Charles Spencer

In early September, Spencer took over the Hoyte’s chemist and druggist business on the Strand. By employing Henry Clayton, a pharmaceutical chemist, as manager he was able to use a room behind the shop, originally designed as a consulting room for visiting medical practitioners, as a temporary photographic studio, opened in early January 1880. A month earlier he had married Isabella Sellars, daughter of local resident and ship owner Captain Daniel Sellars, which presumably contributed to his decision to put down more substantial roots in Tauranga. The market for portrait sittings was clearly insufficient to occupy him full time, because by early March he was offering “all kinds of portraiture” and “views and residences to order” from a tent in Hamilton, and later in Cambridge. He returned to Thames in August, erecting his “monster tent” studio and offering his usual fare for some weeks. Source: http://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2019/05/charles-spencer-phot...