Cast-Iron Billy
John Thomson
1881
Medium
Woodburytype, plate 7 in the book "Street Incidents" (1881)
Dimensions
Image/paper: 11.7 × 8.9 cm (4 5/8 × 3 9/16 in.); Page/mount: 27.6 × 21.5 cm (10 7/8 × 8 1/2 in.)
Classification
photography
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
221860
About the Artist
John Thomson · 1837–1921
John Thomson (1837–1921), a pioneering Scottish photographer, was born on 14 June 1837 in Edinburgh as the eighth of nine children to William Thomson, a tobacco spinner and trader, and Isabella Newlands.) After schooling in the early 1850s, he apprenticed with a local optical and scientific instrument manufacturer, where he mastered the principles of photography, completing his training around 185...