Kelley Wilder's Page

Kelly - Hi , hope things are well at de Montfort.  You may have heard from Michael that we had a very succesful and enjoyable trip to Paris several weeks ago. We, the RPS Historical Group (thanks to Roger) have now established very good contacts at the Bibliotheque Nationale and have been invited back. This time I'm planning on doing a 20th Century visit and as you may know the BN has a wonderful archive of work covering all of the century.  We would also plan to visit some other museums and archives.  Do you think that this is something which might be of interest to students and, of course, staff.  If so please let me know and we can discuss what might be included to get the maximum benefit for everyone.  Regards, Donald.

Hi Kelley,     By chance do you have any connections with the Leicester Records Office? My friends, while playing as young girls in the 1950's (see my 'Monty Bird blog' on BPH) found many glass plates of the Victorian photographer, the Rev. Montague Bird - which were donated originally to Leicester Museum in 1955. I am working closely with his Son (in Zimbabwe) and his granddaughter (who I contacted via the BPH site!!  ...... and have provided them with Monty's and his father (John's) biographies - which entirely by destiny were entirely coincidentally Published by a friend of mine!) We have ALL contacted Leicester Records Office BUT they deny now having the Glass Plates - which is unusual because they had them a few years ago.

I have taken high resolution scans of about 40 Glass Plates that my friend still has - with the intention of  archivally preserving the original images, and importantly providing 'Monty's family with copies of the images (some of which are of 'long gone' Victorian family members).

If you have any contacts with the Leicester Records Office - could you possibly also make enquiries to locate the remaining Glass Plates .......... so we can digitally preserve those too (via the Loughborough Library (my Grandfather was the Librarian there (living in the Library House) from 1920 until his death in 1953).

Many thanks............. in anticipation.

 

Alan.      (Diseworth village, Leics). Contact via BPH or am.preston@btinternet.com or  Derby: (01332) 810121

 

Hi Kelley _ I talked to Michael at Birmingham a few weeks back so my apologies for the delay in getting back to you. Sadly I don't think it will be possible for me to do the course even on a part-time basis which is more to do with geography than enthusiasm. We live about 35 miles north of Edinburgh so the cost of travelling down weekly both financially and more importantly timewise would make it impossible. Though I'm retired I do have a whole stack of other non-photographic commitments which take up a good deal of my time.

Regards, Donald.

Hi Kelley - I think we met some time ago at an RPS event in Birmingham. I'm one of the RPS Historical Group, Vice Chair and am interested in doing the MA course on the two year part-time basis. Could you let me know what is involved. I'm retired so time is not a major issue but live in Scotland just north of Edinburgh which may cause some problems. I'm seeing Michael on Saturday so will quizz him too.

Regards, Donald Stewart.