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of Chemistry, the Royal Polytechnic Institution and the
London Institution. He was a member of the Chemical
Society and an active and often outspoken member of
the Photographic Society of London.’ When his post at
the London Institution was abolished in 1864, Malone
took a humble teaching job at a school in Clapham,
South London. His health again became poor and in
1866, fearing for her safety and that of her fi ve children,
his wife committed him to Bethlem Hospital, a mental
asylum. He died in Bethlem in 1867, a sad end that
probably explains why his death does not seem to have
been recorded in any major scientifi c or photographic
publication.
John Ward
MANN, MISS JESSIE (1805–1867)
Scottish assistant and photographer
Miss Jessie Mann was the assistant of the Scottish
pioneering art photographers David Octavius Hill and
Robert Adamson and one of the fi rst woman photog-
raphers. She was born on 20 January 1805 in Perth,
Scotland, the daughter of a house painter. She grew
up there with her four sisters and one brother and her
home was immediately opposite that of the family of
D O Hill in a narrow street known as Watergate. When
Jessie’s father died in 1839 she moved with her two
unmarried sisters, Elizabeth and Margaret, to live with
their brother Alexander who had become a solicitor in
Edinburgh. When Alexander married in 1842, the three
sisters moved to a fl at in Leopold Place, close to Rock
House where Hill and Adamson set up their famous
photographic studio.
Miss Mann in mentioned in two letters to D. O. Hill
from his friend James Nasmyth dated 1845 and 1847.
In the latter Nasmyth describes her as the “thrice worthy
Miss Mann that most skilful and zealous of assistants.”
It is diffi cult to identify the photographs actually taken
by Jessie Mann. It is recorded that on a tour of Britain
the King of Saxony unexpectedly paid a visit to Rock
House in 1844. The King of Saxony wanted to be
photographed and as neither Hill nor Adamson were
available “an assistant carried out the process.” There
are prints in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. There
are also photographs of the completion of the Balloch-
myle railway viaduct in Ayrshire which could only have
been taken in the spring of 1848 and Adamson had died
earlier in January that year. These may also have been
by Jessie Mann.
Like D.O. Hill Jessie and her two sisters in Edinburgh
were supporters of the Free Church and Hill included
them in his “Disruption” painting. It is said that two
prints by Hill and Adasmon, one in the Scottish National
Portrait Gallery and the other in Glasgow University
Library, are of Jessie Mann. In both she wears a glove
on her right hand and this could be to hide the stains
of silver nitrate that would have been an occupational
hazard for photographic assistants at the time.
When photographic activities ceased at Rock House
following the death of Adamson, Jessie became the
housekeeper of Andrew Balfour who ran a private gram-
mar school in Musselburgh a few miles from Edinburgh.
There is no record of her continuing with photography
although she retained an interest and kept in contact with
D.O. Hill. There is a personal letter to Hill from Jessie
Mann in the archives of the Royal Scottish Academy
dated 1856 which is in very person terms and refers to
photography.
She later moved back to Edinburgh to live with her
surviving sister. She died on 21 April 1867 a few months
after suffering a stroke that paralysed her down one side.
She was buried in the family plot at Rosebank Cemetery,
Edinburgh. She never married.
Roddy SimpsonMANSELL, THOMAS LUKIS (1809–1879)
British doctor and photographer
Doctor Thomas Mansell was born on Guernsey in the
Channel Islands in 1809, the eldest son of Rear-Admiral
Sir Thomas Mansell and Katherine Lukis.
He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and prac-
tised as a consulting physician as well as serving as a jurat
(honorary judge) to the Royal Court of Guernsey.
Mansell, along with fellow photographers including
Delamotte, Lake Price and Dr. Diamond, was one of
the twenty founding members of the Photographic Ex-
change Club in the early 1850s. In 1854 he appealed for
fellow members to supply lists of data regarding nega-
tive exposure time, development, paper manufacturer,
maker,focal length of lens used, etc.
Mansell was interested in technical aspects of pho-
tography and experimented with different processes.
Following his move from paper negatives to glass, he
used his own ‘syruped-collodion’ formulae, which was
convenient to use, but very slow.
A river scene, taken by Mansell in Northern France
in 1856, was included in an 1857 Exchange Club album,
complete with comprehensive technical information.
Mansell used his syruped-collodion on a 11" × 9" glass
negative (developed by pyrogallic acid) and the expo-
sure was a full 47 minutes (in bright sunshine) with a
12.5" Ross lens. He used gold-toning to produce the
fi nished print.
Mansell showed a selection of landscapes from glass
negatives, all taken in the Channel Islands or northern
France, at exhibitions between 1856–58.
Ian Charles Sumner