Smith and Ashman

Smith & Ashman were a photographic company based at 20 John William Street, Huddersfield.

History

Little is known of the company, other than they were active in the late 1880s and that they appear to have been a relatively short-lived studio.[1]

In March 1888, they entertained the patients of Huddersfield Infirmary with a lecture titled "A Run Through Yorkshire in 60 Minutes" which was accompanied with photographs projected by an "oxy-hydrogen limelight lantern".[2]

One of the partners was photographer William Middleton Ashman (c.1849-1904) who was living at Bath with his wife Harriett Perryman Ashman at the time of the 1901 Census.[3] Ashman's whereabouts in the years immediately before and after Huddersfield remain uncertain but he may have travelled to America — a photographer named "W. Ashman" is known to have had a studio at 17 West Lexington Street, Baltimore, circa 1890. He died on 11 November 1904, leaving an estate valued at £2,411 10s. 10d.

Notes and References

  1. ↑ The only newspaper reports mentioning the company appear in 1888.
  2. ↑ "Huddersfield Infirmary" in Huddersfield Chronicle (08/Mar/1888).
  3. ↑ He appears in the 1871 Census residing at Deptford, London, but seems to be absent from the 1881 and 1891 Censuses.