The first photographic societies were founded following the Great Exhibition of 1851 which raised public awareness and interest in the emerging field of photography. The Leeds Photographic Society, the first such organisation was founded in 1852, followed by the Photographic Society of London in 1853. It’s inaugural meeting was held on January 20th and the first issue of The Journal published in March of the same year. ‘The object of the Photographic Society is the promotion of the Art and Science of Photography, by the interchange of thought and experience among photographers, and it is hoped this object may, to some considerably extent, be effected by the periodical meetings of the society’. This is the copy of Robert Marshall, photographic chemist, of Boston Lincolnshire.