Jessie Mann

Janet Mann (Jessie) (20 January 1805 – 21 April 1867) was the studio assistant of the pioneering Scottish photographers David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson. She is "a strong candidate as the first Scottish woman photographer" and one of the first women anywhere to be involved in photography.

Early life Mann was born on 20 January 1805, in Perth, Scotland, the daughter of Alexander Mann, a house painter. She grew up there with her four sisters and one brother, opposite the house of David Octavius Hill.

Career Mann moved to Leopold Place, when Alexander married.

Mann was featured as a character in The Secrets of Bythswood Square (2024) by Scottish author Sara Sheridan. The main character in this historical fiction about pioneer female photographers is Ellory Mann, an imagined cousin of Jessie's who works with her as an assistant to Hill and Adamson and who then travels to Glasgow to set up her own studio. Sheridan talked about the photograph that inspired her iteration of Mann's character in an interview with National Galleries of Scotland curator, Grainne Rice.