Directory of Early Photographers in Huntingdonshire, Sources and Conventions

Coverage:

Though now a local government district of Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire was formerly a county in its own right. This directory may therefore be considered as complementary to the Cambridgeshire studio directory, but as separate from it. It will be noticed that some studios had Peterborough (the nearest large town) as part of their address. They were, however, Huntingdonshire operations. (Peterborough itself is not covered by this directory. Though now also part of Cambridgeshire, it was historically a part of Northamptonshire.)

Perhaps because of its small size, Huntingdonshire seems to have attracted only limited attention from the publishers of trade directories and almanacs. If further sources are found, they will be added to the evidence base, but some disappointingly wide time-gaps in the coverage seem likely to persist.

David Cozens’ books (see below) note a number of postcard publishers, some of whom are certainly photographers, and some of whom may or may not be. They are included in this directory, but their photographic credentials are questioned where appropriate.

Conventions

The following abbreviations are used for Huntingdonshire sources:

EC Eastern Counties of England Directory

HH Harrod’s Huntingdonshire

KH Kelly's Huntingdonshire

TC Town & County’s Northampton & District (Huntingdonshire)

Evidence has been drawn from:

EC 1901

HH 1876

KH 1869, 1877, 1885, 1890, 1894, 1898, 1903, 1906, 1910, 1914, 1920, 1924

TC 1905/6, 1911/12, 1918

(Pre-1869 directories by Kelly, Slater, Hatfield, Craven and Cassey have also been consulted, but without any studios being found.)

Abbreviations, as indicated, are also used for the following additional sources of information:

Heathcote: A Faithful Likeness – the first Photographic Studios in the British Isles, 1841 to 1855, Bernard & Pauline Heathcote (Heathcote, 2002)

Pike: Huntingdonshire in the Twentieth Century: Contemporary Biographies, W T Pike (ed.) (W T Pike & Co., 1912)

Cozens (1), (2) & (3): Huntingdonshire: A Portrait in Old Picture Postcards, David Cozens (SB Publications: vol. 1 – 1989; vol. 2 – 1990; vol. 3 – 1992)

The following conventions have been adopted for the ordering and presentation of entries:

Individuals are listed before any non-family partnerships that include them.

Partnerships appear under the names of both (or all) partners.

If a photographer embarked on more than one partnership, those partnerships are listed in alphabetical order of the partner who is not the focus of the entry.

Addresses are listed in order of their earliest appearance.

Imprecise addresses (those which name only the town/village, or those which give a street but no number) are recorded separately. They may, of course, refer to a studio listed more precisely elsewhere in that photographer’s entry.

Additional notes are set in italics.

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