About to be placed on the Library’s Digital Mirror is a real little treasure. This photographic album which dates from around 1853 was created by Mary Dillwyn (1816-1906), Wales’s first female photographer, and also one of Britain’s most notable early female photographers. Much has been written about Mary’s older brother, John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810-1882) who is today regarded as Wales’s first photographer, but as is often the case in history not much attention has been given to the female members of the famous family mansion of Penlle’r Gaer, near Swansea.
This beautiful tiny album measuring only 12 x 9.7 cm’s gives us an invaluable insight into the private life of Mary Dillwyn from the Victorian Age. Photographs of birds, flowers and dolls adorn the album’s pages. The most captivating photographs are the ones of her family and friends. One photo which stands out in particular is a photograph of Mary with her two female friends posing in their spectacular dresses on the mansion’s steps.
(004455920, mar00168)
Whilst the world of academic art had always unfavored women, photography gave them a new freedom for creative expressionwhich they had never experienced before. The album will appear on the Library’s Digital Mirror in the next few weeks.