John Benjamin Stone
Encyclopedia
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
John Benjamin Stone (9 February 1838 – 2 July 1914), known as Benjamin, was a British Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, and noted photographer.
Stone was born in Aston
Aston
Aston is an area of the City of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Lying to the north-east of the Birmingham city centre, Aston constitutes an electoral ward within the council constituency of Ladywood.-History:...
, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
the son of a local glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
manufacturer. He succeeded to the business on the death of his father.
He was a local Conservative politician, founder of the Birmingham Conservative Association and MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Birmingham East
Birmingham East (UK Parliament constituency)
Birmingham East was a parliamentary constituency in the city of Birmingham, England. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post voting system....
from 1895 to 1909. He was a member of the Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield is a suburb of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Sutton is located about from central Birmingham but has borders with Erdington and Kingstanding. Sutton is in the northeast of Birmingham, with a population of 105,000 recorded in the 2001 census...
Corporation for many years and was the first Mayor of the town in 1886 when the new Municipal Corporation
Municipal corporation
A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which...
was created; a post he held for four years. He was knighted in 1892 and was appointed High Steward of the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield in 1902.
He was also a prolific amateur photographer
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
who travelled widely in pursuit of his hobby. He made 26,000 photographs and wrote books as he travelled to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. Amongst his published works were A Summer Holiday in Spain (1873), Children of Norway (1882), and a fairy tale called The Traveller's Joy. He also made an invaluable record of the folk customs and traditions of the British Isles, which influenced later photographers of note, such as Tony Ray-Jones
Tony Ray-Jones
Tony Ray-Jones was an English photographer.Born Holroyd Anthony Ray-Jones, he was the youngest son of Raymond Ray-Jones , a painter and etcher who died when his son was only eight months old, and Effie Irene Pearce, who would work as a physiotherapist...
.
The Benjamin Stone Collection housed in the Birmingham Central Library
Birmingham Central Library
Birmingham Central Library is the main public library in Birmingham, England, and the largest non-national library in Europe. It is managed by Birmingham City Council...
contains many thousands of examples of his work. In 1897 he founded the National Photographic Record Association, of which he became president. The National Portrait Gallery holds 62 of his portraits and many photographs of people and places in and around Westminster
Westminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
. His amateur career culminated in 1911 with his appointment as official photographer to the coronation
Coronation
A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...
of King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
.
Notable images taken by Stone include that of a solar eclipse
Solar eclipse
As seen from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun as viewed from a location on Earth. This can happen only during a new moon, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction as seen from Earth. At least...
in Brazil in 1890 and a South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n revolution, in which he prevented the rebels from firing at the governor's palace until he had taken photographs of them beside their guns.
He became president of the Birmingham Photographic Society, a Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
, and a member of the Society of Antiquaries
Society of Antiquaries of London
The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...
and of the Geological Society.
Stone died at his home, The Grange in Erdington
Erdington
Erdington is a suburb northeast of Birmingham city centre, England and bordering Sutton Coldfield. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee...
, on 2 July 1914. His wife of nearly fifty years died on 5 July, just three days later. They were buried together in a double funeral in Sutton Coldfield on 7 July 1914.
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Further reading
- Elizabeth Edwards, Peter James and Martin Barnes. A Record of England: Sir Benjamin Stone and the National Photographic Record Association 1897-1910. Stockport: Dewi Lewis in association with V&A Publications, 2006. ISBN 9781904587378
- Colin Ford. Sir Benjamin Stone, 1838-1914 & the National Photographic Record Association. London: National Portrait Gallery, 1974.
- Bill Jay. Customs and Faces: Photographs of Sir Benjamin Stone. London: Academy Editions, 1972. ISBN 0902620835
- Douglas V. Jones. The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield: a Commemorative History. Sutton Coldfield: Westwood Press, 1994. ISBN 0-9502636-7-2
- Sir Benjamin Stone's Pictures, Volume 1: Festivals, Ceremonies and Customs. 1906, re-issued 1951.