Frances Benjamin Johnston and Thomas W. Smillie Glass Plate Negatives

Talman, Hugh (photographer)

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Smillie, T. W. (Thomas William), 1843-1917

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The history of photography at the Smithsonian Institution dates from the 1850s. In 1859, Secretary Joseph Henry proposed that a photographic record be assembled of Native American delegations visiting Washington, D.C. In 1867, with the support of Ferdinand V. Hayden, a geologist, and William H. Blackmore, a wealthy English collector, Washington photographers Alexander Gardner and Antonio Zeno Shindler began photographing the Native American delegates. These images formed the earliest Smithsonian...

Johnston, Frances Benjamin, 1864-1952

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Frances Benjamin Johnston (January 15, 1864 – May 16, 1952) was an early American photographer and photojournalist whose career lasted for almost half a century. She is most known for her portraits, images of southern architecture, and various photographic series featuring African Americans and Native Americans at the turn of the 20th century. In the 1880s, Johnston studied art in Paris and then returned home to Washington, DC, where she learned photography. She quickly established a national...