Draft:Thomas Sims (photographer)

Thomas Sims, early photographer (26 March 1824 – 14 November 1910)
Thomas Sims (26 March 1824 – 14 Nov 1910) was an early professional photographer and an active experimenter and inventor. In 1852 he exhibited at the first major photographic exhibition in the UK Exhibition of Recent Specimens of Photography and also contributed a paper for its catalogue. He was a vocal opponent of photographic patents after two legal disputes with William Henry Fox Talbot the last of which was settled in Sims’s favour. Throughout his life Sims was supported by his friend and brother-in-law, the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and in return Sims used his expertise to illustrate some of Wallace’s scientific works. The Thomas Sims Collection is held by The Amelia Scott (formerly Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Galley). The archive – notebooks, letters, miscellaneous documents, photographic images and equipment –  provides insight into the working life of an early photographer at a time when photography was still an experimental and evolving discipline.

Early Life in Wales
Thomas Sims was born on 26 March 1824 to Thomas and Sarah Sims of Goat Street, Swansea, Wales. Thomas Sims Snr was a shoemaker and later a Church Missionary. His son Thomas Jnr also became a shoemaker working in the family firm in Neath. By 1845 the family were also taking in lodgers including Alfred Russel Wallace, future brother-in-law of Thomas Sims Jnr. By 1847 Sims was experimenting with photography while still a shoemaker. His first camera was made from the wood of cigar boxes and a small meniscus lens and he obtained his first negative image in 1847. That same year Alfred Russel Wallace brought back a whole-plate daguerreotype camera from Paris to which Sims would later say he literally became a slave for many years. Sims married Frances ‘Fanny’ Wallace in 1849.

Pioneering Spirit
In his memoir, Sims points out that, in the early days of photography, there was very little practical knowledge to be had and that progress could only be made through practical experimentation based on a sound knowledge of chemistry and optics. Sims’s notebooks, published articles and correspondence (notably with his brother-in-law, Alfred Russel Wallace) demonstrate that he was an active experimenter who was willing to share his results with fellow pioneers. In 1852 he exhibited 22 collodion photographs at the first major photographic exhibition in the UK Exhibition of Recent Specimens of Photography and also contributed a paper for its catalogue based on his experiments with collodion ‘Collodion positives on glass’. His fellow exhibitors at the Society of Arts included major photographers of the day such as, William Henry Fox Talbot, Roger Fenton and Philip Henry Delamotte (who also submitted a paper).

He made a lengthy study of the collodion process, including making his own gun-cotton to understand its subtleties and variations. In 1859 he was granted a patent – no. 344 ‘Application Of Photography To Engraving And Printing’. An outspoken critic of patent law he perhaps saw the need to protect his own interests in the light of his legal disputes with Talbot.

Talbot v Sims
Sims records in his unpublished memoir that in the spring of 1853, after the Society of Arts exhibition, he was confronted by Talbot’s lawyer and was asked to pay licence fees for using the collodion process. Sims claimed he had two London studios and that the cost of buying two licences would break him: £150 p.a. for 44 Upper Albany Street, £200 p.a. for 7 Conduit St; and that after refusing to pay he received an injunction and a command to close his businesses.

Sims, writing his memoir in old age, appears to have summarised the facts. There were in fact two legal actions with Talbot the second of which was settled out of court in February 1855 in Sims’s favour. Both actions occurred while Sims was in business at 44 Upper Albany Street the second action was concluded before his move to 7 Conduit Street in May 1855.

There is no evidence to suggest Sims had two studios trading at the same time, though his mother-in-law continued to live at 44 Upper Albany Street after Sims moved to 7 Conduit Street. It is possible that Sims, referring to two studios in his memoir, was using hindsight and speculating what might have been. Thomas Sims was represented by his friend Peter Wickens Fry (Fry & Loxley) a fellow pioneering photographer and London solicitor. Fry & Loxley also represented Martin Laroche in 1854 in the landmark case Talbot v Laroche.

In Business
During his 60-year career Sims had portrait studios in various locations including: Swansea, Weston-Super-Mare, London, Surrey and finally Tunbridge Wells.

The highpoint of his career was his time in London. Within a year Sims had exhibited at the Society of Arts 1852 Exhibition of Recent Specimens of Photography and – despite his legal dispute with Talbot – he was advertising his studio at no.44 Upper Albany Street in the Times (from June 1853) and was selling ambrotypes, ‘Photographic Portraits on Glass’ from 2s 6d each.

Sims saw himself as a ‘photographic artist’, rather than a commercial photographer, and aimed high in order to make his name and fortune in London. Unfortunately, he lacked the business acumen to make the most of the opportunities before him. Throughout his working life Sims was supported by his brother-in-law Alfred Russel Wallace who provided financial support and business advice. His wife Fanny Sims supplemented the family income by giving music, drawing and French lessons.

Tunbridge Wells
Thomas Sims began visiting Tunbridge Wells in the 1860s after his brother Edward Sims set up a photographic studio in the town. Thomas exhibited at the First Industrial Exhibition in Tunbridge Wells in 1864. By 1901, after the death of his wife Fanny, he was a permanent resident working as an artist and photographer. He died in 1910 aged 86 and is buried in Tunbridge Wells Cemetery. Tunbridge Wells photographers Ernest Ashton and Godfrey Batting, along with Florence Howell (former companion to Fanny Sims and later a photographic assistant to Thomas Sims), together were instrumental in the preservation of Thomas Sims’s collection. In 1935 an exhibition was arranged at the Museum in Tunbridge Wells at the time, and, as a result, Florence Howell donated selected Sims items to the Museum in 1936 and also 1942.