Amory Nelson Hardy

Portrait of A.N. Hardy

Amory Nelson Hardy or A.N. Hardy (1835–1911) was a photographer in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 19th century.^[1][2] Portrait subjects included US president Chester A. Arthur, clergyman Henry Ward Beecher, politician James G. Blaine, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison,^[3] doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., writer Julia Ward Howe, labor activist Florence Kelley, suffragist Mary Livermore, philanthropist Isabella Somerset, and suffragist Frances Willard.^[4] He also made "electric-light portraits" of roller skaters in 1883.^[5]

Biography

Hardy was born in Carmel, Maine, son of schoolteacher Benjamin Hardy. He married Angeline S. Davis in 1857 and had three children: Bertha, Grace, and William. As a young man he started a photography business in Lewiston, Maine, before moving to Boston^[4] where he kept a studio on Winter Street (c. 1873–1878),^[6] Washington Street (c. 1868 and c. 1879–1887),^[7] Temple Place, and Tremont Street. He belonged to the National Photographic Association of the United States, the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association,^[8] and, outside of his professional life, the Tremont Temple congregation.^[4] In 1880 he exhibited photos at the first convention of the Photographers Association of America in Chicago.^[9] Hardy worked in Boston during a time when a number of other professional photographers kept studios in the downtown area, including Allen & Rowell, James Wallace Black, Elmer Chickering, William H. Getchell, J.J. Hawes, E.F. Ritz, Antoine Sonrel, and John Adams Whipple.^[10]

Collections

Examples of Hardy's work are in the collections of the following institutions:

• Boston Athenaeum^[11]
• Boston Public Library
• Dennis Historical Society, Dennis, Massachusetts^[12]
• Harvard University^[13]
• Hingham Historical Society, Hingham, Massachusetts
• Historic New England
• International Center of Photography^[14]
• Massachusetts Historical Society
• New York Public Library^[15]
• US Library of Congress^[16]
• US National Portrait Gallery^[17]

References

1. "Death of A.N. Hardy". Photo-Era. 26 (4). 1911. OCLC 317760743.
2. Somerville, Arlington and Belmont directory for 1869-70. Boston: Greenough, Jones & Co., 1869
3. Rollin H. Neale (1878), Letter to William Lloyd Garrison – via Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library
4. Boston Globe 1911.
5. Edward L. Wilson, ed. (1883). "Electric-Light Pictures". Philadelphia Photographer. 20 (236): 255. Roller-Skate Carnival
6. Boston Directory, 1873
7. Around 1868 Hardy's was at no.202 Washington St.; around 1879 it was at no.493 Washington St. cf. Boston Directory, 1868; Boston Business Directory, 1879; Boston Almanac, 1887
8. "Members' Names", Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, 1879
9. "Chicago Convention of the P. A. of A." Photographic Times. New York: 201–206. 1880.
10. "Photographers", Boston Directory, 1888, p. 1502; "Photographers", Boston Directory, 1896, p. 1806
11. Boston Athenaeum Online Catalog, 1879, retrieved August 1, 2017
12. "Dennis Historical Society Archive". Retrieved August 1, 2017.
13. "Visual Information Access". Harvard University. Archived from the original on May 9, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
14. "Artist: A.N. Hardy". New York: International Center of Photography. 2 March 2016. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
15. "Photographers in The New York Public Library's Photography Collection" (PDF). New York Public Library. 2010.
16. "James G. Blaine, 1884 Republican presidential candidate". 1884. Retrieved August 1, 2017 – via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
17. "Mary Ashton Rice Livermore", National Portrait Gallery Collection, Smithsonian, retrieved July 11, 2017

Bibliography

• "Inside View of a Boston Photographic Studio". Photographic Times and American Photographer. 12 (135). New York. 1882. (About Hardy)
• "A.N. Hardy". Leading Manufacturers and Merchants of the City of Boston. 1885. p. 286.
• "Amory N. Hardy Dead; Prominent as a Photographer for 40 Years in Boston and Won Many Medals for His Work", Boston Daily Globe, February 26, 1911

External links

• "A. N. Hardy". WorldCat. OCLC.
• Items related to Hardy via Digital Public Library of America
• Ron Polito (ed.). "Boston Photographers Cited in 19th Century American Photographic Journals: A Bibliographic Database". Archived from the original on 2015-09-12. Retrieved 2015-05-05 – via Photographic Historical Society of New England. (includes info related to A.N. Hardy)
• Flickr. Portrait of Clara Batchelder by Hardy, 202 Washington St., Boston, MA.
• Boston Public Library. Portrait by Hardy. No. 493 Washington Street, artist photographer, Boston, Mass.

Images

• 
  Portrait by A.N. Hardy, 1872
• 
  Advertisement for Hardy, 1879
• 
  U.S. President Chester A. Arthur at Daniel Webster house, Marshfield, Massachusetts, 1882, by A.N. Hardy
• 
  Rollerskating event at Mechanics Hall, Boston, 1883, by Hardy
• 
  Portrait by Hardy, 19th century
• 
  Logo of Hardy, 19th century