professional photographer, optical instrument manufacturer and sheep-farmer, was born in Denholm, Roxburghshire, Scotland, on 7 June 1814, son of John Archibald Little and Janet, née Crozier. He came to South Australia on board the Delhi in 1839 and took up sheep farming. In 30 July 1842 he married Jane, née Scandrett; they had four children. By 1845 William Little had a shop in North Terrace, Adelaide, where he made 'mathematical and optical equipment’ and where, in August, he produced Adelaide’s first daguerreotypes, advertising their appropriateness for those 'who wish to send accurate likenesses to England … at a very trifling cost’. According to Noye, he managed only 'a few good likenesses before exhausting his small supply of the necessary silver-coated plates’, then experimented with 'Fox-Talbot’s terribly slow calotype (paper negative) process, producing some delicate photograms of lace’. Little died in a shipwreck in St Vincent’s Gulf, South Australia, on 3 May 1850.
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- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
