] Frederick Scott Archer (1813 – 1 May 1857) was an English photographer and sculptor who is best known for having invented the photographic

collodion process The collodion process is an early photographic process. The collodion process, mostly synonymous with the "collodion wet plate process", requires the photographic material to be coated, sensitized, exposed, and developed within the span of about ...

which preceded the modern gelatin emulsion. He was born in either

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated popu ...

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a ford on the River Lea, n ...

, within the county of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gov ...

, England (

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Grea ...

) and is remembered mainly for this single achievement which greatly increased the accessibility of photography for the general public.

Life

Scott Archer was the second son of a butcher in

Bishops Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated popu ...

in Hertfordshire who went to London to take an apprenticeship as a

goldsmith A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and servicea ...

and

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary grea ...

with a Mr Massey of 116 Leadenhall Street. On the recommendation of Edward Hawkins he trained at the Royal Academy Schools a sculptor and found

calotype Calotype or talbotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. Paper texture effects in calotype photography limit the ability of this early process to record low ...

photography useful as a way of capturing images of his sculptures. Dissatisfied with the poor definition and contrast of the calotype and the long exposures needed, Scott Archer invented the new process in 1848 and published it in ''The Chemist'' in March 1851, enabling photographers to combine the fine detail of the

daguerreotype Daguerreotype (; french: daguerréotype) was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre a ...

with the ability to print multiple paper copies like the calotype. In publishing his discovery, he did so knowingly without first patenting it, giving it as a gift to the world. As a sculptor he exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

from 1836 until 1851. He died impoverished, as since he did not patent the

collodion Collodion is a flammable, syrupy solution of nitrocellulose in ether and alcohol. There are two basic types: flexible and non-flexible. The flexible type is often used as a surgical dressing or to hold dressings in place. When painted on the skin, ...

process he made very little money from it. An obituary described him as "a very inconspicuous gentleman, in poor health." His family received a gift of £747 after his death, raised by public subscription, and a small pension was also provided to support his three children after the death of their mother. The

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

has a small collection of Scott Archer's photographs; some are also held in the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

. Archer died on 1 May 1857 of a hereditary cystic disease of the liver which had plagued him for his last 11 weeks and is buried at

Kensal Green Cemetery Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederick ...

in London.

Known Sculptures

*Bust of the

Sir George Smart Sir George Thomas Smart (10 May 1776 – 23 February 1867) was an English musician. Smart was born in London, his father being a music-seller. He was a choir-boy at the Chapel Royal, and was educated in music, becoming an expert violinist, orga ...

(1839) *Statue of

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bo ...

with he

Book of Common Law A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physic ...

(1844),

Westminster Hall The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...

*Bust of

Dean of Manchester The Dean of Manchester is based in Manchester, England and is the head of the Chapter of Manchester Cathedral. The current dean is Rogers Govender MBE. List of deans *1840–1847 William Herbert *1847–1872 George Bowers *1872–1883 Benj ...

(1848) *Memorial to Lady Albert Conyngham (1850) in Mickleham Church *Bust of he Marquess of Northampton (1850) *Statue of Gertrude Hanson (1851)

Collection

Rochester Cathedral, England by Frederick Scott Archer

International Photography Hall of Fame, St.Louis, Missouri

References

External links

''Isleworth with natural clouds'' at The Royal Collection Trust
* "Archer, Frederick Scott" on Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
"Frederick Scott Archer" on ''The Oxford Companion to the Photograph''"Frederick Scott Archer" on The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum"Frederick Scott Archer" at The J. Paul Getty Trust
{{DEFAULTSORT:Archer, Frederick Scott English inventors Pioneers of photography 1813 births 1857 deaths People from Bishop's Stortford Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery Photographers from Hertfordshire 19th-century English photographers British sculptors

Life

Known Sculptures

Collection

See also

References

External links