Janet Mann (Jessie) (20 January 1805 – 21 April 1867) was the studio assistant of the pioneering

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

photographers

David Octavius Hill David Octavius Hill (20 May 1802 – 17 May 1870) was a Scottish painter, photographer and arts activist. He formed Hill & Adamson studio with the engineer and photographer Robert Adamson between 1843 and 1847 to pioneer many aspects of p ...

and Robert Adamson. She is "a strong candidate as the first Scottish woman photographer" and one of the first women anywhere to be involved in photography.

Early life

Mann was born on 20 January 1805, in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Scotland, the daughter of Alexander Mann, a house painter. She grew up there with her four sisters and one brother, opposite the house of David Octavius Hill. When her father died in 1839 she moved to Edinburgh with her two unmarried sisters, Elizabeth and Margaret, to live with their brother Alexander, a solicitor, who eventually became Hill's solicitor.

Career

Mann moved to Leopold Place, when Alexander married. This was near where the

Hill & Adamson Hill & Adamson was the first photography studio in Scotland, set up by painter David Octavius Hill and engineer Robert Adamson in 1843. During their brief partnership that ended with Adamson's untimely death, Hill & Adamson produced "the first ...

studio, "Rock House" Scotland's first photographic studio on

Calton Hill Calton Hill (; ) is a hill in central Edinburgh, Scotland, situated beyond the east end of Princes Street and included in the city's United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Views of, and f ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. She became an assistant to

and Robert Adamson, probably working on photographic processing and printing. Hill was an established painter who collaborated with Adamson, who was an expert photographer using early photographic techniques. Miss Mann was employed to help them photograph the 450 ministers of the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...

who broke away from the church to establish the Free Church of Scotland. This was known as the Great Disruption. She worked with Hill and Adamson for at least three years, until it closed after Adamson's death in 1848. She went on to become a school housekeeper in

Musselburgh Musselburgh (; ; ) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, east of Edinburgh city centre. It had a population of as of . History The name Musselburgh is Old English language, Old English in ...

. She returned to Edinburgh and died there of a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

on 21 April 1867. She is buried at

Rosebank Cemetery Rosebank Cemetery is a 19th-century List of graveyards and cemeteries in Edinburgh, cemetery in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the junction of Pilrig Street and Broughton Road in the Pilrig area, close to the historical boundary of Leith. The cemeter ...

Legacy

It is reasoned that a print in the

Scottish National Portrait Gallery National Galleries Scotland: Portrait is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. Portrait holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Collec ...

, of the King Frederick II of Saxony in 1844, taken at the studio while Hill and Adamson were unavailable, was taken by Mann. The portrait was known to have been taken by an assistant to Hill and Adamson.

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

curator Carol Jacobi says this demonstrates that "she must have been part of their skilful understanding of how you set up a photograph, so she is a real pioneer." A letter from the painter James Naysmith to Hill, written in 1845, praises Mann as "that most skillful and zealous of assistants". Mann was included in the 2016 exhibition at

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in En ...

, ''Painting with Light: Art and Photography from the Pre-Raphaelites to the Modern Age.'' Mann was featured as a character in The Secrets of Bythswood Square (2024) by Scottish author

Sara Sheridan Sara Sheridan (born 7 June 1968) is a Scottish activist and writer who works in a variety of genres, though predominantly in historical fiction. She is the creator of the Mirabelle Bevan mysteries. Personal life Born Sara Louise Goodwin, Sheri ...

. The main character in this historical fiction about pioneer female photographers is Ellory Mann, an imagined cousin of Jessie's who works with her as an assistant to Hill and Adamson and who then travels to

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

to set up her own studio. Sheridan talked about the photograph that inspired her iteration of Mann's character in an interview wit
National Galleries of Scotland
curator, Grainne Rice.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Jesse Scottish women photographers 19th-century Scottish photographers 1805 births 1867 deaths People from Perth, Scotland Pioneers of photography Scottish photographers 19th-century British women photographers