Robert Browning

c. 1863

A camera from her daughter

For Christmas her daughter and son-in-law gave the 48-year-old Cameron a camera, to amuse her in her solitude at Freshwater while her husband was in Ceylon; a hen-house became her studio and the coal-house her darkroom. She took a lesson from the photographer David Wilkie Wynfield, to whom, she said, she owed “all my attempts and indeed consequently all my success”.

August 1865

The South Kensington Museum buys 80 photographs

In August 1865 the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) bought 80 of her photographs.

November 1865

First solo exhibition

In November 1865 Cameron held her first solo exhibition; her work was shown throughout Europe.

1868

First artist-in-residence of the South Kensington Museum

In 1868 the South Kensington Museum gave her two rooms to use as a portrait studio, making her its first artist-in-residence. By then her prints were being sold by two London agents, P. & D. Colnaghi and William Spooner.

1875

Leaves for Ceylon

Because of her husband's ill-health, the lower cost of living and to be near their sons, who were managing the family coffee plantations, the Camerons left Freshwater for Ceylon — taking a cow, her photographic equipment and two coffins in case such items could not be found in the East. The plan was kept secret even from their closest relatives.

26 January 1879

Death in Ceylon

Cameron died at the Glencairn estate in Ceylon. Her last word is often reported to have been “Beauty” or “Beautiful”.