John Reginald Homer Weaver (28 January 1882 – 22 March 1965) was a British historian, academic and architectural photographer.
His writings included a memoir of Henry William Carless Davis, the historian and DNB editor,[4] and an edition of The Chronicle of John of Worcester, 1118–1140 (1908).
Weaver made a significant contribution to the highly contentious debate over the cleaning, conservation and restoration of oil paintings.
The controversy began in the 19th century but found renewed energy in the late 1940s following the National Gallery's cleaning of some 60 paintings while in secret secure storage in Wales during the Second World War.
[5] Following scathing criticism of some of the results, the then director of the National Gallery, Sir Philip Hendy, appointed Weaver to head a committee of inquiry into the gallery's cleaning and care of pictures in order to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the techniques and materials then being used.
[3] A collection of his work, dating from around 1900 to 1929 and comprising photographic prints, negatives, lantern slides, lecture notes and notebooks, is now held in the archive of Historic England.
The subjects include Canterbury, Ely, Winchester, Gloucester and Lincoln cathedrals; Southwell Minster and York Minster; St Mary's Church at Kempley; St Mary's Church at Hartwell, Buckinghamshire; and in Oxford the Divinity School, Wadham College, Trinity College, the Old Ashmolean Museum and the Sheldonian Theatre.