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Record
Code
DS/UK/157
Dates
1823-1893
Person Name
Wilson; George Washington (1823-1893); photographer
Surname
Wilson
Forenames
George Washington
Epithet
photographer
Activity
George Washington Wilson was born in Banffshire on 7 February 1823 and studied to be an artist in Edinburgh and London. He established himself as a portrait painter in Aberdeen in 1849, but in a few years was experimenting with outdoor photography and photographic portraits. Patronage from the Royal Family from the 1850s made his photography famous, and he both exhibited and sold books of his plates, winning a huge number of prize medals. He set up a company which both fed and benefited from the fashionable interest in Scottish tourism in the mid to late 19th century. His sons took over the business in 1888, but they sold much of it in 1905 and the company stopped trading in 1908. Wilson died in Aberdeen on 9 March 1893. A large collection of his plates are now held by Aberdeen University Library.
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