Benjamin Wyles

PHOTOGRAPHER

Among the photographers operating in Bourne during the middle years of the 19th century (circa 1872) was Benjamin Wyles who owned a chemist's shop in North Street. He specialised in portraits and general views of the town but there is also evidence that he produced pictures for the stereoscope, a device capable of producing three-D images as a home entertainment, first invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1840 and his original device is preserved in the Science Museum in London.

The process involved printing two separate images side by side on a card and when viewed through the stereoscope an effect of depth was achieved. Stereoscopes were sold with a number of these cards for home viewing and proved to be extremely popular during Victorian times. They were produced in many shapes and sizes, elaborate and simple, and many have survived and frequently come up for auction in the antique salerooms.

Photography was in its infancy at that time and still treated with some wonderment by the public but Wyles obviously kept pace with developments because he not only produced stereoscopic cards for sale for use with these devices but he also produced them on card and on glass for use with the larger devices. He also advertised the latest techniques of producing photographs on porcelain, glass, china and other ornaments such as vases as well as incorporating them in lockets, pins and rings while also selling the various products for use in home photography, then a growing hobby for the more affluent.

Wyles is known to have produced cards for sale with these devices and the one shown below of the Abbey Church at Bourne was bought on the eBay online auction by Robert Thorpe of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA, who kindly sent me copies, and, as he points out, the trade card reproduced on the back is full of information about the family business.

See also Bourne in 1861