Christina Livingston Broom
Personal Information
Born: 1862
Died: 1939
Country of Birth: England
Nationality: English
Ethnicity: White
Education
Educated in Chelsea secondary schools
"‘All my cards are published at the same price, 7/0 per gross, 3/9 per half gross, 8d per dozen, carriage paid. Nett cash at 7 days’. (womenwhomeanbusiness.com); "I have photographed all the king's horses and all the king's men," she said, "and I am never happier than when I am with my camera among the crack regiments of Britain." (encyclopedia.com); "
— Christina Livingston Broom
Professional Life
Field of Study: Photojournalism
Institution/Corporation: None found
Degrees & Memberships: None found
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 2024 commemorated with a Blue Plaque at her residence in Fulham London, English Heritage Blue Plaques; 1920 named Best Printer in London; 2022 added to the City of Women London map
Achievements: recorded the burgeoning suffragette movement in the early 1900s; appointed official photographer to the Household Division from 1904 to 1939 and had a darkroom in the Chelsea Barracks; her photographs encouraged military recruitment; 1908 was permitted to work in the grounds of Buckingham Palace and to photograph the king and queen; was unusual because she worked on the street rather than in the studio;
her photographs captured groundbreaking images of street life and political upheaval
began to experiment with photography in her forties using a box camera
1904-1930 sold postcards of her photos from a stall beside Buckingham Palace, showing images of contemporary London, including historic images of the women's suffragette movement
credited as the UK's first female press photographer
took publicity pictures of Women's Sunday in 1908, and the mass march on 23 July 1910, when 10,000 women gathered, the Irish group dressed in green, and on 26 July 1913, women 'pilgrims' who had walked from Carlisle to London to support the moderate suffragists
took the professional name of Mrs. Albert Broom
in 36 years of work took 40,000 images altogether
collections of her photographs are held at the Museum of London, the National Portrait Gallery, the Imperial War Museum, London, the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, the Guards Museum, London; the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Local Studies Library; the Hammersmith and Fulham Archive and the National Army Museum; Maidstone Art Gallery, Kent; and the Harry Ransom Center and the Gernsheim Collection, University of Texas, both at Austin, Texas, United States
was assisted throughout her career by her daughter Winifred
was less than 5" tall
her husband Alfred wrote the captions on her postcards until his death in 1912
enjoyed swimming, shooting and fishing
at their busiest mother and daughter produced 1,000 postcards per day of wartime images