(1816 - 1894)
Lithographer and photographer Francis Bedford was born in London; the son of an architect. From his late teens he exhibited drawings of architectural subjects at the Royal Academy (1833-49) and, through his early career, illustrated publications on ecclesiastical architecture. He was later employed by Day and Sons to transfer drawings onto lithographic stones for printing. With a team of assistants, he completed the 100 plates for Owen Jones’s ‘Grammar of Ornament’ (1856). From c.1853 Bedford took up photography. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert later bought and commissioned examples of his photography work. Bedford served as the vice-president of the Photographic Society in 1861 and in 1878. He died at home in Islington, at the age of 78.
