Alfred Seaman, England
- Seaman & Sons CHESTERFIELD & ILKESTON
Alfred Seaman (1844 to 6 July 1910) was a professional Victorian and Edwardian photographer who ran a network of photographic portrait studios in the Midlands and North of England.
Seaman was born in East Lexham, Norfolk and followed his father’s trade and became a bricklayer. In 1863 he married Elizabeth Dennis and the couple had four sons, born in various locations as the couple moved around. Elizabeth died in 1874 and his second wife died shortly afterwards. Seaman then moved with his teenage sons to Whittington in Derbyshire where he married again. Seeing a good opening in nearby Chesterfield, he used the knowledge from his hobby of photography to establish a photographic studio in a wooden hut on the corner of Brewery Street and Tapton Lane.
He published a large series (more than two thousand views) of stereoscopic photographs of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
A report of a tour of Alfred Seaman’s Chesterfield studios in the Derbyshire Times of Saturday 29th May 1886 (quoted here) noted that he did outside as well as studio work and, no doubt not entirely coincidentally, carried an advertisement from him:
Has Pleasure in drawing attention to the Extensive Alterations and Enlargement of His PHOTOGRAPHIC PREMISES IN BREWERY
STREET, Whereby he is enabled to take indoors or outdoors Photographs on his OWN PREMISES on the Most IMPROVED PRINCIPLES.A.S. is also prepared to attend, at short notice, TENNIS, GARDEN, AND WEDDING PARTIES AND PUBLIC GATHERINGS For the Purpose of Photography.
FAMILY GROUPS, RESIDENCES, ANIMALS &C., PHOTOGRAPHED.
PERMANENT CARBON ENLARGEMENTS ON PAPER AND PORCELAIN. VIEWS OF MOST OF THE PRINCIPAL PLACES IN DERBYSHIRE.
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY THE INSTANTANEOUS PROCESS.
In fact the Seaman family were players in the field of stamp photographs, stickybacks (qv), and no doubt other cheap portraiture products. Seaman’s younger brother, Edward Seaman (born 1845 East Lexham, Norfolk) operated a business at 27 Mint Street Lincoln from 1892 to 1901. In 1895 Edward patented a printing frame which printed 12 photographs, each 1 inch x ¾ inch on a piece of photographic paper 3 inches square (UK patent 6901 of 1895). He advertised stamp photographs for sale in 1897 and examples of stamp photographs bearing the name Seaman and Sons survive.
Other members of the Seaman dynasty filed patents relating to equipment used in producing and numbering small multiple negatives from larger plates which would have assisted in taking and printing small inexpensive portraits.
In 1886, Seaman was a founding member of the Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom (PCUK) which held its first convention in Derby. He served on the Committee of the PCUK from 1886 until his death and through this organisation he had links with eminent professional photographers of the day as well as the many wealthy amateur members.
He had nine sons and a daughter from his three marriages. All but one of his sons followed him into the photographic trade and ran studios either under the ‘Seaman & Sons’ title or in their own name.
Alfred Seaman was a popular and familiar figure at photographic events and social gatherings, always with his camera and genial smile. For the last two years of his life his health declined and for his final twelve months he was practically confined to his home on Carter Knowle Road where he died.
Sources: wikipedia Alfred Seaman; Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom; Sheffield General Cemetery Trust; Derbyshire Times; Stickybacks.uk
M. Storey
Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, England
- M. Storey, 10 ORMONDE STREET, JARROW-ON-TYNE,
Storey produced cabinet cards from his studio at 10 Ormonde Street, Jarrow.
undivided-back postcards 