1860s

Vintage: Washington DC in the mid-19th Century (1840s-1860s)

Vintage: Washington DC in the mid-19th Century (1840s-1860s)

In the 1830s, the District’s southern territory of Alexandria went into economic decline partly due to neglect by Congress. The city of Alexandria was a major market in the American slave trade, and pro-slavery residents feared that abolitionists in Congress would end slavery in the District, further depressing the economy. Alexandria’s citizens petitioned Virginia to take back the land it…
Vintage: Victorian Era Portraits by Lady Clementina Hawarden (1860s)

Vintage: Victorian Era Portraits by Lady Clementina Hawarden (1860s)

Lady Clementina Hawarden (1 June 1822-19 January 1865) was a noted portrait photographer of the 1860s. Hawarden first began to experiment with photography in 1857, taking stereoscopic landscape photographs before moving to large-format, stand-alone portraits of her daughters. Much of Hawarden’s life remains a mystery to us. It is doubtful that she kept a diary as nothing has been discovered,…
Vintage: Everyday Life of Cairo in the 19th Century (1860s-1880s)

Vintage: Everyday Life of Cairo in the 19th Century (1860s-1880s)

Under the Ottomans, Cairo expanded south and west from its nucleus around the Citadel. The city was the second-largest in the empire, behind only Constantinople, and, although migration was not the primary source of Cairo’s growth, twenty percent of its population at the end of the 18th century consisted of religious minorities and foreigners from around the Mediterranean. Still, when…
Vintage: Victorian Era Portraits by Julia Margaret Cameron (1860s-1870s)

Vintage: Victorian Era Portraits by Julia Margaret Cameron (1860s-1870s)

In 1863, when Cameron was 48 years old, her daughter gave her a camera as a present, thereby starting her career as a photographer. Within a year, Cameron became a member of the Photographic Societies of London and Scotland. She remained a member of the Photographic Society, London, until her death. In her photography, Cameron strove to capture beauty. She…
Vintage: London in the 1860s and 1870s by James Hedderly

Vintage: London in the 1860s and 1870s by James Hedderly

James Hedderly (1815 – 1885) was a painter and signwriter until the mid-1860s, when he became a photographer. He lived in Duke Street, only a short distance from Whistler’s house at 7 Lindsey Row, from 1841 until the 1870s, when the street was demolished for the Embankment. He then moved to 21 Riley Street, where The Chelsea, Pimlico and Belgravia…