Frances Benjamin Johnston 1864 - 1952

Born Grafton, West Virginia to wealthy parents, raised in Washington DC; given her first camera by Georage Eastman, a frind of the family; became freelance photographer touring Europe in 1890s; worked for Eastman Kodak before opening own studio in Washington in 1894; specialised in 'celebrity' portraits; became White house photographer for several presidents; published 'What a Woman Can Do With a Camera' in 'The Ladies' Home Journal' in 1897, subsequently co-curating an exhibition of women photographers; commissioned in 1899 by Hollis Burke Frissell to photograph the buildings and students of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute; opened studio in New York in 1913; became increasingly interested in architectural photography, producing 'Pictorial Survey--Old Fredericksburg, Virginia--Old Falmouth and Nearby Places ' in 1928; hired by University of Virginia, North Carolina and Louisiana plus eight other southern states to record their historic buildings for which she work she was named an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects.