June 11

On the 11th in 1863, Julia Margaret Cameron celebrated her 48th birthday. As a gift, her daughter gave her the first camera she had ever owned. I can’t be certain but I kind of think that she liked the gift. A lot! In less than a year, she had established herself as one of the foremost photographers in England and was a member in good standing of the Photographic Societies of England and Scotland. The simple gift had fired her imagination and she discovered that she “longed to arrest all the beauty that came before me and at length the longing has been satisfied.” Among many others, she photographed Charles Darwin, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.