The Photographic Legacy of Frances Benjamin Johnston

One of the first women to work in an emerging field dominated by men, Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) achieved acclaim in the late nineteenth century as an accomplished photographer. Her career spanned nearly seventy years, during which she becamerespected for her portraiture, artistic studies, photojournalism, and garden and architectural photography. She was instrumental in defining the medium and inspiring women to train in and appreciate photography. Though the socially well-connected Johnston was popular among prestigious celebrities of the day - she worked as the official White House photographer for five administrations - it is her monumental, nine-state survey of southern American architecture that stands as her most significant contribution to the history and development of photography both as art and as documentary. Drawing upon Johnston's original papers and photographs from the Library of Congress, Maria Ausherman's examination of this extraordinary photographer's career shows both the early origins of her style and vision and her attempts to change society through her art--