126
to operate the darkroom. In 1900, Beals’ photographs
were published in the Windham newspaper; the resulting
credit line establishes her as the fi rst published female
photojournalist. She was then awarded the post of fi rst
female staff photographer in the USA, for the Buffalo
Courier, in 1902.
In 1904, she was the fi rst female to obtain an of-
fi cial press pass to photograph the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition. Her most famous photograph of the fair
was an aerial photograph taken nine hundred feet in
the air, for which she was awarded a gold medal by the
Exposition. Beals’ tenacity was further illustrated when
she stopped President Roosevelt at the fair and asked if
she could photograph him. Beals diversifi ed so that her
work ranged from portraits of literary and entertainment
fi gures to urban, interior and garden photography. She
photographed the slums of New York in an attempt to
assist the Community Service Society and even did
some writing and illustrating of books of poetry. Beals
divorced in 1924, and moved with her daughter to
Greenwich Village; where her photos of the people, the
haunts and the studios, earned her the title of ‘offi cial
photographer of Greenwich Village.’
Jo Hallington
BEARD, RICHARD (1801–1885)
British inventor, entrepreneur, patent-holder, and
photographer
In a remarkably short period of time, Richard Beard
progressed from being a wealthy coal merchant, to being
one of the most infl uential fi gures in the development
and promotion of photography in England.
His interest in the commercial potential of photo-
graphy, and in the daguerreotype which was to dominate
several years of his life, can be traced back to mid-1839.
By that time, the daguerreotype process was known in
England through Miles Berry’s British Patent No.8194,
which had been fi led in August 1839 on behalf of Louis
Jacques Mandé Daguerre. By the following year Beard
had been introduced to the innovative mirror camera
design of Alexander S. Wolcott. His first personal
involvement in a photographic patent came in mid-
1840 (British Patent 8546) when he patented Wolcott’s
camera design on behalf of himself and John Johnson,
an American photographer who was also Wolcott’s
business partner. Included in that patent were several
signifi cant improvements upon Daguerre’s original
formulation for the process.
Beard later bought Johnson’s interests in the cam-
era, and made it available only to his patentees. Thus
daguerreotypes produced using his system were not
laterally reversed, while those taken with cameras us-
ing lenses were. While Beard never publicly stated how
much he eventually paid to acquire all interests in the
Wolcott camera in England and Wales, Johnson later
claimed that £7000 had changed hands.
By summer 1840, Beard had completed negotiations
with Daguerre and Joseph Nicéphore Niepce—through
their patent agent Miles Berry—and acquired exclusive
rights in the daguerreotype in England, Wales, Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and the ‘Colonies and plantations abroad.’
Uniquely missing from these patent rights were Scotland
and Ireland, each with its own legal system and sepa-
rate patent laws. Apparently Berry had seen no merit
in paying for such patent protection, a decision which
considerably encouraged the development of photogra-
phy in Scotland. Of signifi cant interest here is the fact
that Beard patented both the Wolcott camera and his
“improvements” in the process in both these countries.
Two Scottish Patents were fi led, No.144 in December
1840 and No.148 in November 1841, and one Irish
Patent, No. 229, in April 1841. Thus photographers in
Scotland and Ireland were free use Daguerre’s original
process without fear of patent infringements, but not
Beard’s improvements.
While negotiating with Berry et al., Richard Beard
had been working to improve the sensitiveness of the
daguerreotype plate. Through the expertise of the chem-
ist John Frederick Goddard, sensitivity was increased
substantially—suffi cient to make studio portraiture
practicable—and with John Johnson, Beard opened
England’s fi rst professional photographic portrait studio
at the Royal Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street,
London, in March 1841. Goddard’s achievement was
to replace the iodine in Daguerre’s original formulation
with bromide of iodine, and by so doing, he reduced ex-
posures to between one and four minutes in bright light
—which was suffi ciently brief to make studio portraiture
a practical proposition. Interestingly, the patents which
embrace Goddard’s improvements all claim to have
been communicated to Beard “by a certain foreigner
working abroad.”
The Royal Polytechnic Institution was a unique
and highly popular venture in the heart of London, a
place where the latest inventions, innovations and ideas
could be seen, explored and debated. Large numbers of
visitors each paid a shilling to pass through its doors.
It was appropriate that the fi rst photographic studio
should be established there, and despite the imposi-
tion of an admission charge in addition to his prices,
Beard’s fi nancial return from the glasshouse studio was
considerable.
Before opening his fi rst studio, he had also conceived
a bold idea to license the daguerreotype process on a
strictly controlled regional basis, thus granting each
licensee a clear monopoly.
The fi rst such licensed operation opened in Plymouth
in July 1841, and was followed by Photographic Institu-