The Archive’s Earliest Photo Taken by a Woman
While we were doing the picture research for the Historic England publication Picturing England (2015), we discovered the earliest known photograph held in the Historic England Archive taken by a woman.
In an album of photographs is an albumen print of a family group with the caption ‘Group taken at Rotherfield by Miss E Scott 1864’.
At the time the photograph was taken, Rotherfield Park in Hampshire was owned by James Winter Scott (1799-1873), High Sheriff of Hampshire. It is possible that the photograph was taken by his daughter Elinor (1832-1914).
