Letters, ATG No 2615.
The son of William Berry (1801- 1875), a basket maker, Joseph Lendon Berry was born on June 22, 1833 in Bideford, Devon. Early years were spent working in the family business of basket-making.
He married in 1856 and appears to have moved to Aberdare in the 1860s.
He became well-known for his portrait and landscape photographs and had a studio and shop at 1 Market Place, Aberdare, until the early 1890s when he moved to 43 Cardiff Street.
Berry took out a number of patents, including: 1887 ‘combined clamp and tripod head for carrying photographic cameras or other like purposes’; November, 1895 ‘improvements in photographic shutters’.
The father to five sons and seven daughters, Berry retired around 1896 and the business was then run by his son, Richard Lewis Berry (1872-1941).
The Rhondda Cynon Taf Online Photographic Archive has a large collection of images taken by Joseph and Richard. Berry died in Aberdare on May 20, 1916.
Anthony J Lester, FRSA
Fine art consultant and researcher on British artists
