The memorial plaque to commemorate the achievements of Thomas Wedgwood, is located at the Etruria Road entrance to Etruria Park.
Location: Medallion, set in brick wall to right of Etruria Road entrance to Etruria Park
Date of unveiling: unveiled 11 June 1953
Ceramicist: Eric Owen
Commissioned by: Society of Staffordshire Photographers
Material: Basalt
Dimensions: 75cm diameter
The plaque is inscribed as follows;
'(above head) THOMAS WEDGWOOD 1771-1805
(below head) 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.
About the subject:
Thomas Wedgwood is best known as a pioneer of photography. He attended Edinburgh University from 1787 to 1789, but was forced to leave due to persistent ill health.
Although prevented from working in his father's potteries by constant headaches, he nevertheless conducted a series of scientific experiments, presenting two papers to the Royal Society in 1791 and 1792 on the equal temperature of red-hot objects.
In 1802, he presented a paper on his discovery of a method of copying objects by exposing paper soaked in silver nitrate to the sun. When the objects were removed, their silhouettes would appear on those parts of the paper which had not been exposed to the light.
However, he could not find a means to fix his pictures (known as photograms), which prevented his method from becoming popular.
Nevertheless, his photograms, if kept in the dark, would last easily for sixty years or more."
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"Thomas Wedgwood (1771 - 1805) from England was a pioneer in photography. It is believed that his was the first idea to capture an image using chemicals and optical instruments.
Thomas Wedgwood was born on 14 May 1771 as a third surviving son of Josiah Wedgwood, the famous potter. He was born in Etruria, Staffordshire, near the city of Stoke-on-Trent in England. In his early years he was educated at home. His father was a member of the Lunar Society, a club of scientists and intellectuals and Thomas was in company of painters, sculptors, and poets from the beginning of his life. When he was 15 he enrolled at Edinburgh University and stayed there for 2 years until his chronic illness (persistent headaches) prevented him from completing the studies. He was interested in educating children and found out that the majority of information children receive through sight. This focused him on images.
We don’t know when precisely started experimenting with chemicals and light but it is believed that he started before 1800 because there is a letter from James Watt to Thomas’s father Josiah where Watt thanks Josiah for instructions for “Silver Pictures” (pictures made by lightening of silver nitrate) and how James Watt will experiment with them. One of the ideas is that Thomas knew about silver nitrated and that it was his idea how to use it for making images. Thomas used paper and white leather coated with silver nitrate to make first images and noticed that leather is more light-sensitive. His main idea was to use camera obscura in his process but chemicals that he used were not sensitive enough and needed too much time to show any effect.
Still ill, Thomas went to Pneumatic Clinic in Bristol where he met Humphry Davy, chemist and inventor. In 1802, Davy wrote a text in London’s “Journal of the Royal Institution” with title “An Account of a Method of copying Paintings upon Glass, and of making Profiles by the agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver, invented by T. Wedgwood, Esq., with Observations by H. Davy”. The text explained Wedgwood’s experiments and results and how Davy influenced them. “Royal Institution” was not too powerful at the time nor its Journal, but this text nevertheless inspired other scientists and it was mentioned in chemistry textbooks that were published as early as 1803. Text was also later translated into French and into German in 1811. Problem with these images was that Wedgwood and Davy didn’t know how to prevent image from darkening once they got the image they desired (to “fix” the image). Resulting image would continue to darken on light and that could be preserved only if image was kept in darkness. If not, images would turn completely dark. Because of that it is not known if any of those images survived.
In 2008 a photogram appeared that was presumed at first to be Talbot’s (Henry Fox Talbot, one of the pioneers of photography and inventor of calotype). It represents and internal structure of a leaf and is marked in one corner with something that looks like letter "W". Talbot expert Larry Schaaf, thinks that it isn’t Talbot’s photogram (today’s name for shadow photographs) and that it could actually be by Thomas Wedgwood and that it could be dating from the 1790s. Photogram was intended to be sold at the auction and to achieve a seven-figure price. A couple of days before the sale the photogram was withdrawn in order to be thoroughly analyzed but it never appeared on the scene again. If it was authentic Wedgwood it would be a very important historic and scientific object."
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