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Frith, Francis, 1822 -1898 (photographer)

 Person

Biography

Francis Frith was born on December 7th 1822 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, to a Quaker family (Sackett 1994). He was educated at Ackworth School and Quaker Camp Hill School in Birmingham (Browne and Partnow 1983, p.212). After serving an apprenticeship with a Sheffield cutlery firm, he began a wholesale grocery firm, Liverpool, and later a printing firm (Sackett 1994). He took up photography in 1850 and in the mid-1850s retired from his successful business career. In 1853 he was one of the founders of the Liverpool Photographic Society (Turner 1995, p794). He made his first photographic visit to Egypt in 1856-57. He travelled on the Nile and photographed from Cairo to Abu Simbel. On his return he published a series of views which were enthusiastically received. He made a second trip with his assistant Frank Mason Good in late 1857. A third photographic trip was made in 1859 when Frith travelled beyond the Sixth Cataract. On his return from this third trip Frith set up as a photographer and publisher. His company produced a detailed record of English villages and towns, eventually becoming the largest mass production company in Europe. For a list of Frith photographic publications see: Gernsheim, Helmut (1984), 'Incunabula of British photographic literature : a bibliography of British books illustrated with original photographs'. London: Scolar in association with Derbyshire College of Higher Education.

In 1860 Frith married Mary Ann Rosling. They had five sons and three daughters. Frith died on February 25th 1898. His sons Eustace and Cyril continued the business (Sackett 1994). The firm survived until the 1960s.

Sources:

Browne, Turner and Partnow, Elaine (1983), 'Macmillian biographical encyclopedia of photographic artists and innovators'. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.

Sackett, Terrance R. (1993) 'Francis Frith'. In: Dictionary of National Biography [CD-ROM]. [S.l.]: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Turner, Jane ed. (1996), 'The dictionary of art'. Volume 11. New York: Grove.

Found in 118 Collections and/or Records:

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 Item

Abou Simbel, Nubia, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214A/15
Scope and Contents

158 x 220 mm. A view showing the facade of the great temple at Abu Simbel with the colossal statues of Rameses II seen in profile. Probably the most photographed of the Ancient Egyptian sites from Maxime du Campe (1849) onwards. The temple was moved to higher ground to protect it from the effects of the Aswan High Dam.

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Absalom's Tomb, Jerusalem, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214B/27
Scope and Contents

150 x 212 mm. A view showing the square stone sepulchre with a spine standing on the rocky hillside in the Valley of Jehosphaphat east of Jerusalem.

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Absalom's Tomb, Jerusalem, 1860

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214C/24
Scope and Contents

155 x 211 mm. A view showing the square stone sepulchre with a spine standing on the rocky hillside in the Valley of Jehosphaphat east of Jerusalem.

Dates: 1860
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Fonds

Albums by Francis Frith

 Fonds
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214A-C
Scope and Contents This collection consists of printed published volumes illustrated with albumen prints tipped on to the leaves with detailed text accompanying each photograph.The landscape and monumental remains of Egypt and the Middle East had exercised a profound fascination upon the European imagination for centuries, but it was only in the 19th century - and particularly after the impetus of Napolean's Egyptian campaign of 1798 - that visitors arrived in any great numbers. Scholars, adventurers...
Dates: 1857 - 1860
Conditions Governing Access: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Antiques at Biggeh, opposite Philae, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214A/32
Scope and Contents

232 x 153 mm. A view showing the temple ruins in the foreground with the granite formation beyond which looks over the island of Philae. Frith was obviously pleased with this composition: 'Ah, brother Photographers! With a sky like that, and such subjects, and a bottle of splendid pale - not ale - but, collodion, you only can imagine the glory of such a day.'

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Assouan [Aswan], 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214B/23
Scope and Contents

228 x 157 mm. A fine landscape taken from the top of a hill opposite the Isle of Elephantine and looking north along the Nile. Two Europeans stand in the foreground watching the scene below where dhows are moored along the riverbank unloading produce. The town itself is visible on the skyline in the distance.

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Baalbec [Ba`labakk], from the south, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214A/16
Scope and Contents

235 x 157 mm. A general view looking towards the massive remains of the temples of Baalbek, 35 miles north-west of Damascus. The photograph shows the six standing columns of the Great Temple, with the more complete smaller Temple at the right of the print.

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Baalbec [Ba`labakk], from the south, 1860

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214C/34
Scope and Contents

230 x 153 mm. A general view looking towards the massive remains of the temples of Baalbek, 35 miles north-west of Damascus. The photograph shows the six standing columns of the Great Temple, with the more complete smaller Temple at the right of the print.

Dates: 1860
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Banias, the ancient Caesarea Philippi, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214B/14
Scope and Contents

229 x 162 mm. A view showing overgrown and crumbling ruins at Banias, forty miles south west of Damascus, with hills in the background.

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Banias, the ancient Caesarea Philippi, 1860

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214C/31
Scope and Contents

222 x 158 mm. A view showing overgrown and crumbling ruins at Banias, forty miles south west of Damascus, with hills in the background.

Dates: 1860
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Bethany, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214B/36
Scope and Contents

231 x 157 mm. A view looking over the village of Bethany and showing small fields enclosed by stone walls with the houses of the inhabitants beyond.

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Bethlehem, with the church of the Nativity, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214A/9
Scope and Contents

226 x 156 mm. A view looking up the hillside towards the church built by the Empress Helena on the supposed site of the nativity, with terraced fields and the low square houses of Bethlehem at the right of the print. Frith considers Bethlehem and its situation 'truly picturesque and beautiful. It is one of the few places in Palestine which will not disappoint the imaginative traveller.'

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Church of the Ascesion, Mount of Olives, 1860

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214C/20
Scope and Contents

227 x 161 mm. A view looking up the western slope, dotted here and there with olive trees, towards the church and tower of the Ascension.

Dates: 1860
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

City wall and mosque of Omar, etc, Jerusalem, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214A/28
Scope and Contents

226 x 160 mm. A view looking along the city wall towards the dome of the mosque of Omar and 'El Haram-esh-Sherif', the Holy Sanctuary, with the houses of the city beyond. With wasteland and cactus in the left foreground.

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Cleopatra's Temple at Erment [Armant], 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214B/30
Scope and Contents

157 x 229 mm. A view showing the ruins of Cleopatra's Temple (about five miles south of Thebes) with an Arab sitting on broken rubble in the foreground.

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Cleopatra's Temple at Erment [Armant] near thebes, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214A/5
Scope and Contents

211 x 160 mm. A view showing the standing columns of the Temple at Erment (also spelt Armant) with piles of rubbish and a seated figure in the foreground. In his commentary Frith condemns the contemporary prejudice that anything less than three thousand years old is considered 'degenerate', modern - of no interest.

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Colossi and Sphynx at Wady Saboua, Nubia, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214A/14
Scope and Contents 217 x 151 mm. A view showing the two scarred colossi with their guardian sphinxes in the desert at Wady Saboua, near Korosko. Frith supplies a conventionally romantic remark on their desolation: 'The reader will conjecture that the desolate figures which form my picture are the two statues which terminated the dromos, and some of the mutilated bodies of the androsphynxes. The pylon of the temple is rude, and very much dilapidated; and it appeared to me that these figures were most...
Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Convent of Mar-Saba, 1860

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214C/25
Scope and Contents

226 x 121 mm. A view looking over the convent rooftops towards the sheer cliffs in which the caves of ascetics can be seen.

Dates: 1860
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Convent of Mar-Saba, near Jerusalem, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214B/11
Scope and Contents 229 x 164 mm. A view looking over the convent rooftops towards the sheer cliffs in which the caves of ascetics can be seen. Frith comments: 'The magnificently wild and deep ravine forms a sternly appropriate clinging-place for this old ascetic pile. We don't pretend to have done anything like justice to the subject in our photograph. The view should be taken from the other side of the ravine, from which the whole of the building and the entire depth of the ravine could perhaps be...
Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Crocodile on a sand bank, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214B/31
Scope and Contents

233 x 156 mm. A view showing a large crocodile (probably dead) on the banks of the Nile in the Philae region.

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Damascus, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214A/22
Scope and Contents

214 x 161 mm. A view taken from a rooftop near the east gate, looking over the flat rooftops of Damascus towards a distant mountain. The commentary contains a disquisition on the romanticism of writers' and artists' views of the east and the counterbalance provided by photography.

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Distant view of Damascus, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214B/6
Scope and Contents

222 x 152 mm. A view looking towards the distant city from Salihiyeh with a ruined church (unidentified) in the foreground.

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Distant view of Damascus, 1860

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214C/33
Scope and Contents

223 x 158 mm. A view looking towards the distant city from Salihiyeh with a ruined church (unidentified) in the foreground.

Dates: 1860
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Doum palm and ruined mosque, Philae, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214B/28
Scope and Contents

229 x 164 mm. A pleasing composition looking up towards the ruined mosque and the rocky hillside from the bank of the Nile, with a clump of palms in the foreground.

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
 Item

Early morning at Wady Kardassy, Nubia, 1857

 Item
Reference Code: GBR/0115/RCS/Y30214B/39
Scope and Contents

156 x 203 mm. A view of the ruins of Wady Kardassy, taken from the side of the building facing the Nile.

Dates: 1857
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
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Archival Object 116
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Asia (continent) 64
Africa (continent) 56
Israel (nation) 46
Egypt (nation) 36
Upper Egypt (region) 35