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guided to “believe” all Nicholls press pictures, many of
which appeared in Black and White, The Daily Sketch,
The Daily Mirror, Illustrated London News, Penny
Pictorial, South Africa, The Bystander, The Illustrated
Sporting News, The Graphic, The Referee, The Sphere,
The Sunday Companion, The Tatler, The Times and The
Guardian.
When the Great War broke out in 1914, George
Nicholls, Horace’s eldest son, enlisted (he died in
combat in 1917). Horace envisioned himself as a war
correspondent, but at 47, he was too old to be with the
combat troops. He wrote frequently to the Department
of Information to receive an offi cial appointment and
asked to be sent abroad. He did receive an appoint-
ment, but he would stay in England recording the home
front and providing the propaganda-type images that
were being requested of the agency. He was recorded
events such as the review of troops by the King and
also munitions factories, shipbuilding, prisoners of
war, men back from the Front and everything else that
was required.
The photographs taken between 1917 and 1918 con-
stitute some of Nicholls’ fi nest work. He will especially
be remembered as capturing the moment in history when
women walked out of their homes and into men’s jobs.
The combination of a seemingly thorough investigation,
a straightforward approach, and great sensitivity make
his “women at war” photographs one of his most im-
portant contributions to the history of photography. “A
Woman Coke Heaver,” “A Woman Grave Digger,” “The
Electric Trolley Driver,” are among his classics.
Immediately after the end of the war, the Ministry
of Information’s responsibility of commissioning and
collecting photographs was transferred to the Imperial
War Museum where Horace Nicholls was asked to be on
staff. He role was to head the darkroom and be respon-
sible for the care, preservation and re-photographing
of deteriorating negatives from all the war fronts. He,
himself, had made 2,300 negatives during these years.
He stayed at the Museum from 1918 until his retire-
ment in 1932.
Even during his years of civil service, he worked
freelance for newspapers and journals. In the twenties
and thirties, along with scores of family photographs,
he produced professional quality images on holidays
at home and abroad. Horace Walter Nicholls retired to
Worthing and died of diabetes on 28 July 1941. The
major collections of his glass and fi lm negatives and
prints are in the Royal Photographic Society Collec-
tion at the National Media Museum in Bradford, the
Imperial War Museum, London and with the Nicholls
family.
Gail Buckland
See also: Africa (sub-Saharan); and War
Photography.
Further Reading
Buckland, Gail, The Golden Summer: The Edwardian Photo-
graphs of Horace W. Nicholls, London: Pavillion, 1989.NIÉPCE DE SAINT-VICTOR, CLAUDE
FÉLIX ABEL (1805–1870)
French army offi cer and chemist
Abel Niépce de Saint-Victor was born on 26 July 1805
in Saint-Cyr, France. He was the second cousin of Nicé-
phore Niépce, to whom he always referred as an uncle.
A career offi cer in the military, in 1827, he graduated
from the École de cavalerie de Saumer [Cavalry School
of Saumer]. In 1842, he obtained the rank of lieutenant
and was stationed with the fi rst regiment of dragoons
at Montauban.
Niépce de Saint-Victor’s fi rst encounters with chem-
istry are legendary. One day, he accidentally stained the
red pants of his military uniform with vinegar or lemon
juice. Wanting to remove the stain, he tried a number
of chemical solutions and fi nally succeeded with a few
drops of ammonia. Following this, the French Minister
of War decided that all the lapels, collars, and orna-
mental details of the uniforms of all the regiments of
cavalry—which had previously been variously colored
pink, saffron yellow, and crimson—should be orange.
Niépce de Saint-Victor was put in charge of chemically
altering the original colors of the uniforms so as to arrive
at the same color. He succeeded in this, saving the army
a great deal of money, and his vocation to the study of
chemistry was determined.
In 1845, Niépce de Saint-Victor was stationed at the
Military Police station of Paris, located in the faubourg
of Saint-Martin. There he set up a laboratory in the base-
ment and began research on photochemical operations,
largely fi nanced from his own salary.
On 25 October 1847, he published a report of his
investigations to the French Academie des Sciences
[Academy of Sciences]. There he described a method
he called atmography, which reproduced engravings on
paper, porcelain, glass, and metal surfaces, using iodine
vapors and starch. In the same report, he described a
method for obtaining negatives on glass, using starch.
As a consequence of the French Revolution of 1848,
on 24 February 1848 his laboratory was burned down
and all his equipment destroyed. He was then placed on
non-active duty, whereupon he returned to the study of
negatives on glass. This led to his publishing a follow-up
report to the Academy des Sciences on 12 June 1848,
in which he described a method for making negatives
on glass using albumen. The procedure was similar to
the calotype process then being used, but was capable
of fi ner detail. One drawback was that it was diffi cult
obtain an even coating of albumen on glass. Another