Johnston Photographs of Fort Macon

Fort Macon, Beaufort, Carteret County, North Carolina
 
Photographs taken between 1935 and 1938 by Frances Benjamin Johnston
 Photographs courtesy: Library of Congress,Canegie Survey of the Architecture of the South.

Once called America's "court photographer" by Life magazine, Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) became famous doing both portraiture and documentary photography. Fortunate to know many of the rich and famous of her time, Johnston produced a body of work that serves as an important historical document. A staunch feminist and independent thinker, she campaigned to promote greater recognition of women photographers in the United States. The stark documentary style she brought to her most famous photographs would greatly influence the emerging art of photography.

An only child, Francis Benjamin Johnston was born in Grafton, West Virginia, in 1864 to affluent parents. She was raised in Washington, D.C. where her parents moved soon after she was born. In the nation's capitol, her parents were active in the high-ranking political and social circles, and their connections, particularly her mother's, would greatly benefit Johnston's education and subsequent career as a photographer. (Encyclopedia of World Biography) More at Wikipedia: Frances Benjamin Johnston 

 
Abandoned in 1903, in 1924 a congressional act enabled the fort to be sold to the state for $1.00. It was restored from 1934–1935, and opened in 1936 as North Carolina’s first functioning state park.