Historic Photography

Sir Thomas Mansel Franklen was a nephew of Sir Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot who, as a close associate of John Dillwyn Llewelyn, was part of the small circle of keen amateur photographers in Wales in the 1850s. Thomas Mansel Franklen carried on this family tradition and was a prolific and gifted amateur photographer. He submitted many of his photographic prints to the Photographic Survey of Glamorgan, instigated by Franklen and John Ballinger of Cardiff Library in 1891. This survey is an early example of several similar projects that took place across the UK and provides a photographic record of notable locations across the County of Glamorgan. The full set of volumes that made up this Survey is now held in Cardiff Central Library.