Christina Broom

Christina Broom (28 December 1862 - 5 June 1939) was a British photographer, credited as "the UK's first female press photographer".

History
Born at 8 King's Road, Chelsea, London, the then-Christina Livingston married Albert Edward Broom (1864–1912) in 1889. In 1903, following the failure of the family ironmongery business and other business ventures, Broom borrowed a box camera and taught herself the rudiments of photography. She set up a stall in the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace, selling postcards of photographs that she had taken. She maintained this stall from 1904 until 1930.

When the family moved to Burnfoot Avenue, Broom used the coal cellar as her dark room. She was assisted by her daughter Winifred, who had left school to assist her mother; Albert wrote the captions for the postcards in his neat script. The postcards sold well: in one night-time session Broom printed 1000.

Broom was appointed official photographer to the Household Division from 1904-1939 and had a darkroom in the Chelsea Barracks; she also took many photographs of local scenes, including those at the Palace, as well as The Boat Race and Suffragette marches.

Albert died in 1912 and Broom and Winifred moved to Munster Road, Fulham. Broom took the professional name of Mrs Albert Broom. In the 1920s and 1930s her work was featured in publications such as the Illustrated London News, The Tatler, The Sphere, and Country Life.

Broom died on 5 June 1939 and was buried in Fulham old cemetery.

Collections of Broom's photographs are held at the Museum of London, the National Portrait Gallery, the Imperial War Museum, London, the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, the Royal Maritime Museum, Greenwich, the Guards Museum, London; the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Local Studies Library; the Hammersmith and Fulham Archive and the National Army Museum; Maidstone Art Gallery, Kent; and the Harry Ransom Center and the Gernsheim Collection, University of Texas, both at Austin, Texas, United States.

On 17 December 2009 a collection of some 2,000 of Broom's photographs, mainly of military subjects, was to be offered for sale by auction at Sotheby's in London. The collection was expected to make up to £35,000.