1501
Cross, Aberdeen. He is buried at Nellfi eld Cemetery
in Aberdeen.
The largest collection of George Washington Wil-
son’s work was discovered in the attic of a house in
Aberdeen in 1970, and is now held at the University of
Aberdeen. Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums now care
for a second major collection of Wilson’s work which
was originally donated to Aberdeen Public Library by
his son, Charles.
At the time of Wilson’s death his photographic busi-
ness employed forty staff. It continued for another nine
years, until it was forced to close in 1902, primarily as a
result from competition from less expensive, and easier
to reproduce half-tone reproductions of photographs
which became then became the standard format for
postcards at that time. Even so, Wilson’s negatives were
purchased by Fred Hardie, a former employee of Wilson
and used to produce postcards until 1920.
Brian Liddy
Further Reading
Groth, Helen, Victorian Photography and Literary Nostalgia,
Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2003.
Taylor, Roger, George Washington Wilson, Artist & Photogra-
phyer, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1981.
WINTER, CHARLES DAVID (1821–1904)
French lithographer, painter, and photographer
Born in Strasbourg in 1821, Charles David Winter
trained as a lithographer and painter before establishing
a photographic studio at 1, rue des Calves, Strasbourg,
that specialized in daguerreotype portraits. By 1851, he
had adopted the paper negative process and by 1854, had
mastered the wet collodion technique and was running a
successful studio making portraits and cartes de visite.
Winter’s greatest accomplishments, however, are his
photographs documenting the urban transformation of
Strasbourg in the second half of the nineteenth century,
including the building and demolitions in the city center
(1855–80), the construction of a railroad bridge over the
Rhine (1858–61), and the restoration of the Cathedral
(1857–59). Winter exhibited at the Société française de
photographie in 1857 and 1859. Striking for both their
large size and their fi ne detail, his photographs revealed
the formal beauty in new forms of architecture and
engineering. Winter also recorded, in wrenching detail,
the devastating destruction of Strasbourg following
the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. After 1870, Winter
illustrated and served as the editor of the Bulletin de la
Société de la Conservation des Monuments Historiques
d’Alsace. The largest holdings of Winter’s photographs
and albums are at the Municipal Library, Strasbourg,
and at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art,
Strasbourg.
Sarah KennelWITTICK, (GEORGE) BENJAMIN
(1845–1903)
American photographer
Wittick established himself as a photographer in 1878 in
New Mexico, working fi rst for the railroad in the partner-
ship of Wittick and Russell, later establishing studios
in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Gallup, and Fort Wingate,
New Mexico, as well as in Arizona. Although he photo-
graphed the construction of the railroads and the growth
of towns along the railroad route, he is best known for
Native American subjects—both studio portraits and
ethnographic studies of life and ceremonies. His portrait
of Apache war chief Geronimo (Goyathlay) is one of the
most famous images of a Native American. The portrait
in which the chief poses against a studio backdrop with
rifl e in hand was made in 1887 after Geronimo’s capture
and was widely circulated. Wittick photographed many
of the Apache and Navajo leaders as native groups were
resettled. He was the fi rst to photograph the Hopi snake
dance ceremony, including the washing of the snakes
and other rituals that took place in kivas, out of sight
of observers. He died at Fort Wingate, New Mexico, in
1903, after being bitten by a rattlesnake which, it was
reported, he had captured to transport to Hopi for the
snake dance.
Kathleen HoweWOLCOTT, ALEXANDER SIMON AND
JOHNSON, JOHN (active 1839–1844)
Both involved in mechanics before the advent of the
daguerreotype, Alexander Simon Wolcott and John
Johnson were among the few signifi cant American in-
ventors in daguerreotypy from 1839 to Wolcott’s early
death in 1844. In this short period, the two partners’
research and strategy were focussed on two goals that
more broadly characterized the daguerreotype era in the
United States: to devise a practicable method of mak-
ing portraits, and to use it towards creating a profi table
business; in both directions, they reached a marked—if
short-lived—success.
Wolcott and Johnson began experimenting around
October 6, 1839, after learning about Daguerre’s
method. The more mechanically-inclined Wolcott set
out to design a new camera—one with an internal mir-
ror instead of a lens—and within twenty-four hours he
was able to secure a small portrait of Johnson. Although
it is regarded as the fi rst daguerreotype portrait made