Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Francis Watts Lee: A Reintroduction, Patricia Fanning

Patricia J. Fanning

Francis Watts Lee and his family hold a unique position in the history of photography. Most familiar are photographs of Lee's daughter Peggy, taken by F. Holland Day, and the striking portrait of Peggy and her mother, Agnes Rand Lee, in Gertrude Käsebier's composition, Blessed Art Thou among Women. Few may be aware that Francis Watts Lee was a photographer himself, as well as a talented printer, and was largely responsible for introducing the distinctive soft-focus Pinkham/Smith lens to the United States. This article reintroduces Lee to the photographic community, detailing his contributions to the field and reproducing his …