559
its capacity to produce multiple high-quality prints,
despite the logistical problems posed by the elaborate
equipment and the collodion process’s demanding
system of on-site preparation and development of the
photographic plates—a complex procedure made all the
more diffi cult by the Near East’s diffi cult terrain and
often inhospitable climate.
Despite these and other hardships endured along the
way, Frith managed to photograph scores of ancient
archeological sites, monuments and topographic views
throughout Egypt, especially in the area around The-
bes. Using his three cameras, he often shot the same
subject in multiple formats and from several perspec-
tives to enhance their future commercial possibilities.
Among Frith’s fi nest photographs from this expedition
are those of the Sphinx and Great Pyramid of Giza, the
pyramids of Dashoor and of the colossal sculpture at
Abu Simbel.
Frith returned to England in the summer of 1857,
where his photographs appeared in an album published
by James S. Virtue of London. The London-based fi rm
of Negretti and Zambra also distributed a well-received
series of his stereo views. Frith’s cache of remarkable
topographical views proved quite popular, as their fi ne
detail and uniqueness perfectly suited the burgeoning
Victorian fascination with exotic places.
In light of this success, Frith quickly set off once
more for the Near East in November 1857, persuaded
by Negretti and Zambra to produce a new set of pho-
tographs concentrating on the biblical and historical
sites of Palestine and Syria. On this second expedition
Frith photographed the mosques, tombs and streets of
Cairo, the important archeological sites of Jerusalem,
Bethlehem, Damascus and Hebron, and the Roman
ruins at Baalbek.
He returned to England in May 1858 with a second
trove of photographs from the region. Once home Frith
gave lectures on his travels while exhibitions of his
photographic prints were held and projections of his
transparency views drew large audiences. His photo-
graphs once again received wide circulation throughout
England as stereo views, and were also combined with
those from his fi rst trip into a book titled Egypt and
Palestine Photographed and Described by Francis
Frith. This two-volume album, printed in an edition of
2,000 in 1858 and 1859 and distributed by subscription,
proved immensely popular, its combination of remark-
able photographic views with Frith’s fi rst-hand written
account providing a surrogate tour of the Near East for
Victorian tourists and would-be tourists alike.
Encouraged by the wide appeal and commercial suc-
cess of his photographs from Egypt and Palestine, Frith
embarked on a third and fi nal trip to the Near East in
- On this last photographic expedition he re-pho-
tographed Cairo, the pyramids and monuments of Giza
and Abu Simbel, and the Hall of Columns at Karnac. His
team also traveled by camel up the Nile River, pressing
on to a remote point almost 1000 miles south of the
Nile Delta where only a handful of Europeans and no
other photographer had ever ventured before. There, in
the region of southern Egypt and northern Sudan then
referred to as Nubia, Frith photographed the temple of
Amenhotep III at Soleb.
Upon his return to England in 1859 Frith married
Mary Anne Rosling—with whom he would go on to
have eight children—and set about establishing his own
photography printing and publishing fi rm in Reigate.
The fi rm, F. Frith & Co., was largely devoted to the
publication and dissemination of travel photography in
a variety of formats. Frith continued to have books of
his photographs from his three expeditions published,
among them a series published in 1860–1861 concen-
trating on his fi nal expedition titled Cairo, Sinai, Jeru-
salem, and the Pyramids of Egypt, and Egypt, Nubia
and Ethiopia (1862), a volume devoted to one hundred
of Frith’s stereographs to be experienced with a small
viewer provided with each copy. Additionally, some
fi fty-six of Frith’s views of the Holy Lands adorned a
two-volume edition of the Queen’s Bible published in
1862–1863.
Soon after the founding of his company, Frith turned
his attention to photographing and publishing views of
the towns and countryside of Britain and Continental
Europe, driven in part by his ambition to photograph
every city, village, ruin and site of topographical interest
in Britain. From his rapidly-expanding photographic
archive Frith sold individual prints of his scenic views
and later souvenir picture postcards, both of which
proved popular among the growing throngs of Victorian
tourists traveling across the British countryside by rail.
As the demand for such souvenir views grew over the
years the production of photographic cards became a
large part of the Frith & Co. printing and publishing
business.
In order to keep pace with this demand for photo-
graphic keepsakes and to expand his inventory of views,
Frith employed a team of photographers. He and his
photographers scoured Britain for worthy views and
embarked on photographic tours of Italy, Switzerland,
Scandinavia, and the Rhine valley in Germany. Frith
also bought the rights to suitable photographs from
other photographers and published them under his
studio’s name. Among the photographers who contrib-
uted to Frith & Co.’s image archive were such notables
as Francis Bedford, Frank Mason Good, William Bell
and Roger Fenton, whose collection of negatives Frith
had bought in 1862. Thus, while Frith’s earliest pho-
tographic prints often bore his own signature and date
scratched onto the negative, as Frith & Co. grew most
of the fi rm’s images remained unsigned, often bearing