F. S. Crawford

Frazer Smith Crawford (c. 1829 – 30 October 1890) was a photographer in the colony of South Australia, founding manager of the Adelaide Photographic Company, then photolithographer for the Government of South Australia. In a seemingly unrelated sphere, Crawford came to be recognised as an authority on agricultural pests and diseases, particularly known for identifying and exploiting naturally occurring predators of plant pests.

History

Crawford was born in Scotland and emigrated, perhaps via Hobart, Tasmania, to Melbourne, Victoria sometime before 1859 and founded a business at 83 Swanston Street which provided a photographic printing service.

Photography

Crawford was a resident of Melbourne until mid-1861, then Sydney for a year or two, before moving to Adelaide, where he had been appointed manager of Adelaide Photographic Company studio in King William Street, a little north of Hindley Street. He brought to Adelaide two notable employees: Ebenezer Cook and John A. Upton, both later acclaimed as artists. He served that company, which was for a time the chief competitor to Townsend Duryea, from 1864 to 1866, when, at the suggestion of Henry Strangways, he was appointed photolithographer to the South Australian Government's Survey and Crown Lands Department.

Management of the Adelaide Photographic Company then fell to Henry Davis, one of the proprietors of the company and previously with Batchelder & O'Neill of Collins then Swanston Street, Melbourne. He died on 6 February 1878, and management passed to his widow, Mary Jane Davis. The premises were twice severely damaged by fire: in December 1870 and in February 1879.