Johnston, Francis Benjamin, 1864-1852

Biographical Note

• 1866, Jan. 15: Born, Grafton, W.Va.
• 1883: Graduated, Notre Dame of Maryland Collegiate Division, Govanstown, Md.
• 1883 - 1885 : Student, Julien Art Academy, Paris, France
• 1885 - 1888 : Student, Art Students' League (predecessor of Corcoran School of Art), Washington, D.C.
• 1889: Received first camera as gift from George Eastman of Kodak Corp.
• 1890: Student, photographic laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
• 1891 - 1913 : Active in photographing Washington society and government officials
• 1900: Awarded gold medal for work depicting American public school systems, Paris Exposition, Paris, France
• 1909: Received first architectural commission photographing the New Theater, New York, N.Y.
• 1913 - 1917 : In partnership with Mattie Edwards Hewitt, New York, N.Y.
• 1925: Toured Europe and the Middle East, photographing gardens, castles, chateaux
• 1930: Donated negatives from first architectural survey to Library of Congress, helping form nucleus of Pictorial Archives of Early American Architecture
• 1933: Awarded first of seven consecutive grants from Carnegie Corp. to photograph colonial architecture in nine Southern States
• 1941: Published The Early Architecture of North Carolina. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press
• 1945: Made honorary member of the American Institute of Architects
• 1947: Major exhibit at Library of Congress
• 1952, May 16: Died, New Orleans, La.

From the guide to the Frances Benjamin Johnston Papers, 1855-1956, (bulk 1890-1945), (Manuscript Division Library of Congress)