Manufacturer. Born in Preston, England, Seed became interested in photography and studied the sciences and continued to do research in physics, astronomy and chemistry and to experiment particularly with different processes for making and developing photographic plates. Believing that better opportunities were to be found in American for applying the results of his experiments, he emigrated to the United States in 1865 and settled in St. Louis, Missouri where he obtained a position in the photographic gallery of John Scholton. He soon became the chief operator and manager and continued in this work for a number of years, devoting his spare time to further experiments at his home in an effort to simplify the process that he had developed for producing photographic negatives. After several years of persistent effort he perfected a process for the manufacture of a photographic dry plate which appeared so promising a contribution to photography that, with the financial help of friends, he formed the M.A. Seed Dry Plate Company in St. Louis in 1882 and began to manufacture his new product. In the course of ten years he not only manufactured dry plates but he also produced celluloid films for negatives and introduced positive celluloid films, lantern slides and double-coated non-inhalation plates. His dry plate was the first one sensitive enough to be used for X-ray purposes and for astronomical pictures. As a result, a larger market was opened up to the product of Seed’s company and it expanded at a rapid rate. In 1902 he sold the business as well as his formulas to the Eastman Kodak Company is Rochester, New York and for the next five years he was employed by them as a special advisor to the firm.  (bio by: Connie Nisinger)  Family links:  Spouses:  Martha Krause Seed (1850 – 1881)*  Lydia Krause Seed (1858 – 1948)*  Children:  Frederick Ainscoe Seed (1874 – 1939)*  William Seed (1874 – 1885)*  Alice A Seed (1885 – 1894)*  Miles Richard Seed (1887 – 1939)*  Lucille Lydia Seed Niekamp (1890 – 1953)* *Calculated relationship