Alice Dryden

Alice Dryden (3 August 1866 – 4 February 1956) was an English photographer, historian and writer. She published books and articles about the history of various Midlands counties illustrated with her own photographs, and is also remembered for her work on the history of lace. Her name was Alice Marcon after 1913.

Dryden was born on 3 August 1866 at the Elizabethan manor house of Canons Ashby in Northamptonshire to Frances and Henry Dryden, and was their only child. Sir Henry was the principal local landowner and a magistrate. His daughter received a "smattering" of education of the kind considered suitable for girls of the "squirearchy" class, according to an obituary. She had a scholarly side and took an interest in her father's antiquarian pursuits. As a young woman she enjoyed following hounds and horse racing.

Photography was one of her main interests during the 1890s. Dryden drove herself around in a dogcart photographing old buildings, villages and other scenes in Northamptonshire and beyond. Some of these were later published in her books in the county history Memorials series published by Bemrose. She and Margaret Jourdain worked together on a book about areas that would be affected by the construction of the Great Central Railway. Their friendship led to an important collaboration on the history of lace. Dryden and Jourdain added chapters and photographs to Fanny Bury Palliser’s 1865 book, History of Lace. The updated and expanded version was well reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement which commented on the "good use" made of "modern photographic methods". This new History of Lace, "entirely revised, re-written, and enlarged under the editorship of M. Jourdain and Alice Dryden" came out in 1901 and was republished several times between then and 1984. Dryden was Honorary Secretary of the Northamptonshire Home Arts and Industries Association which encouraged a revival of lace-making and other crafts. In the 1880s and 1890s she was also active in the Primrose League, an organisation supporting Conservative principles, which held summer fairs in the grounds of big houses like Canons Ashby.

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