Daguerreotype of Thomas Birch Freeman (1809-1890)

75x90mm daguerreotype portrait of Thomas Birch Freeman three quarter face. Black paper oval mat. Torn label (removed 14 May 1974) '...tograph...taken at...William Sc...ment stree...' ('By Richard Beard, of 85 King William St., London (dates 1843 to 1854), also 34 Parliament St, London (1843 to 1856)'.

Thomas Birch Freeman (1809 - 1890) was a Black British botanist and methodist minister. In 1838, he travelled to Ghana, to help establish new Methodist churches on the Gold Coast.

In 1841, he returned to England to raise funds for his work. It’s likely that he sat for this portrait during this period, visiting the fashionable studio of Richard Beard on King William Street, London. In the 1850s Freeman returned to Africa, where he spent the rest of his life. Alongside his religious work, Freeman maintained an active interest in Botany, sending correspondence to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.