George Edward Alder (b.1831)

Alder was born in Cheltenham in c. 1831. The Cheltenham Exhibition was held in the summer of 1854 and a number of photographers entered works including "several subjects executed in the Heliotype process by Mr Alder of the Promenade” (Cheltenham Examiner 7 June). Ten days later the Cheltenham Looker-on carried an avert for Mr G. E. Alder’s photographic Studio in the Promenade. Confusingly Hannavy reports that the studio in Promenade was occupied by Richard Lowe and American photographer until 1856. This address also seems to have been the business address of his father Daniel who was a stationer (who also supplied “colours for Daguerreotypes”) up to at least 1858. There is also an advert in the Cheltenham Looker-on in April 1855 which advertises drawing classes. The classes for ladies are led by Mrs and Miss Alder and those for young gentlemen (on Thursdays and Fridays) were taken by Mr G. E. Alder Three years later Alder was still in Cheltenham lending stereographs to an exhibition at the newly opened Swindon Mechanics Institute. The same year, 1857, there is a series of adverts in the Western Times for Messrs (George) Alder and Company in Queen Street, Exeter, but it is not clear if this is the same person. The studio in Promenade is listed under the name of Charles Pottinger in local directories by 1857 (Hannevy, 1997).

We do not know why Alder appears in Scarborough, but from July 1860 there are adverts for Alder and Son’s, ‘Emporium of Fancy Goods’ at Marine Parade. This is presumably his father, Daniel’s business. Daniel and John Alder of Cheltenham are declared bankrupt at the stationery and toy dealing business in Scarborough in September 1861. George is advertising Alder’s Photographic Gallery in 1862. However the Cheltenham Examiner carries an advert in December 1861 for G. E. Alder and D. Alder (Junior) for a stationer and fancy goods supplier a few doors up from their father’s business in the Promenade. The advert goes on to say that “A photographic studio will soon be added to the premises.” This studio was “newly opened” in an advert of 16 April 1862 in the same paper. Adverts continue through into 1865 when there is mention of alterations to the photographic studio.

At some point by or in the 1870s Alder establishes a portrait studio in North End Croydon. while in Croydon he seems to have met a Mr H. Skaife who seems to have been the inventor of “Pistolgrams” photographs taken by flashlight (Croydon Advertiser and East Surry Reporter, 1879). The invention was not wholly successful as many sitters blinked just as the flash was set off. He further developed the idea of Skaife in 1878 and in partnership with a Mr Clarke patented the Luxograph, a light formed by burning a chemical in a dish lined with tiny mirrors which focused the light on the sitter in the studio. The light lasted for 15-20 seconds during which the image was taken. A number of photographers did buy the apparatus but it does not seem to have been a great success. Alder had entries accepted for the Royal Photographic Society Exhibitions from 1878 (with Clarke) and subsequent years on his own account. Until 1882 these were taken with the assistance of the Luxograph light, but his entry in 1885 does not mention it.