Welcome...

Welcome to the British photographic history blog which was launched at the start of 2009. There are now over 4200 members, in addition to regular readers. These range from museum and gallery curators, photographic academics, students, collectors, dealers and representatives from the photographic press from around the world. The blog provides a forum for news of events and happenings within the British photographic history community. This can include lectures or meetings, exhibition news, jobs, reviews and general news affecting collections of photographic material or individuals within the field. While the focus is on Britain it may, on occasion, include material that is of wider interest from Europe, the United States, Africa and Asia.

A summary of the previous week's posts is usually emailed to signed up readers each Monday. 

Dr Michael Pritchard

PS. Thanks to George Eastman House (now George Eastman Museum) and History Today magazine blogs for recommending British Photographic History as one of their own favourite blogs. The Daily Telegraph made BPH one of its photography websites of the week

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Perth’s Civic Trust have unveiled the city’s first two commemorative blue plaques.One honours David Octavius Hill (1802-1870), the Scottish painter, lithographic printer and great pioneer of photography, in recognition of his important contribution to the development of the photographic art and his legacy in early photographic…

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New post on early Arctic photographs by George Rexworthy De Wilde - The first book to include photographs of the Arctic was published by William Bradford in 1873. The second was The Cruise of the Pandora by Sir Allen Young which followed Young’s 1875 voyage to confirm the fate of Sir John Franklin and his crew. This rare publication contains 12 vintage albumen prints taken in 1875 by George Rexworthy De Wilde – all hand-pasted into the pages of the book. These important but little-known…

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Thursday, 10 July, saw the opening of the National Science and Media Museum's Sound and Vision galleries to the public. The opening now means that the museum is fully open across all its public spaces for the first time in many years.  The opening marks the culmination of a £6.8 million transformation of the museum, the new galleries span two floors of the museum, showcasing world-class collections of photography, film, television, animation, gaming and sound technologies in new and…

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Flowers in all their forms take centre stage in The Gorgeous Nothings: Flowers at Chatsworth, the 2025 exhibition in the historic house and gardens, the home of the twelth Duke of Devonshire and his family. The exhibition features both historical and contemporary works of art from the Devonshire Collections, and is supported by key loans…

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13659550476?profile=RESIZE_400x This is a Research Associate (RA) post for the funded project, ‘Salon Photography and the Making of the Nation: Malaysia, Singapore, and Burma (Myanmar) in the 1950s and the 1960s’. The lead investigator is Dr Zhuang Wubin, British Academy 2025 Visiting Fellow at CREAM.

Working with Dr. Zhuang, the Research Associate will help to identify relevant source materials from the…

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The First Fully Researched Biography of Frederick Scott Archer. I first began researching the life and work of Frederick Scott Archer in 2005, whilst writing my ‘magnum opus’ on the history of astronomical photography, ‘Catchers of the Light’- a work which took 7 years to complete.

I began writing this book based on my knowledge and experience as both a professional astronomer and as a trained genealogist. It soon became clear that much of what had been previously…

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Information and discussion on all aspects of British photographic history ranging from news, exhibitions and museum updates, to publications, and jobs. BPH is intended to be collaborative so do add your own posts. 

 

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