2010, American History, Including the Civil War

Lot of 17 photographic medals, including 9 that were awarded to the female photographer Jeanie A. Welford (1855-1949), wife of well-known photo journalist W.D. Welford (d. 1919), both from England. W.D. Welford wrote many articles on photography, dealing with topics such as the use of toning solutions with certain types of paper and the influence of the hand-held camera. He was also founder and editor of various short-lived photographic publications, including The Junior Photographer, the Photographic Life, and Cycle & Camera, in which he combined his strong interests in both photography and cycling. Jeanie was also an avid cyclist. W.D. Welford also wrote a standard manual on the hand camera in 1892, along with other resources on photographic apparatus and optical lanterns. Little is known about Jeanie Welford, but according to the Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Photography by John Hannavy, she was a talented photographer, specializing in topographical views, several of which were published in her husband's journals. The medals in this collection indicate that Jeanie exhibited her photographic work at both the national and international levels.

The collection features the following medals inscribed primarily to Mrs. J.A. Welford: 1 medal dated 1891 for Hand Camera Pictures from the Journal of the Amateur, The Profession & the Trade, featuring a photographer with camera on reverse, 1.5 in. dia.; 1 medal dated 1892, unmarked, from the Boston Camera Club, with Daguerre's profile portrait on reverse, 4 in. dia.; 3 medals dated 1895, inscribed to Mrs. Welford, one from Hamburg, 1.75 in., one from Amsterdam, reverse featuring a goddess-like figure grasping a camera, with a cherub at her feet holding what appears to be matted photographs in his hands, 2.5 x 3.75 in., and one from an unknown Summer Photographic Exhibition, 1.5 in. dia.; 4 medals dated 1896, including three inscribed to Mrs. Welford, one from Mellin's Art Competition, 2 in. dia., one from Belgium with remarkable depictions of a female photographer on obverse and reverse, 1.75 x 2.5 in., one from Berlin, 2 in. dia., and one unmarked from a Photographic Society in Lille, France, 1.75 in.; 2 medals dated 1897, unmarked, from the Exposition D'Art Photographique, 1.5 in.; 1 medal dated 1898, inscribed to Jeanie Welford for Home Portraiture, from the Journal of the Amateur, The Profession & the Trade, 1.75 in. dia.; 1 medal dated, 1899 inscribed to Mrs. Welford for Landscape, from the South London Photographic Society, reverse features an angel and cherubs dancing before a bust statue of Daguerre, 1.75 in. dia.; 1 medal dated 1914, unmarked, from Bugra, Leipzig, 2.25 x 3 in.; and 3 undated, unmarked medals, one from a Haarlem Amateur Photography Club, 1.75 x 1.75 in., one from Beverley Photographic and Sketching Society, 1.25 in., and one unknown medal, reverse with an interesting photographer's studio scene featuring two oval-length portraits of Daguerre and who appears to be Joseph Niepce, another photographic pioneer, 1.75 in. dia.