Frances Benjamin Johnston
1864 – 1952
One of America's first women press photographers, who turned her camera on a changing nation
![[Temporary Spanish-American war room, second floor White House office], Washington D.C., 1992](/static/images/92511565_hero.webp)
About Frances Benjamin Johnston
Frances Benjamin Johnston was born on January 15, 1864, in Grafton, West Virginia, the only surviving child of well-connected parents who soon settled in Washington, D.C. She received an education unusual for a woman of her time, studying art as a young woman and then, from 1883 to 1885, at the Academie Julian in Paris. She intended at first to become a magazine illustrator and writer, and her early ambitions in drawing and journalism…
Read full biography →From the Collection
![[Temporary Spanish-American war room, second floor White House office], Washington D.C., 1992](/static/images/92511565_thumb.webp)
[Temporary Spanish-American war room, second floor White…
1992
[Frances Benjamin Johnston, three-quarter length portrait,…
1950
My patio court, March 21 to May
1946
Frances B. Johnston, 1946, in New Orleans, La
1946
[Frances Benjamin Johnston's cats, Herman and Vermin,…
1945
[Arkady, Frances Benjamin Johnston House, New Orleans,…
1945
Notable Works
Self-Portrait (as the "New Woman")
One of the most famous photographs Johnston ever made of herself, a full-length studio portrait in which she sits before a fireplace holding a cigarette in one hand and a beer stein in the other,…
Browse the collection →Hampton Institute Series (the Hampton Album)
A series of photographs commissioned in the winter of 1899-1900 to document the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, a school established after the Civil War to educate African…
Browse the collection →Portrait of President William McKinley, Pan-American Exposition
Believed to be the last formal portrait of President William McKinley, made by Johnston at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, shortly before he was assassinated there in September…
Browse the collection →Timeline
Born in Grafton, West Virginia on January 15
Begins studying art at the Academie Julian in Paris (through 1885)
Receives a roll-film camera from family friend George Eastman and turns to photography
Opens her own portrait studio in Washington, D.C.
Publishes the essay "What a Woman Can Do with a Camera" in the Ladies' Home Journal
"It is a profession that should appeal particularly to women, and in it there are great opportunities for a good-paying business."
— Frances Benjamin Johnston