History of Photography
Volume 3, 1979 — Issue 4
Peter Le Neve Foster and Cleopatra's needle
Arthur T. Gill
Pages 289-294 | Published online: 01 Oct 2013
[I assume this means the original article was in 1979 — and then put online in 2013?]
Abstract
One of the key figures in the early organization of photography in Great Britain, one who has received but little notice, was Peter Le Neve Foster1. He was born at Lenwade in Norfolk in 1809 to a very ancient but rather obscure though distinguished East Anglian family. He attended nearby Norwich Grammar School and then went to Cambridge. He was first at St. John's College, then at Trinity Hall where he became 38th wrangler in 1830 and a Fellow of the College in 1835. Forsaking mathematics for law, he was called to the bar in 1836. Another Norwich notable was Dr Rigby; Peter was on friendly terms with Dr Rigby's daughter, Ellzabeth, who also came to occupy a place in the history of photography. Some time after, she was several times photographed by Hill and Adamson; she married Sir Charles Eastlake, who enters this account at a later stage. Peter Le Neve Foster married Georgina Chevallier in 1837 and in the same year was elected to the Society of Arts.
He practised as a barrister but still found time to take an active part in the affairs of the Society of Arts; by 1845 he was Chairman of the Committee of Accounts, the title for Treasurer in those days, and was consequently a member of their Council. His interests were wide, he joined a number of learned societies and was Treasurer of the committee which formed the early plans for the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Photography, still then in its early years, was another subject which attracted him. He joined a group formed by Peter Wickens Fry, about 1847, for the purpose of practising Fox Talbot's calotype process. Other members of this loosely formed fraternity were Roger Fenton, Robert Hunt, and Dr Hugh Diamond who was an old school friend of Foster2. The group is sometimes referred to as the Calotype Club, but this does not appear to have been a contemporary title. It was an informal gathering, and there is even some evidence that they did not all know each other. At this stage it seems wiser to refer to it as a photographic club, without even the benefit of capitals.
An album of Peter Le Neve Foster's calotype photographs made about this time was for a while kept by the Society of Arts; it has now returned to the family in the keeping of Foster's great-grandson.
[PB: I wonder where it is / who has it now? ]
[PB: Hugh Diamond was a schoolfriend at Norwich.]