In the middle of the 19th century, a group of people in Swansea, Wales became captivated by a new invention - photography.
Between 1841 and 1856, John Dillwyn Llewellyn (1810-1882), of Penlle’r-gaer, his family, and many of their acquaintences experimented with, and even developed, exciting new photographic processes. They compiled the world's first family albums with photographs of their friends and relations that reveal the warmth and delight of life within the walls of the great landed estates of Victorian Wales.
A collection of rare photos from The National Library of Wales that shows what daily life of Swansea looked like in the 1850s.
Between 1841 and 1856, John Dillwyn Llewellyn (1810-1882), of Penlle’r-gaer, his family, and many of their acquaintences experimented with, and even developed, exciting new photographic processes. They compiled the world's first family albums with photographs of their friends and relations that reveal the warmth and delight of life within the walls of the great landed estates of Victorian Wales.
A collection of rare photos from The National Library of Wales that shows what daily life of Swansea looked like in the 1850s.
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| The Llewelyn children |
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| The Snowman |
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| Thereza and Elinor |
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| Thereza and Emma |
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| Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn wearing a Bernese (Swiss) Peasant dress |
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| Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn |
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| Three Cliffs Bay |
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| Three girls in a garden |
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| Two singers, Davey Bottin and Daniel Williams |
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| Two Welsh country people |
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| Two women and a girl in a garden |
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| Unidentified elderly couple |
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| Waterfall at Penlle'r-gaer |
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| Willy and Mustard |
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| Willy Dillwyn Llewelyn fishing at River Llewitha, Penlle'r-gaer |
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| Boy and girl with two dogs |
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| Calvert Richard Jones (on the right), with six women, a man, boy, girl and dog, standing and sitting in a colonaded porchway |
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| Calvert Richard Jones (seated) and a woman (possibly Portia Smith), and a white dog |
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| Calvert Richard Jones and woman (possibly Portia Smith, Jones' second wife) in front of a colonnaded building |
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| Calvert Richard Jones, Lady Brewster, Mrs Jones, Sir David Brewster and Miss Parnell (seated) |
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| Caroline & Dulcie Eden |
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| Carriage outside unidentified house |
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| Caswell Bay |
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| Church porch |
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| Dillwyn Llewelyn children |
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| Elderly lady knitting |
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| Elinor Amy Dillwyn Llewelyn |
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| Emma, wife of John Dillwyn Llewelyn |
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| Harry and Amy Dillwyn (children of Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn) |
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| Haymaking at Penlle'r-gaer |
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| J. D. Ll's children with Mr Knight, their tutor |
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| John Dillwyn Llewelyn |
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| Lion cubs |
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| Man standing with woman on horse back |
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| Man, woman and horse-drawn carriage before a colonnaded porch |
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| Mary Dillwyn |
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| Milson street, Bath |
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| Miss Southern with Eleanor and Lucy |
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| Mr and Mrs Iltide Thomas |
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| Mrs Vivian and little Ernest |
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| Mumbles |
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| Our schoolchildren |
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| Oystermouth |
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| People in gardens of unidentified house |
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| Picnic at Oystermouth Castle - Dulcie Vivian, Caroline Eden and Etta (Henrietta) Vivian |
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| Sally and Mrs Reed |
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| Somerville |
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| Street scene, Dover |
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| Thatched cottages, Black Pill |
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| The Bryn, Dulcie Eden and the gardener |
