Hannah Humphrey
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Hannah Humphrey (1745–1818) was a London print-seller and publisher best remembered as the publisher of caricaturist James Gillray, whose work she printed and sold for most of his career.[1]
Career
Humphrey ran a print shop that moved over the years from the Strand to Bond Street and finally to St James's Street, a location that became closely associated with Gillray's name.[1] From the early 1790s she published the great majority of his etched caricatures, displaying new prints in her shop window, where they regularly drew crowds eager to see the latest political or social satire before it circulated more widely.[2] Gillray lived with Humphrey for most of his working life, and she continued to care for him after his health and eyesight declined in his final years, up to his death in 1815.[1]
Legacy
As Gillray's publisher, Humphrey played a central role in bringing some of the most influential political caricatures in British history to a wide public audience, and her shop is frequently referenced in accounts of Gillray's career as the commercial and social hub of his output.[1] Several of Gillray's own prints depict her shopfront or, by some interpretations, Humphrey herself among the figures in his caricatures.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "James Gillray (Biographical details)."The British Museum.Retrieved 2026-10-02.
- ↑ "James Gillray."National Portrait Gallery, London.Retrieved 2026-10-02.