A BLUE plaque to commemorate a woman described as The First Lady of Colour Photography, could be installed in Oxford later this year.

Pioneering photographer Sarah Acland was the first amateur to take colour photographs and hundreds of her pictures are kept in the Bodleian Library and the Museum of the History of Science in the city.

The Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board have decided to honour her with a plaque at her house in Park Town where she died in 1930.

The board have applied for permission from Oxford City Council to put up the plaque which recognises and raises awareness of people, places or events of lasting significance in the life of Oxfordshire.

The board's secretary, Eda Forbes said: "We only allow plaques for someone of remarkable achievement and Sarah Acland's experiments with new colour photography processes at the end of the nineteenth century was just that.

"A biography of her was produced describing her as the first lady of colour photography.

"She took wonderful portrait pictures of all the great figures her father knew and she was able to sit them down long enough to take their picture."

Sarah Acland, the daughter of Sir Henry Acland a Regius Professor Medicine at Oxford University, was inspired to take up the art after being photographed by Lewis Carroll when she was just five years old.

According to a recent book published by Marston author Giles Hudson entitled Sarah Angelina Acland: First Lady of Colour Photography, Miss Acland was a pioneer in her field, specialising in the Sanger Shepherd process where separate photos were taken through red, green and blue filters and then re-combined to make one colour image.

He told the Oxford Mail shortly after the book's publication: "She was a pioneer in colour photography and the first amateur person to take colour pictures and receive acclaim for doing so.

"She lived at a house in Broad Street and began experimenting with colour photography in 1899

"She was working in colour photography long before 1907 when it was deemed to have been invented by the Lumiere brothers, with their Autochrome process."

Miss Acland’s first public success came with a portrait of Prime Minister William Gladstone, which she took in a studio at her home after he had visited Oxford.

But people from all walks of life sat for Miss Acland’s portraits – including Mary Barney, the widow of an Oxford chimney sweep.

Mrs Forbes said that if all goes well the blue plaque could be installed later this year.

She said: "We are hopeful having made the application that Sarah Acland will have a blue plaque.

"All the houses in Park Town are listed so we may be lucky to get permission but we are hopeful.