Cecilia Glaisher
| Cecilia Glaisher | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Cecilia Louisa Belville 20 April 1828 Greenwich, Kent, England |
| Died | 28 December 1892 (aged 64) |
| Spouse(s) | James Glaisher (1809–1903) |
| Children | Cecilia Appelina Glaisher James Whitbread Lee Glaisher Ernest Henry Glaisher |
| Parent(s) | John Henry Belville (father) |
Cecilia Glaisher (20 April 1828 – 28 December 1892) was an English amateur photographer, artist, illustrator and print-maker, working in the 1850s world of Victorian science and natural history.
Cecilia Louisa Glaisher (née Belville) was born on 20 April 1828, in Greenwich, Kent. Her father, John Henry Belville (1795–1856), was an assistant astronomical observer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and author of A Manual of the Barometer (London: R. & J.E. Taylor, 1849) and A Manual Of The Thermometer (London: R. & J.E. Taylor, 1850). It is not known whether Cecilia Belville received any formal or scientific education, although an upbringing where the recording of astronomical and meteorological phenomena was part of daily life suggests an awareness of a wider world view than that given to many nineteenth-century British females. It is recorded in one of her father’s work books that she had her first painting lesson on 17 April 1841, from Mr Villalobos.
She married James Glaisher (1809–1903), at All Souls Church, St Marylebone, on 31 December 1843. The Glaishers had three children: Cecilia Appelina Glaisher (1845–1932), James Whitbread Lee Glaisher (1848–1928), and Ernest Henry Glaisher(1858–1885).
James Glaisher's career is well documented. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1849 and became a member of many other learned societies. He was President of the (Royal) Meteorological Society in 1867-8, the (Royal) Microscopical Society in 1865-9, and the (Royal) Photographic Society during the years 1869–92. He worked at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, from 1836 to 1874, from 1840 as Superintendent of the newly created Meteorological and Magnetic Department, when George Biddell Airy (1801–1892) was Astronomer Royal.
It is likely that everything Cecilia Glaisher learnt about photography would have been through her husband, perhaps initially by helping and later collaborating with him, and through contacts with other scientists and photographers in the world the Glaishers moved in, especially at Hartwell House in Buckinghamshire, the home of Dr John Lee (1783–1866). Like many women at the time, Cecilia Glaisher's artistic skills would have been of great use both to her husband and possibly other scientists with whom they mixed.
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