Lightly albumenized salt print made by Dr. Hugh Welch Diamond of his friend William Hepworth Dixon (1821-1879), editor of the Atheneum from 1853 to 1869. An engraving after an Eliot and Fry photograph taken in the mid-1860's appears as a frontispiece to Dixon's book Spiritual wives (volume 1; 1868, showing him with a much fuller beard, sans upper lip hair. He appears to be about 37 years old in this picture, perhaps a little younger, which places the photo session in the year 1858, aligned with the dates of many of the other photographs in the album.
Hepworth Dixon operated within an association of London's cultural illuminati known as the "Our Club" which was founded in 1846 by Douglas Jerrold (1803-1857) with the help of Dr. Diamond. Dixon got his start in the 1840's writing for Douglas Jerrold's (1803-1857) Illuminated Magazine until Jerrold persuaded him to move to London ca 1846. Jerrold and Diamond were very good friends and both were members of the "Our Club" founded by Jerrold. Diamond made several portrait studies of Jerrold which were advertised to the public shortly before, and immediately after Jerrold died in 1857. Back on topic, it is important to keep in mind that Dixon was also a member of "Our club" and a good source of anecdotal information about Dixon and the other principals of the OC can be found in "A book of recollections" by John Cordy Jeaffreson including an amusing passage on a dust-up between Dixon and Thackeray for what was construed as a painful review of "The story of Elizabeth" that was published anonymously in the Atheneum by Dixon. There were motions to expel Dixon from the OC so that Thackeray would be induced to return, but Dixon was too beloved for that to happen and even Thackeray demurred.
Jerrold himself, his son Blanchard Jerrold, Shirley Brooks, the younger Dickens, Dillon Croker, Henry Holl, Dr. Diamond, Dr. Richardson, F. W. Cosens, Sir George Jessel, Charles Knight, Hepworth Dixon, Professor Masson, Joseph Durham and Richard Woolner the sculptors, Robert Keeley, Dr. Doran,
