1. Mary Olive Edis, later Edis-Galsworthy, was a British photographer and successful businesswoman who, throughout her career, owned several studios in London and Norfolk.
16 Facts About Olive Edis
1. 2.
Olive Edis was one of the first women to adopt the autochrome process professionally and became Britain's first official female war photographer in 1919.
3.
Olive Edis, born at 22 Wimpole Street, London, was the eldest daughter of Mary and Arthur Wellesley Olive Edis, FRCP, a gynaecologist and senior physician to the Chelsea Hospital for Women.
4.
Olive Edis grew up with her parents and younger, twin-sisters, Katharine and Emmeline until the sudden death of their father, aged 53, when Olive Edis was 17 years old.
5.
Olive Edis continued to build the businesses and divided her time between studios in Sheringham and Notting Hill, London.
6.
Olive Edis married Edwin Galsworthy, a solicitor and director of Barclay's Bank, in 1928 at the age of 52, and became stepmother to his two adult children Margaret Eleanor and Gerald.
7.
Olive Edis employed several assistants at her Sheringham studio, the longest serving of whom was Lillian Page who did most of the studio's printing.
8.
Olive Edis produced postcards of her work, featuring fisherfolk, famous sitters and the photographer herself.
9.
Olive Edis took her first autochrome portrait in 1912 and became known for her colour photography.
10.
Olive Edis patented her own diascope, a device for viewing autochromes which allowed them to be backlit.
11.
Olive Edis won a medal with her autochrome Portrait Study at the Royal Photographic Society's 1913 exhibition, and became a fellow of the Society the next year.
12.
Olive Edis was appointed an official war artist and photographed British Women's Services and the battlefields of France and Flanders between 1918 and 1919 for the Imperial War Museum.
13.
Olive Edis photographed many prominent women at a time of great change for the role of women in British society including Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Nancy Astor and Emmeline Pankhurst.
14.
Olive Edis was first invited to be the museum's photographer in October 1918.
15.
The tour eventually took place in March 1919 with Olive Edis being supported by Priscilla Norman and Agnes Conway.
16.
Olive Edis died on 28 December 1955, and her ashes were interred at Sheringham Cemetery.