scenario?

[civich]

Whoa!!!, Whoa!!!

"mostly because they reciprocally antagonise the normative hermaneutics of gendered discourse."

[Struan Gray]

Lina Jonn's life was dramatic but very short!

Very true. She married for love, and gave up her successful business to go and be a farmer's wife in Norway. And then died in childbirth.

The business was so successful and well-known that it traded as 'Lina Jonn's successor' for fifty years after her death.

SVT made quite a good documentary about her life as part of their 'Din Släktsaga' series. It would make a good plot for a novel - or opera.


civich: don't worry, we academese-speakers tend to stay safely tucked away in our ivory towers. I am let out for the occasional weekend exiat, but the collar stops me at the parish boundary :-P

[Nathan Smith]

The Lina Jonn story reminds me of the "The Governess" starring Minnie Driver, as far as the governess-to-photographer story line. I don't think I've seen the entire movie actually so I can't necessarily recommend it, but it looked good.

[BradS]

There is an article in the May 2010 issue of Simthsonian magazine about Frances Benjamin Johnson. I don't know if she qualifies as 'itinerate' but she worked in the late 19th century.

[Steven Tribe]

I personally think the itinerate photographer is a bit thin a story lineand worn - without much opportunity for character development. Perhaps I have seen too many episodes of that series with Jane Seymour (? Medicine woman?) and Little House on the Prairie - by accident, of course. The governess development line is more realist ( certainly as far as two of my maiden Great Aunts were concerned who linked up to run a tiny hotel when their services were no longer required), with a period following a male itinerent photography, followed by small town studio etc.

[Robert Hughes]

I personally think the itinerate photographer is a bit thin a story lineand worn - without much opportunity for character development.
But if you include zombies - we're in! :D

PS At first I thought itinerate (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/itinerate) was misspelled, and that the correct term was itinerant (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/itinerant). It turns out either is correct.
American English is funny that way...

[Steven Tribe]

They are not quite the same. An itinerate photography can be described as a itinerant! But an itinerant photographer can never be called an itinerate. Noun + Noun are often used rather than Adjective + Noun.

[John Ossi]

Bob,
If your wife has access to a college library and would like to check whether any dissertations or treatises have been written on the subject, I suggest that she look at "Comprehensive Dissertation Index." It is broken down by year and by subject. She should also check out "Dissertation Abstracts International", and "Index to Theses Accepted for Higher Degrees in the Universities of Great Britain and Ireland." When her book is available, I hope that you will mention it in this forum.

[civich]

Stuan,
I'm not worried - that line just took my breath away! I keep a dictionary close by.
-Chris

civich: don't worry, we academese-speakers tend to stay safely tucked away in our ivory towers. I am let out for the occasional weekend exiat, but the collar stops me at the parish boundary :-P[/QUOTE]

[Tintype Bob]

I don't think the main character would be the photographer, she is just looking to be accurate. She has a degree in Art history and would soon find out all the info on her own, but I told her this was the best place to get any info if it is out there, most of you have been so helpful to me and others in the past.