792
was appointed to the staff of the Allegheny Observatory
in Pittsburgh in 1884.
By 1888 he had been appointed as astronomer at
the newly completed Lick Observatory in California,
where he stayed for three years conducting a wide range
of spectrographic experiments with the observatory’s
refracting telescope, before returning to the Allegheny
to take up the position of Professor of Astronomy and
Astrophysics.
He returned to the Lick Observatory as Director in
1898, and set about applying himself to the photography
of every nebula listed in Sir William Herschel’s cata-
logues of 1786, 1789 and 1802—two and a half thousand
in number. He photographed over half of them, and in
the process discovered many more.
For his photographic recordings, he used the Obser-
vatory’s 36-inch f/5.7 Crossley Refl ecting Telescope,
imported from England where it had previously been
used by A. A. Common in his garden observatory in Eal-
ing, London. The exposure for each plate was between
three and four hours.
Keeler died in San Francisco in 1900 at the age of
only 42, his photographic project far from complete.
John Hannavy
KEENE, RICHARD (1825–1894)
English
Richard Keene was born in London on May 15th 1825
and his family moved to Derby in 1825 where his father
managed a silk mill.
Keene was apprenticed to local printers Thomas
Richardson and Sons, later moving to their London
offi ces. He later worked for publishers and booksellers
Simpkin Marshall and Co.
He returned to Derby in 1851, married Mary Barrow
and set up as a printer, publisher and bookseller at 24
Irongate.
Becoming interested in photography, he started
making local views which he sold commercially and
exhibited 16 architectural views at the 1862 London
International Photographic Exhibition.
He was known for his high quality portrait, landscape
and architectural studies which he produced as albumen,
gelatin silver and platinum prints. He also specialised
in producing photographs on ceramic. Keene published
several books about Derbyshire, was offi cial photogra-
pher to the Midland Railway Company until 1883 and
a member of the local archaeological society.
Keene was a member of the Photographic Society
of Great Britain and was elected to membership of The
Linked Ring on 26th July 1892 with the pseudonym
‘Master Printer,’ the link name refl ecting the quality of
his photographic printing skills.
Keene died at his home in Radbourne Street, Derby
in 1894, leaving fi ve sons and three daughters.
Ian SumnerKEIGHLEY, ALEXANDER (1861–1947)
English photographer
Although the son of a wealthy worsted mill owner, of
High Hall, Stretton, Yorkshire, Keighley had to work his
way up, from shop fl oor sweeper to managing director.
Interested in oil and watercolour painting, the infl uence
of Henry Peach Robinson allowed him to combine these
interests into photography in 1883, then he joined the
Bradford Photographic Society. In 1887, with 12 prints,
he was awarded fi rst prize by Peter Henry Emerson in
the Amateur Photography competition (Alfred Stieglitz
came second). Yet Emerson lamented Keighley’s sharp
focus and then later criticised him for becoming a ‘gum
sploger.’ In the end Keighley adopted the manner of soft
focus Impressionism and became a leading Pictorial-
ist with many solo exhibitions in London, USA and
throughout Europe. Invited member of the Linked Ring
Brotherhood 1892, Fellow of the Royal Photographic
Society 1912, Honorary Fellow 1924. Often he used
a quarter plate camera, without a view fi nder, perma-
nently set at 10 yards and covered in a bag so that he
could surreptitiously photograph people, often on his
travels abroad where the majority of his photographs
were made. The negatives were then made into full
plate positives, then manipulated using combination
printing, pencil and dyes, then enlarged onto 16 × 20"
or 20 × 24" glass negatives for contact printing with
carbon. In his time, his photographs were highly praised
as “lyrical,” “poetic,” the “poetry of romance,” but they
have not survived well. Now they would be regarded as
“sentimental,” “unreal,” but his reputation suffers, like
many of his time, in that only the same few images are
ever reproduced.
Alistair CrawfordKEITH, THOMAS (1827–1895)
British surgeon and amateur photographer
Dr. Thomas Keith’s appreciation of light, and his ability
to recognise its potential for powerful visual statements
is evident in his small but signifi cant body of early paper
photography. Working only when working pressures
permitted, he produced over two hundred architectural
and landscape views.
His subject matter embraced the Closes and Wynds
of Edinburgh’s Old Town, wooded highland landscapes,
and the romantic ruins of Iona Abbey and his last dated
negatives were taken in September 1856. With his pre-
ferred soft or diffuse light, his use of angular shadows