Richard Ellis (1842 – 1924) was active in photography between 1852 and 1920, eventually settling in Malta upon his arrival in 1861 as part of the travelling circus of James & Sarah Conroy. He married Alfonsa nee’ Curmi and had three children, namely John, Amelia and Mary Ellis. John Ellis continued the Ellis business dynasty after the elder’s Richard passing in 1924, and John’s son, also aptly named Richard Ellis but known as Dickie Ellis, continued where his father left off in 1930, until the business winded down in 1990s following political meddling by the ruling party resulted in eviction from their premises on Strada Reale, the main thoroughfare in the capital Valletta. Thankfully, the whole Richard Ellis archive has been lovingly preserved by all the consecutive generations of Ellis photographers, but primarily Dickie Ellis was the one who saved the collection from the ravages of Axis bombardment in the Second World War by moving the collection of glass plates, studio equipment and ledgers to a haven, months before the site of the Ellis business was hit. The whole collection of glass plates, totalling over 40000 discrete negatives and prints, is undergoing digitisation by MIPA in collaboration with its custodian Ian Ellis. The collection is a private archive.
