Frances Johnston with Elbert Hubbard and James Pond, 1900

Johnston having tea with Elbert Hubbard (far right) and and lecture manager James Burton Pond (center) at her studio in Washington, D.C. Frances Fannie Benjamin Johnston (January 15, 1864 - May 16, 1952) was one of the earliest American female photographers and photojournalists. She was given her first camera by George Eastman, a close friend of the family, and inventor of the Eastman Kodak cameras. She received training in photography and dark-room techniques from Thomas Smillie, director of photography at the Smithsonian. She took portraits of many famous contemporaries but, her most famous work is her self-portrait of the liberated New Woman, petticoats showing and beer stein in hand. In the 1920s she became increasingly interested in photographing architecture, motivated by a desire to document buildings and gardens which were falling into disrepair or about to be redeveloped and lost. Her photographs remain an important resource for modern architects, historians and conservationists. She died in 1952 at the age of 88. Elbert Green Hubbard (June 19, 1856 - May 7, 1915) was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher

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Elbert Fannie Hubbard Johnston Liberated Photojournalist Publisher

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