Active in Southampton mid 1860s – 1872

Joseph Wiseman was the older brother of prominent Southampton photographer Samuel Wiseman. Both brothers were born in Southampton and at first Joseph became a tailor, (like his father), while Samuel went into carving and gilding. The 1841 census recorded Joseph and Samuel and 2 other siblings living at 5 College Street with their parents John and Martha. 

Joseph married Eliza French in 1849. At the time of the 1851 census Joseph was a tailor living at 5 College Street with his wife and young daughter. His brother Samuel, an apprentice gilder, was living with them. The 1853 Southampton Post Office Directory listed the 2 brothers living at 10 Bernard St. In later years Samuel Wiseman's first photographic establishment was at 9 Bernard Street. As street numbering was subject to change in nineteenth century Southampton, number 10 in 1853 may have been the same premises as number 9 in the 1860s. 

Southampton Photographers section in Cox's Directory 1869, including the Wiseman brothers.

Between 1855 and 1859 Joseph Wiseman lived and worked as tailor in Lymington. In 1861 the census recorded him as a tailor with an apprentice at Ryde on the Isle of Wight. By 1864 Joseph and Eliza were living in Shirley, Southampton, where their eighth child was born that year. Joseph gave up tailoring at some time in the mid 1860s and took up professional photography. The 1869 Cox's Southampton directory included photographer Joseph Wiseman at 8 Sussex Place, Shirley Road, Freemantle. 

Carte de visite 1870-1871

In 1871 the census recorded Joseph Wiseman as a photographer living with his large family at 56 Church Street, Millbrook. His wife Eliza's occupation was photographer's assistant. In 1872 Joseph and Eliza and their ten children left Southampton and emigrated to Ontario, Canada, where Joseph died in 1879.

Joseph Wiseman's dog, image courtesy of C.J Beard, Canada.

Portrait of Joseph Wiseman? 
Possibly taken while visiting a nephew in Tunbridge Wells.
Image courtesy of C.J Beard, Canada.

A postcard of Joseph and Eliza Wiseman, late 1870s.
Image courtesy of C.J Beard.