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{{Short description|Victorian era photographer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}
{{Infobox artist
{{Infobox artist
| bgcolour = #6495ED
|name = Henry Taunt
| name = Henry Taunt
|image = Henry Taunt 1902-1912.jpg
|imagesize =
| image = Henry Taunt 1902-1912.jpg
| imagesize =
|alt =
|caption = Henry Taunt wearing a medal of the [[Ancient Order of Druids]]
| alt =
|birth_name =
| caption = Henry Taunt wearing a medal of the [[Ancient Order of Foresters]]
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1842|05|14|df=yes}}
| birth_name =
|birth_place = [[St Ebbe's, Oxford]], England
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1842|05|14|df=yes}}
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1922|11|04|1842|05|14|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[St Ebbe's Church, Oxford|St Ebbe's Church]], [[Oxford]]
|death_place = [[Cowley Road, Oxford]]
| death_date = {{Birth date|1922|11|04|df=yes}}
|nationality = [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]
| death_place =
|spouse = Miriam Jeffery
| nationality = [[United Kingdom|British]]
| field = [[Photography]]
|field = [[Photography]]
| training =
|training =
| movement =
|movement =
| works =
|works =
| patrons =
|patrons =
| influenced by =
|influenced by =
| influenced =
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| awards = [[Ancient Order of Foresters]]
|awards = Fellow of the [[Royal Geographical Society]]
| elected =
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}}
}}
'''Henry William Taunt''' (1842–1922) was a professional [[photographer]] based in [[Oxford]], [[England]]. His studio was in [[Broad Street, Oxford]].


'''Henry William Taunt''' (1842–1922) was a professional [[photographer]], author, publisher and entertainer based in [[Oxford]], [[England]].
Henry Taunt was born in Penson's Gardens in [[St Ebbe's, Oxford]].<ref>[http://www.oxfordshireblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/taunt.html Taunt, Henry 1842 – 1922, photographer, at 393 Cowley Rd], [http://www.oxfordshireblueplaques.org.uk/ Oxfordshire Blue Plaques], UK.</ref> He was the son of a plumber and glazier, also Henry, and his wife Martha, who came from [[West Ilsley]] in [[Berkshire]].
At the age of 14, Taunt joined [[Edward Bracher]] as a member of staff in 1856 at his photographic premises based at 26 [[High Street, Oxford]].<ref>Bryan Brown (editor), ''The England of Henry Taunt: Victorian photographer''. [[Routledge & Kegan Paul]] Ltd, 1973, [http://books.google.com/books?id=_KY9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PP14 page x]. ISBN 978-0-7100-7542-0.</ref><ref>[http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/story/slide.aspx?storyUid=11&slideNo=1 Henry W Taunt: the business], [[English Heritage]], UK.</ref> In 1868, he set up his own photographic business in Oxford.


==Birth==
Henry Taunt's black-and-white photographs are mainly views of Oxford, [[Oxfordshire]] (together with surrounding counties) and the [[River Thames]]. He produced the first pocket guide to the River Thames to be illustrated with photographs. In the 1860s, it covered the upper Thames, but it expanded its range over several editions. The wet [[collodion]] process, invented by [[Frederick Scott Archer]], was the best means to capture negative images on glass until the end of the 1870s, by which time many of Taunt’s pictures for his ‘Illustrated Map of the Thames’ had been taken. He would row his [[skiff]] to a location, set up his dark tent, set up his camera and tripod, sensitise and coat the glass plate, immediately make the two- or three-second exposures, develop and fix the images, wash them in river water, perhaps dry them in the sun and row back to his lodgings or set up camp with his assistants. At the beginning of the 1860s this was an incredible feat of skill. Henry Taunt was at the cutting edge of Victorian location photographic technology.
Henry Taunt was born in Penson's Gardens in the parish of [[St Ebbe's, Oxford]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/taunt.html |title=Henry Taunt (1842–1922) photographer 393, Cowley Road, Oxford |publisher=[[Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board]] }}</ref> His father Henry was a plumber and glazier from [[Bletchingdon]] north of Oxford. Taunt's mother Martha Darter<ref>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2D4W-TR8 1841 Marriage]</ref> came from [[West Ilsley]] in [[Berkshire]].{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=1. Taunt's Early Life}}


Taunt's birth name was William Henry Taunt, which he used<ref>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SGXK-V9Y 1851 census, age 8]</ref><ref>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M72C-SXN 1861 census, age 18]</ref> until at least his marriage in 1863.
In 1893, Henry Taunt was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Geographical Society]]. This was a considerable honour in recognition of the remarkable feat of [[cartography]] and accuracy of measurements that featured in the ‘New Map of the Thames’.


By 1871 he was known as Henry William Taunt, for the rest of his life.<ref>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KD86-JSW 1871 census, age 28]</ref>
Books such as ''[[Three Men in a Boat]]'' or ''[[Wind in the Willows]]'' might never have been written, or certainly would not have achieved such popularity, were it not for his albums, postcards, lectures and detailed and enthusiastic descriptions of the [[River Thames]] from its [[Cotswold]] source to [[London]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}
<ref>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q27H-TFKS 1881 census, age 38]</ref>
<ref>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4LY2-FN2 1891 census, age 48]</ref>
<ref>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9Y2-SRZ 1901 census, age 58]</ref>
<ref>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7KW-DCK 1911 census, age 68]</ref>
<ref>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVHQ-JQ94 1922 death, age 80]</ref>


==Career==
Taunt's photographs are reproduced in many books (e.g., see [[#Books|below]]) and form a useful historical record of [[social history]] and [[architecture]]. Major collections of his work are held by [[English Heritage]]: 14,000 images, [[Oxfordshire County Council]]: Oxfordshire Studies and the [[River and Rowing Museum]] at Henley.<ref> Graham Diprose and Jeff Robins, ''The River Thames Revisited: In the Footsteps of Henry Taunt'', [[Frances Lincoln Publishers]], 2007. ISBN 978-0-7112-2765-1.</ref>
Taunt worked first for his father, but decided he did not want to become a plumber. From the age of 11 Taunt worked first for a tailor, then for a stationer and next at a bookshop and auction room. Both the tailor and the bookshop and auction room were in [[High Street, Oxford]].{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=1. Taunt's Early Life}}

In 1856, aged 14, Taunt joined the staff of [[Edward Bracher]] at 26 High Street.{{sfn|Brown|1973|p=x}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/story/slide.aspx?storyUid=11&slideNo=1 |title=Henry W Taunt: the business |work=Viewfinder |publisher=[[Historic England]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405224754/http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/story/slide.aspx?storyUid=11&slideNo=1 |archive-date=5 April 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Bracher was Oxford's first commercial photographer, and for some years had a monopoly in the city. At first Taunt was a general assistant, but Bracher promoted him and in 1858 Taunt took his first photographs for Bracher.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}}

In 1863 Bracher sold his business to Messrs Wheeler and Day, who kept Taunt on as photographic manager. In 1868 Taunt established his own photographic business. At first he had premises in St John's Road (now St Bernard's Road), but he gave these up and traded from his home in [[George Street, Oxford|George Street]]. By January 1869 Taunt was selling photographs of Oxford and its neighbourhood for a [[Shilling (British coin)|shilling]] each. Later that year he started trading from a shop at 33, [[Cornmarket Street]].{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}}

In 1871 Taunt successfully sued a London photographer, Theresa Conroy, who had pirated his photograph of the [[Oxford University Boat Club]] crew in [[The Boat Race]].{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=4. Taunt's Photographs}} Also from 1871 Taunt was official photographer to the [[Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society|Oxford Architectural and Historical Society]]. In the same year he opened a shop in Friar's Entry selling window glass, but he gave this up in 1872.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}}

In February 1873 he held a children's party in the then [[Oxford Town Hall]]. This became the first of a long series of children's events that Taunt ran, and for which he wrote much of the entertainment. By 1874 these entertainments included [[magic lantern]] shows.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}}

Taunt's photographic business outgrew his tiny Cornmarket shop, so in 1874 he moved it to 9–10 [[Broad Street, Oxford|Broad Street]]. He leased the building and spent £1,000 increasing it in height by two storeys. Behind the shop he established a picture-framing workshop in Boxall's Yard.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}}

In 1873 Taunt had met a Miss Fanny Miles. In 1875 he opened a shop in [[High Wycombe]], [[Buckinghamshire]], where he seems to have put Miss Miles in charge. By 1878 Taunt ran also a cycle shop in [[New Inn Hall Street]]. Taunt was himself a keen cyclist, and often cycled to photographic locations.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}}

Taunt had several staff. In 1885 he engaged a boy, Randolph Adams, who rose to be Taunt's assistant and became an expert photographer and [[Photographic processing|developer]].{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}}

From 1889 Taunt leased Canterbury House, a detached house in [[Cowley Road, Oxford|Cowley Road]]. He built photographic and printing premises in its grounds and renamed the house ''Rivera'' to reflect his love of the [[River Thames]]. He closed his shop in High Wycombe and moved Fanny Miles there as his housekeeper.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}}

In 1893 Henry Taunt was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Geographical Society]]. This was a substantial honour in recognition of the notable feat of [[cartography]] and accuracy of measurements that featured in the ''New Map of the Thames''. He went on to write a series of local guide books, illustrated with his own photographs. ''[[The New York Times]]'' considered Taunt's guides to the Thames to be "as essential as the boat for a successful journey".{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}}

In 1894 the lease on 9–10 Broad Street expired. The lessor, Alderman Carr, refused to renew the lease. Carr's executors locked Taunt out of the shop, held its fitting as security and demanded £225 plus legal costs and a year's rent. But Taunt had already accumulated £1,300 in bad debts, his liabilities exceeded his assets by almost £119, so he gave up his Broad Street premises and filed for bankruptcy.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}}

[[File:St Giles’ Fair, Oxford, 1905.jpg|thumb|1905 Taunt photograph of [[St Giles' Fair]], Oxford. In 1907 Taunt published a booklet of the history of the fair.]]
Taunt relocated to 41 High Street, and by February 1895 was trading from 34 High Street. With the advent of cheap picture postcards Taunt gave up selling souvenir photographic prints. He met the competition with photographic postcards of his own, at first monochrome and then colour tinted.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}}

In 1906 he gave up his High Street premises<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/high/tour/north/034.html |last=Jenkins |first=Stephanie |title=34: Reginald Davis |work=Oxford History: The High |date=11 May 2014 }}</ref> and traded solely from ''Rivera'' in Cowley Road. In the years before the [[World War I|First World War]] he employed about a dozen staff there.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}} In 1908, as a member of the [[Ancient Order of Druids]]' Albion Lodge at [[Oxford]], he took the famous picture of [[Winston Churchill]]'s initiation into the AOD at [[Blenheim Palace]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://apps2.oxfordshire.gov.uk/srvheritage/recordSearch?offset=0|title=Oxfordshire County Council|date=11 November 2005|access-date=14 December 2019|archive-date=20 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920170552/https://apps2.oxfordshire.gov.uk/srvheritage/recordSearch?offset=0|url-status=dead}}</ref>

When war broke out Taunt reduced his staff to a minimum, but retained Adams until the latter was [[Recruitment to the British Army during the First World War#Conscription 1916–18|conscripted in 1918]]. Taunt's wartime products included greeting cards, calendars and patriotic songs.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}} One of his wartime cards, published in 1915, bore on one side a poem called ''Good Luck and Safe Return'' and, on the other, a space in which to paste a photograph under the title "Never Forgotten at Home".{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=3. His Character and Personality}}

==Work==
[[File:Photograph of New Quad, Brasenose College, Oxford in 1900.jpg|thumb|1909 Taunt photograph of New Quad, [[Brasenose College, Oxford]]]]
Henry Taunt's black-and-white photographs are mainly views of Oxford, [[Oxfordshire]] and adjoining counties. The River Thames is a prominent and recurrent theme in his work. From childhood he loved the river, boating on it and frequently on Trill Mill Stream, a Thames tributary in Oxford.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=1. Taunt's Early Life}} At Christmas in 1859, aged 17, Taunt boated solo from Oxford upriver to [[Lechlade]] in [[Gloucestershire]] and back.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}}

Taunt produced the first pocket guide to the River Thames to be illustrated with photographs. In the 1860s it covered the upper Thames, but it expanded its range over several editions.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} In 1872 Taunt published ''A New Map of the River Thames'' on a scale of 1:126,720 (half an inch to a mile).{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}}

The wet [[collodion]] process, invented by [[Frederick Scott Archer]], was the best means to capture negative images on glass until the end of the 1870s, by which time many of Taunt's pictures for his ''Illustrated Map of the Thames'' had been taken. He would row his [[skiff]] to a location, set up his dark tent, set up his camera and tripod, sensitise and coat the glass plate, immediately make the two- or three-second exposures, develop and fix the images, wash them in river water, perhaps dry them in the sun and row back to his lodgings or set up camp with his assistants. At the beginning of the 1860s this was a notable feat of skill.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

After his bankruptcy in 1894 Taunt continued to explore the Thames, but now with a comfortable houseboat.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=2. His Career}}

==Family==
In 1863 Taunt married a dressmaker, Miriam Jeffery.<ref>[https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl?start=1863&end=1863&sq=3&eq=3&type=Marriages&vol=3a&pgno=871&db=bmd_1612775592&jsexec=1&mono=0&v=MTYxNDIyODY5MjpiM2RmMDVlZTM5YzQ0MzA5OTExMzU4MWJjMGUyMGY4M2Y0Y2MzM2U4&searchdef=eq%3D4%26type%3DMarriages%26db%3Dbmd_1612775592%26s_surname%3Djeffery%26sq%3D1%26surname%3Dtaunt&action=Find FreeBMD Marriage of William Henry Taunt to Miriam Jeffery, Sep-Dec 1863]</ref> They had no children. (Two children, Roland and Cissie, are sometimes attributed to them. However, they were born in the 1880s to Frederic William Taunt and Charlotte (Baker) in the Witney district.) In later life Mrs Taunt was an invalid and lived upstairs at ''Rivera''. In 1884 Taunt's father died and his mother also moved to live at ''Rivera''.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=3. His Character and Personality}}

==Legacy==
Taunt died in 1922, six months after he turned 80. He left his entire estate to Fanny Miles, who with her sister Polly remained at ''Rivera'' for some years thereafter.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=4. Taunt's Photographs}}

Taunt's estate included at least 53,000 photographic glass [[Negative (photography)|negatives]]. But the house was bought by a local builder, Frank Organ, and the glass negatives started to be either stripped for use as greenhouse glass or else smashed. A local historian alerted the Oxford City librarian, who in 1924–25 bought several thousand of Taunt's negatives and some of his prints, papers and manuscripts, for £98 10s.{{sfn|Graham|1973|loc=4. Taunt's Photographs}}

Taunt's photographs appear in many books and fare an historical record of [[social history]] and [[architecture]]. Major collections of his work are held by [[English Heritage]]: 14,000 images, [[Oxfordshire County Council]]: Oxfordshire Studies and the [[River and Rowing Museum]] at [[Henley-on-Thames]].<ref>{{harvnb|Diprose|Robins|2007|p=}}{{page needed|date=April 2015}}</ref>


==References==
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}


==Sources and further reading==
== Further reading ==
*{{cite book |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=Bryan |year=1973 |title=The England of Henry Taunt: Victorian photographer |place=London |publisher=[[Routledge]] and Kegan Paul Ltd |isbn=978-0-7100-7542-0 }}
* Malcolm Graham, ''Henry Taunt of Oxford: A Victorian Photographer''. [[Oxford Illustrated Press]], 1973. ISBN 0-902280-14-7.
*{{cite book |last1=Diprose |first1=Graham |author1-link=Graham Diprose |last2=Robins |first2=Jeff |year=2007 |title=The River Thames Revisited: In the Footsteps of Henry Taunt |place=London |publisher=[[Frances Lincoln Publishers]] |isbn=978-0-7112-2765-1 }}
* Bryan Brown (editor), ''England of Henry Taunt: A Victorian Photographer''. [[Routledge]], 1973 (hardback), 1980 (paperback). ISBN 0-7100-7542-1 / ISBN 0-7100-0557-1.
*{{cite book |last=Graham |first=Malcolm |year=1973 |title=Henry Taunt of Oxford: A Victorian Photographer |place=Headington |publisher=[[Oxford Illustrated Press]] |isbn=0-902280-14-7 }}
* Susan Read (editor), ''Thames of Henry Taunt''. [[Sutton Publishing]], 1989. ISBN 0-86299-616-3.
* Malcolm Graham and Laurence Waters, ''Oxford Then and Now: From the Henry Taunt Collection'', Sutton Publishing, In Old Photographs series, 2006. ISBN 0-7509-4224-X.
*{{cite book |last1=Graham |first1=Malcolm |last2=Waters |first2=Laurence |year=2006 |title=Oxford Then and Now: From the Henry Taunt Collection |series=In Old Photographs |place=Stroud |publisher=[[The History Press|Alan Sutton Publishing]] |isbn=0-7509-4224-X }}
*{{cite book |editor-last=Read |editor-first=Susan |year=1989 |title=Thames of Henry Taunt |place=Stroud |publisher=Alan Sutton Publishing |isbn=0-86299-616-3 }}
* Graham Diprose and Jeff Robins, ''The River Thames Revisited: In the Footsteps of Henry Taunt'', [[Frances Lincoln Publishers]], 2007. ISBN 978-0-7112-2765-1.


==External links==
==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{commons category}}
* [http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/ Information] from [[English Heritage]] Several different collections of Taunt photographs can be found by looking at the Photo Essays on the English Heritage ViewFinder website
*{{cite web |url=http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/ |title=Welcome to ViewFinder |work=ViewFinder |publisher=[[Historic England]] |access-date=18 April 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060415191417/http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/ |archive-date=15 April 2006 |url-status=dead }} – Several collections of Taunt photographs can be found by searching the Photo Essays on this website.
*{{cite web |url= http://publicapps.oxfordshire.gov.uk/wps/portal/publicapps/applications/heritage |title=Heritage Search |publisher=Oxfordshire County Council}}
* [http://tetlow.screaming.net/henry_taunt_collection.htm Henry Taunt Collection] Photographs by Taunt of St Mary's Church, Cricklade
*[http://rrm.co.uk/ River & Rowing Museum]
* [http://henrytaunt-footsteps.co.uk/ In the Footsteps of Henry Taunt] Photographs & maps from Taunt's 'Illustrated Map of the Thames'

* [http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/wps/portal/publicsite/councilservices?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=http://apps.oxfordshire.gov.uk/wps/wcm/connect/Internet/Council+Services/Leisure+and+culture/History+and+heritage/LC+-+HH+-+Heritage+search Oxfordshire County Council: Heritage Search]
{{Authority control}}
* [http://rrm.co.uk/ River and Rowing Museum]


{{Authority control|VIAF=77554041}}
{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME = Taunt, Henry
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = British photographer
| DATE OF BIRTH = 1842
| PLACE OF BIRTH = [[St Ebbe's Church, Oxford|St Ebbe's Church]], [[Oxford]]
| DATE OF DEATH = 1922
| PLACE OF DEATH =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taunt, Henry}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taunt, Henry}}
[[Category:1842 births]]
[[Category:1842 births]]
[[Category:1922 deaths]]
[[Category:1922 deaths]]
[[Category:Culture associated with the River Thames]]
[[Category:Photographers from Oxfordshire]]
[[Category:People from Oxford]]
[[Category:People from Oxford]]
[[Category:English photographers]]
[[Category:Pioneers of photography]]
[[Category:Pioneers of photography]]
[[Category:Culture associated with the River Thames]]
[[Category:Members of the Ancient Order of Druids]]
[[Category:19th-century English photographers]]

Latest revision as of 03:23, 31 July 2024

Henry Taunt
Henry Taunt wearing a medal of the Ancient Order of Druids
Born(1842-05-14)14 May 1842
Died4 November 1922(1922-11-04) (aged 80)
NationalityUnited Kingdom
Known forPhotography
SpouseMiriam Jeffery
AwardsFellow of the Royal Geographical Society

Henry William Taunt (1842–1922) was a professional photographer, author, publisher and entertainer based in Oxford, England.

Birth

[edit]

Henry Taunt was born in Penson's Gardens in the parish of St Ebbe's, Oxford.[1] His father Henry was a plumber and glazier from Bletchingdon north of Oxford. Taunt's mother Martha Darter[2] came from West Ilsley in Berkshire.[3]

Taunt's birth name was William Henry Taunt, which he used[4][5] until at least his marriage in 1863.

By 1871 he was known as Henry William Taunt, for the rest of his life.[6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Career

[edit]

Taunt worked first for his father, but decided he did not want to become a plumber. From the age of 11 Taunt worked first for a tailor, then for a stationer and next at a bookshop and auction room. Both the tailor and the bookshop and auction room were in High Street, Oxford.[3]

In 1856, aged 14, Taunt joined the staff of Edward Bracher at 26 High Street.[12][13] Bracher was Oxford's first commercial photographer, and for some years had a monopoly in the city. At first Taunt was a general assistant, but Bracher promoted him and in 1858 Taunt took his first photographs for Bracher.[14]

In 1863 Bracher sold his business to Messrs Wheeler and Day, who kept Taunt on as photographic manager. In 1868 Taunt established his own photographic business. At first he had premises in St John's Road (now St Bernard's Road), but he gave these up and traded from his home in George Street. By January 1869 Taunt was selling photographs of Oxford and its neighbourhood for a shilling each. Later that year he started trading from a shop at 33, Cornmarket Street.[14]

In 1871 Taunt successfully sued a London photographer, Theresa Conroy, who had pirated his photograph of the Oxford University Boat Club crew in The Boat Race.[15] Also from 1871 Taunt was official photographer to the Oxford Architectural and Historical Society. In the same year he opened a shop in Friar's Entry selling window glass, but he gave this up in 1872.[14]

In February 1873 he held a children's party in the then Oxford Town Hall. This became the first of a long series of children's events that Taunt ran, and for which he wrote much of the entertainment. By 1874 these entertainments included magic lantern shows.[14]

Taunt's photographic business outgrew his tiny Cornmarket shop, so in 1874 he moved it to 9–10 Broad Street. He leased the building and spent £1,000 increasing it in height by two storeys. Behind the shop he established a picture-framing workshop in Boxall's Yard.[14]

In 1873 Taunt had met a Miss Fanny Miles. In 1875 he opened a shop in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, where he seems to have put Miss Miles in charge. By 1878 Taunt ran also a cycle shop in New Inn Hall Street. Taunt was himself a keen cyclist, and often cycled to photographic locations.[14]

Taunt had several staff. In 1885 he engaged a boy, Randolph Adams, who rose to be Taunt's assistant and became an expert photographer and developer.[14]

From 1889 Taunt leased Canterbury House, a detached house in Cowley Road. He built photographic and printing premises in its grounds and renamed the house Rivera to reflect his love of the River Thames. He closed his shop in High Wycombe and moved Fanny Miles there as his housekeeper.[14]

In 1893 Henry Taunt was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. This was a substantial honour in recognition of the notable feat of cartography and accuracy of measurements that featured in the New Map of the Thames. He went on to write a series of local guide books, illustrated with his own photographs. The New York Times considered Taunt's guides to the Thames to be "as essential as the boat for a successful journey".[14]

In 1894 the lease on 9–10 Broad Street expired. The lessor, Alderman Carr, refused to renew the lease. Carr's executors locked Taunt out of the shop, held its fitting as security and demanded £225 plus legal costs and a year's rent. But Taunt had already accumulated £1,300 in bad debts, his liabilities exceeded his assets by almost £119, so he gave up his Broad Street premises and filed for bankruptcy.[14]

1905 Taunt photograph of St Giles' Fair, Oxford. In 1907 Taunt published a booklet of the history of the fair.

Taunt relocated to 41 High Street, and by February 1895 was trading from 34 High Street. With the advent of cheap picture postcards Taunt gave up selling souvenir photographic prints. He met the competition with photographic postcards of his own, at first monochrome and then colour tinted.[14]

In 1906 he gave up his High Street premises[16] and traded solely from Rivera in Cowley Road. In the years before the First World War he employed about a dozen staff there.[14] In 1908, as a member of the Ancient Order of Druids' Albion Lodge at Oxford, he took the famous picture of Winston Churchill's initiation into the AOD at Blenheim Palace.[17]

When war broke out Taunt reduced his staff to a minimum, but retained Adams until the latter was conscripted in 1918. Taunt's wartime products included greeting cards, calendars and patriotic songs.[14] One of his wartime cards, published in 1915, bore on one side a poem called Good Luck and Safe Return and, on the other, a space in which to paste a photograph under the title "Never Forgotten at Home".[18]

Work

[edit]
1909 Taunt photograph of New Quad, Brasenose College, Oxford

Henry Taunt's black-and-white photographs are mainly views of Oxford, Oxfordshire and adjoining counties. The River Thames is a prominent and recurrent theme in his work. From childhood he loved the river, boating on it and frequently on Trill Mill Stream, a Thames tributary in Oxford.[3] At Christmas in 1859, aged 17, Taunt boated solo from Oxford upriver to Lechlade in Gloucestershire and back.[14]

Taunt produced the first pocket guide to the River Thames to be illustrated with photographs. In the 1860s it covered the upper Thames, but it expanded its range over several editions.[citation needed] In 1872 Taunt published A New Map of the River Thames on a scale of 1:126,720 (half an inch to a mile).[14]

The wet collodion process, invented by Frederick Scott Archer, was the best means to capture negative images on glass until the end of the 1870s, by which time many of Taunt's pictures for his Illustrated Map of the Thames had been taken. He would row his skiff to a location, set up his dark tent, set up his camera and tripod, sensitise and coat the glass plate, immediately make the two- or three-second exposures, develop and fix the images, wash them in river water, perhaps dry them in the sun and row back to his lodgings or set up camp with his assistants. At the beginning of the 1860s this was a notable feat of skill.[citation needed]

After his bankruptcy in 1894 Taunt continued to explore the Thames, but now with a comfortable houseboat.[14]

Family

[edit]

In 1863 Taunt married a dressmaker, Miriam Jeffery.[19] They had no children. (Two children, Roland and Cissie, are sometimes attributed to them. However, they were born in the 1880s to Frederic William Taunt and Charlotte (Baker) in the Witney district.) In later life Mrs Taunt was an invalid and lived upstairs at Rivera. In 1884 Taunt's father died and his mother also moved to live at Rivera.[18]

Legacy

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Taunt died in 1922, six months after he turned 80. He left his entire estate to Fanny Miles, who with her sister Polly remained at Rivera for some years thereafter.[15]

Taunt's estate included at least 53,000 photographic glass negatives. But the house was bought by a local builder, Frank Organ, and the glass negatives started to be either stripped for use as greenhouse glass or else smashed. A local historian alerted the Oxford City librarian, who in 1924–25 bought several thousand of Taunt's negatives and some of his prints, papers and manuscripts, for £98 10s.[15]

Taunt's photographs appear in many books and fare an historical record of social history and architecture. Major collections of his work are held by English Heritage: 14,000 images, Oxfordshire County Council: Oxfordshire Studies and the River and Rowing Museum at Henley-on-Thames.[20]

References

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  1. ^ "Henry Taunt (1842–1922) photographer 393, Cowley Road, Oxford". Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board.
  2. ^ 1841 Marriage
  3. ^ a b c Graham 1973, 1. Taunt's Early Life.
  4. ^ 1851 census, age 8
  5. ^ 1861 census, age 18
  6. ^ 1871 census, age 28
  7. ^ 1881 census, age 38
  8. ^ 1891 census, age 48
  9. ^ 1901 census, age 58
  10. ^ 1911 census, age 68
  11. ^ 1922 death, age 80
  12. ^ Brown 1973, p. x.
  13. ^ "Henry W Taunt: the business". Viewfinder. Historic England. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Graham 1973, 2. His Career.
  15. ^ a b c Graham 1973, 4. Taunt's Photographs.
  16. ^ Jenkins, Stephanie (11 May 2014). "34: Reginald Davis". Oxford History: The High.
  17. ^ "Oxfordshire County Council". 11 November 2005. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  18. ^ a b Graham 1973, 3. His Character and Personality.
  19. ^ FreeBMD Marriage of William Henry Taunt to Miriam Jeffery, Sep-Dec 1863
  20. ^ Diprose & Robins 2007[page needed]

Sources and further reading

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