John Johnson 1813 - 1871

In 1839 John Johnson took a written description of Daguerre's method of photography to Alexander S. Wolcott, who immediately designed a camera for making daguerreotype portraits. Alongside Wolcott, Johnson opened a daguerreotype portrait gallery in New York in 1840. In this year Johnson's father William travelled to England in order to provide technical assistance to Richard Beard, who was about to construct a photographic studio on the roof of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in London's Regent Street. In 1841 Johnson filed a patent in the United States for a method of polishing metal plates for photography, before obtaining from Richard Beard the patent rights for the daguerreotype process in the counties of Lancashire, Cheshire and Derbyshire. In 1843 Johnson opened a daguerreotype portrait studio next to the Athenaeum on Victoria Street in Derby, before selling the studio to William Akers in the following year. In 1866 Johnson returned to his native town of Saco in Maine where he became the first President of the York Institute.