Rupert Potter (1832-1914), father of the children's writer and illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), took up photography in the 1860s when it was still a relatively new art form. An enthusiastic and skilled amateur, he was elected to the Photographic Society of London in 1869 and later contributed to photographic exhibitions. Rupert assisted the artist Sir John Everett Millais (1829- 1896), a close friend, by photographing backgrounds for paintings and sitters for portraits. His favourite subject, however, was Beatrix herself and his prolific legacy of several hundred photographs forms a broad pictorial account of her life from infancy to marriage.

Both Rupert and Helen Potter were from wealthy north-west England Unitarian families who made their money in cotton manufacturing. Beatrix's maternal grandparents, Jane and John Leech, built their mansion, Gorse Hall, in Stalybridge and were the principal benefactors of Stalybridge Unitarian Church which opened in 1870. The first minister of the church was the Reverend William Gaskell (1805-1884), husband of the novelist and biographer Elizabeth Gaskell. Gaskell became a close family friend of Rupert Potter who shared not only his Unitarian faith but also his Liberal politics. In the 1870s the Potter family rented Dalguise House near Dunkeld in Perthshire for the summer months and enjoyed frequent visits from Gaskell. Beatrix Potter was particularly fond of him; she recorded his death in her journal, 'Dear old man, he has had a very peaceful end. If ever any one led a blameless peaceful life, it was he. Another old friend gone to rest. How few are left.' At the age of eight Beatrix knitted Gaskell a comforter for a Christmas present; Gaskell replied with an affectionate letter of thanks, 'Big as I am I know I could not have done it one-tenth as well. Every time I put it round my neck - which during this weather will be every day - I shall be sure to think of you.'