Description:This portrait was taken on the couple's sixtieth wedding anniversary. The studio was H.Whitlock at number 11 on New Street. Follett Osler was 84 and Mary 86.
Abraham (1808-1903) built up the family glass firm, which in 1851 took prime position in the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace. Their exhibit, the Glass Fountain, was said to be the most striking and admired by visitors.
Through the Birmingham and Midland Institute, Abraham was linked with notable people such as Edward Elgar, Charles Dickens and influential Birmingham families such as Tangye, Kenrick, Martineau, Nettlefold, Chance and Cadbury.
Abraham had a great enthusiasm for clocks, erecting an astronomical clock in Cannon Street, Birmingham that became the means by which the city set its own clocks. He eventually changed the timepiece to Greenwich Mean Time, within 24 hours every local clock had followed. In 1885 Abraham financed and built The Big Brum clock and bells adjoining the City Art Gallery; today still the standard timekeeper for the city.
Osler Street of course bears his name as did the school which stood for so many years upon it.