777
target in which Jocelyn has positioned herself as the
“bulls-eye” surrounded but not hit by arrows.
By the mid 1870s, Jocelyn’s interest in photography
seems to have diminished and she spent much of this
time travelling to various English and French seaside
resorts with her children in search of health. However,
all of her children were to die before Jocelyn’s own
death in Cannes, France on 24 March 1880.
Isobel Crombie
Biography
Viscountess Jocelyn (nee Cowper) was born in England
in 1820. After the death of her father in 1837 her mother
married Viscount Palmerston, one of Queen Victoria’s
closest advisers. Lady Frances was a bridesmaid at the
Queen’s wedding in 1840 and was appointed Extra
Woman of the Bedchamber in 1842. Lady Frances mar-
ried Viscount Jocelyn in 1841 and they moved to his
family estate in Northern Ireland. They had six children
before the Viscounts’ death in 1854. Viscountess Jocelyn
began to photograph in 1858. She became a member
of the Photographic Society of London in 1861 and
the Amateur Photographic Association in the 1860s. In
1862 she received an honourable mention for her land-
scape photographs from the International Exhibition,
London. However the main arena for her photographic
work was her private albums, where she placed her
own and commercially produced photographs. Jocelyn
frequently constructed montages of these photographs,
hand decorating them with watercolour and drawings.
She died in France in 1880.
See also: Hawarden, Viscountess Clementina
Elphinstone.
Further Reading
Batchen, Geoffrey, “Vernacular Photographies,” in History of
Photography, vol. 23, no. 3, Autumn 2000, 262–271.
Crombie, Isobel, “The Work and Life of Viscountess Jocelyn:
Private Lives,” in History of Photography, vol. 22, no., Spring
1998, 40–51.
Haworth-Booth, Mark, Photography: An Independent Art, Pho-
tographs from the Victoria and Albert Museum 1839–1996,
London: V&A Publications, 1997.
Janis, Eugenia Parry, “Her Geometry” in Sullivan, Constance,
Women Photographers, New York: Abrams, 1990.
Lever, Trensham (ed.), The Letters of Lady Palmerston, London:
Murray, 1957.
Williams, Val, Women Photographers: The Other Observers 1900
to Present, London: Virago, 1986.
JOCELYN, WILLIAM NASSAU (1832–92)
British amateur photographer
William Nassau Jocelyn took the fi rst dateable photo-
graphs in Tokyo and the fi rst wet plate collodian photo-
graphs in Japan. In 1857, Lord Elgin had been appointed
to head a British mission to China. During a break in
negotiations, Elgin headed over to Japan and spent most
of August, 1858 concluding a Treaty with that country,
before returning to China. Jocelyn, an amateur photog-
rapher and member of the British aristocracy, joined the
Mission in Shanghai on July 28th, 1858, just three days
before it left for Japan. His appointment was as assis-
tant secretary and offi cial photographer; he succeeded
a Robert Morrison who had held the position since
April 1857. Jocelyn took photographs of the Japanese
Commissioners who had negotiated the Treaty in Edo
(Tokyo) in August 1858. He also used the Government’s
photographic apparatus when the Mission returned to
China. Around ten of Jocelyn’s photos from the Mis-
sion have survived, seven of China and three of Japan.
They can be found in the print room of the Victoria &
Albert Museum, London. All are in poor condition with
signifi cant fading and/or defects. No research appears
to have been done on Jocelyn’s life and details are very
sketchy.
Terry BennettJOHNSON, WALTER ROGERS
(1794–1852)
Walter Rogers Johnson was Professor of Physics and
Chemistry in the Medical College at the University
of Pennsylvania when he returned to America from
Europe having acquired a complete daguerreotype ap-
paratus—probably from Giroux in Paris.
The newspaper United States Gazette carried a
report of his acquisition on October 22, 1839, and he
had begun experiments with the apparatus by early
November, marking him as one of America’s fi rst da-
guerreotypists. Recent research suggests he may have
successfully made portraits before the end of 1839.
By January 1840 he was giving public lectures on the
process in Philadelphia, illustrated with his own da-
guerreotypes of local landmarks. In the United States
Gazette, on January 31, 1840, Johnson announced that
he would exhibit “various samples of the art produced
in this city [Philadelphia], including landscapes, interior
views, statuary and objects in natural history.” A fi ne
whole plate daguerreotype by Johnson, from February
1840, survives in the Smithsonian Collection, showing
a laterally reversed view of the Merchants’ Exchange in
the city, the construction of which had been completed
only four years earlier.
Surprisingly, given his initial enthusiasm for the me-
dium, Johnson appears to have abandoned photography
completely before 1843, devoting the remainder of his
life to his scientifi c interests.
He died in Philadelphia in 1852.
John Hannavy