William
Constable
Neither the article or the advertisement in the Brighton Guardian
of 10 November 1841 mentions the name of “The Proprietor”
of the Photographic Institution. The anonymous proprietor
was William Constable, a multi-talented
man, who at the age of 58 was entering a new field of enterprise,
which would draw upon those inventive skills which he had previously
demonstrated in the world of science, art and business.
Advertisement
for William Constable's Photographic Institution ( Brighton Guardian
10 November 1841)
In the 1851 Census, William Constable gave his occupation as ‘Flour
Manufacturer and Heliographic Artist’, but this description
fails to reflect what had up to then been an extraordinary and colourful
career. A man without the benefit of an extended formal education,
William Constable had worked at various times as a successful high
street draper, an inventor of scientific devices, a watercolour
artist, cartographer, land surveyor, architect , bridge builder,
engineer, and the surveyor of a thirty mile stretch of the London
to Brighton Turnpike Road. [SOURCE
2] At an age when most men would be entering the last stage
of their working life, William Constable decided to embrace a new
technology and embark on a new career as a Photographic Artist.
