Julia Margaret Cameron’s Railway Station Exhibition : A Private Gallery in the Public Sphere
On 11 November 1871, Julia Margaret Cameron mounted a gallery of eleven photographs in the waiting room of Brockenhurst railway station to commemorate a reunion with her son Hardinge, who was on leave from his Civil Service position in Ceylon. In England, railways knitted together the nation’s identity, while in Britain’s colonies, they promoted economic growth and reinforced governmental control. Cameron’s gallery was timely in depicting men who supported the expansion of the Service by reforming its selection process to encourage broad participation, a reflection of her own support for the colonial mission. By displaying photographs at Brockenhurst Junction, Cameron symbolically joined Britain’s colonial periphery to its imperial center and united national pride and good government in the public sphere.