Etruria Park

Stoke-on-Trent Parks
Etruria

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Tribute to Thomas Wedgwood

Thomas Wedgwood (1771-1805)

Thomas Wedgwood born in May 1771 in Etruria, Staffordshire. Wedgwood is credited with a major contribution to technology for being the first man to think of a method to copy visible images chemically to permanent mediums...the birth of photography as we know it today.

This tribute to him was placed in Etruria park in 1953.

Medallion, set in brick wall to right of Etruria Road entrance to Etruria Park
photo: May 2008

Thomas Wedgwood born in May 1771 in Etruria, Staffordshire, son of Josiah Wedgwood, the potter. Wedgwood was an early experimenter with Humphry Davy in photography and is credited with a major contribution to technology for being the first man to think of a method to copy visible images chemically to permanent mediums.

In 1802, Wedgwood devised a method of chemically staining an object’s silhouette to paper by coating the paper with silver nitrate and exposing the paper, with the object on top, to natural light, then preserving it in a dark room. This event was, essentially, the birth of photography as we know it today.

THOMAS WEDGWOOD 1771-1805
PIONEER OF PHOTOGRAPHY

(on small bronze plaque underneath medallion)

THIS PLAQUE ERECTED
BY THE SOCIETY OF
STAFFORDSHIRE PHOTOGRAPHERS
TO COMMEMORATE THE WORK OF
THOMAS WEDGWOOD
OF ETRURIA HALL
PIONEER OF PHOTOGRAPHY
UNVEILED 11TH JUNE 1953
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE
ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

Signatures: (on base of relief) "Eric Owen 1953", also stamped "WEDGWOOD/BARLASTON"

Description:
The circular medallion showing Thomas Wedgwood's head in profile was taken from a contemporary chalk drawing by an unknown artist that had survived in the ownership of the Wedgwood family.

Background:
The Society of Staffordshire Photographers was formed in 1951. The plaque was made and presented to them by the directors of Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd of Barlaston. It was unveiled by Bertram Sinkinson, the President of the Royal Photographic Society.