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Frederick Scott Archer Photography Pioneer Inventor of the Collodion Process, Artist and Sculptor	Welcome
	Welcome to frederickscottarcher.com - the website devoted to the life and work of Frederick Scott Archer (FSA). FSA was without doubt one of the great pioneers of early photography, whose name should without doubt stand near to, if not alongside the likes of Louis Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot. The publication of his discovery in 1851 of the wet collodion process revolutionized photography, making it easier to obtain images with exposures of a few seconds only, and which also enabled multiple positive copies to be quickly made from the same glass negative plate; unlike the Daguerreotype process which produced a one off positive image on a silvered copper plate which could not be readily replicated. Wet Collodion was the preferred photographic process from its introduction in the early 1850s until the advent of the mass produced Dry Gelatin Plate in the late 1870s and early 1880s. It is the purpose of this website, to not only make the photographic community and the world at large more aware of the genius that was FSA, but also to better understand his life and to define his true status in the annals of photographic history.
Kenilworth Castle Ante-Room, Great Hall Collodion, c1855	Unrecognized
	Yet at the time of his death in 1857, although well respected by his photographic colleagues, he was largely unrecognised by the rest of the public at large; certainly unrewarded and definitely in impoverished circumstances. Even today he is not as well known as the other early photographic pioneers. The 150th Anniversary of his death in 2007 came and went in the main unnoticed by the world, despite ample opportunity in the years since his death for historians to reassess his contribution to the development of photography. As of now in 2025 it is still not clear amongst the photographic community, as to what FSA's true place in the development of photography really is. Some are of the view that he just introduced a photographic process which made the art of photography easier by enabling detailed images of subjects to be obtained with shorter exposure times and for them to be replicated without difficulty. We aim to show that he was much more than this and that his work was recognised in certain quarters as being of an importance just as great as that of Daguerre and Fox Talbot. His Collodion process helped many great scientists of the mid 19th century to begin for the first time to truly understand the workings of the universe in which we live.
Dr. Stefan Hughes Astrophotographer, Historian & Genealogist	No Biography
	Up until now there has been no detailed biography of Frederick Scott Archer. What has been written to date is vague, almost always repeating the same information (often incorrect), without any documentary or physical evidence to support it. We shall attempt to rectify this unfortunate and unforgivable situation – Frederick Scott Archer deserves to be heard. Helps us find out more about this neglected genius, by providing any information you have on his life, his work and his contemporaries and friends. History owes it to him. Dr. Stefan Hughes
	If you can help us then please contact us. Thank You!

The Collodion Chemist Frederick Scott Archer of Hertford By Stefan Hughes	The Biography
	I first began researching the life and work of Frederick Scott Archer in 2005, whilst writing my ‘magnum opus’ on the history of astronomical photography, ‘Catchers of the Light’- a work which took 7 years to complete. I began writing this book based on my knowledge and experience as both a professional astronomer and as a trained genealogist. It soon became clear that much of what had been previously written on the life and work of the photographic pioneers featured in my book, was either missing, badly researched or blatantly wrong. Of the many men and women included in ‘Catchers’, the one pioneer whose life and work was the subject of the greatest misrepresentation and falsehoods was Frederick Scott Archer. In 2013, I produced a brief biography of FSA, which was published as an eBook. It was far from complete and in 2025, I decided to complete the task I had started some two decades earlier. As of July 2025, I have completed the first draft of what will soon become the very first fully detailed, accurate and researched biography of Frederick Scott Archer. It is my aim, with the help of the photographic community at large, to improve upon this work in progress and to see it through to its publication as a printed book. It is what FSA deserves and to eventially recognise him as one of the great pioneers of photography.
Rochester Castle & Bridge FSA, Photograph (top) J M W Turner, Drawing (bottom)	Coming Soon!
	The 'Collodion Chemist', greatly expands upon my earlier research and tells of Archer life as a young boy in his native town of Hertford, of his coming to London, his subsequent apprenticeship with an influential 'City' bullion dealer and how he came to attend the Royal Academy as a student; where he became a proficient if not an exceptional sculpture. The book then goes onto discuss how he came to take up the new art of photography and his subsequent invention of wet collodion, a chemical which revolutionized early photography. And finally to trace the reasons, causes and events which led to his rapid decline into poverty and an early death. I also include a detailed analysis and discussion of his subsequent legacy to both photography and science in general. In particular, I highlight how the wet collodion process contributed to our knowledge of the universe in which we live; through the pioneers who first photographed the heavens. The biography is lavishly illustrated with his sculptures and photographs; as well as illustrations and documents relating to his life. You will read about many interesting details of his life and work, hitherto unknown; like the fact the majority of FSA’s photographs were based on the same subjects and locations as the early drawings and watercolors of the great English landscape artist, J M W Turner. And it almost certain that he personally knew of this legendary artist and many of his contemporaries. And that FSA even exhibited his photographs in the same street and possibly in the same building in which he had been born, some forty years earlier – a coincidence? And that only fate saved his wife Frances Garrett Machin, from a watery grave in the River Thames, in the August of 1839. And much much more!