Philip Correll - 'Lewis Harding : photographer of Polperro', 1996

MLMSS 6119

fonds

1996

Textual Records, Graphic Materials

119109

1 bound volume of 101 pages - 0.01 Meters
Textual Records - typescript, illustrated with reproductions of photographs, engravings, maps and an oil Paintings

Lewis Harding (1807-1893) was the eldest son of John Cooke Harding and Mary, the younger daughter of Sir Harry Trelawny, the 7th baronet, of Trelawne House, Pelynt, in south Cornwall. Born in Somers Town, London, Harding was baptised John Aloysius but came to be called Louis and then Lewis by his family. In 1814 the family went to France, and although obliged to return to England the following year as a consequence of Napoleon escaping from Elba, they later returned to live for some years in Brittany where Lewis attended the Catholic college at St Anne d'Auray. He was a member of Bishop John Bede Polding's Benedictine mission to Australia, which arrived in Sydney in 1835. As a lay catechist Harding gave religious instruction to the Catholic convicts and also acted as a clerk to Polding. In 1837 he was appointed catechist to Norfolk Island where he remained until sent back to Sydney in late 1842 after falling out with the commandant, Captain Alexander Maconochie. In poor health he returned to England in 1846, living in the family home at Trelawne before settling permanently at Polperro on the cornish coast. Harding became interested in photography in the 1850s using an early collodion camera; he took many photographs of Polperro and its inhabitants.

Philip Correll was asked to write this monograph by the Royal Institution of Cornwall at Truro, Cornwall, to be illustrated with many of Harding's photographs; this is number 17 of a limited edition of 20 copies which he had printed and bound at Stratford-upon Avon while waiting for the Royal Institution to make a decision regarding publication.