John Manley Adams

American, 1833-1901

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John Manley Adams' family moved from Canada to Elgin, Illinois when he was a child. He had a number of different jobs before entering photography in 1861. The 1867 Elgin directory also identifies Mrs. J. M. Adams as a photographic printer. He practiced photography in Elgin at least into the 1880s, and perhaps longer, before dying there in 1901. His son, Spencer Manley Adams had joined the studio in 1884, and continued in Elgin until his own death in 1922.