1864 TO 1952

Frances Benjamin Johnston was given her first camera by close family friend George Eastman, the founder of Kodak film. After working for the Eastman Kodak company for a few years, Johnston quickly established herself as a professional portrait photographer and opened her own studio in Washington D.C. Her clients included Susan B. Anthony and Mark Twain, as well as President Teddy Roosevelt and his family, among many others. Johnston encouraged other women to try photography too, writing “What a Woman Can Do with a Camera” for the Ladies’ Home Journal in 1897.