Known as America's Court Photographer, Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1962) was an early photo-journalist and a noted freelance photographer. Johnston's documentary work was exemplary and included a renowned series of photographs commissioned by Booker T. Washington for the Hampton Institute in 1899 and the Tuskegee Institute in 1906. However, she also made her mark as portrait photographer. From the late 1880s to the 1910s, Johnston captured remarkable images of the White House that document the lifestyles of the first families, workers, and visitors as well as its architectural design in that period. Johnston studied art in Paris and Washington and through family connections met the elite of Washington society and gained access to the first family. With this opportunity and hard work, Johnston established a business as a professional portrait photographer and moved into the field of photo-journalism, working freelance for numerous magazines and illustrated journals. In the early 1910s, Johnston began to specialize in architectural photography. The culmination of her career as an architectural photographer came with the Carnegie Corporation's support of a survey of the early buildings and estates of nine southern states. The Library of Congress holds her papers and the bulk of her photographs.
