The National Science and Media Museum, Bradford, has acquired a large collection of magic lantern slides, formerly part of the lending library of the Riley Brothers of Bradford. The slides were formerly owned by John Jones, a collector and historian of the magic lantern who died in 2010. 

The collection features images of local people and cityscapes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, telling a rich visual story of Bradford’s heritage. Comprising of 182 magic lantern sets with over 2600 individual slides, the images were produced by posing models, either volunteers or the photographer’s family and friends, alongside props or in real-life landscapes to tell a visual story.  

The images show locations from around Bradford including the former banking hall on Hustlergate. Some of exterior images are difficult to identify, and members of the public are encouraged to get in touch with the museum if they recognise any locations.  

The Riley Brothers established their own magic lantern business in Bradford on Godwin Street, selling slides and equipment while manufacturing their own magic lanterns.     

The newly acquired collection is now being documented, photographed, treated, rehoused, and stored by the museum to add to its extensive collection of magic lanterns and magic lantern slides. The museum also holds the vast Kodak Collection, that includes the Riley ‘Kineoptoscope’ projector which converted magic lanterns into motion picture projectors, bringing movies to the theatres of Bradford.  

Commenting on the new acquisition, Vanessa Torres, Conservator at the National Science and Media Museum said: “Our collections are constantly growing, and new acquisitions can take on many different shapes and sizes. When we acquired this large collection of magic lantern slides, it was a truly a cross-department effort to document, conserve, and digitise the objects to ensure that these fascinating images can be accessed and enjoyed by everyone.”  

To learn more about the process of bringing the new acquisition into the museum’s collection, visit: https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/magic-lantern-slides-collection/  

10×10 Photobooks has announced a new grant cycle and call for applications as part of its annual photobook research grants program to encourage and support scholarship on under-explored topics in photobook history. The program began in 2021 and the first two cycles focused on research connected with 10×10’s project What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843-1999. For this round, we are inviting proposals on any topic or geography connected with the history of the photobook. Note that these grants are NOT for the making of a photobook.

10×10’s photobook research grant application is now open through Friday, 27 October 2023 and accepts submissions related to research and scholarship that seeks to fill gaps and supply missing information in the history of the photobook from any period. The concept of the photobook is interpreted in the broadest sense possible: classic bound books, portfolios, personal albums, unpublished books, zines, digital media, and scrapbooks. The evaluation of proposals will consider the importance of the proposed topic (how significant and/or unknown is the subject) and the strength of the proposed approach.

Details and applications: https://10x10photobooks.org/10x10-research-grants/

Paul Fischer's book The man who invented motion pictures (2022) about Louis Le Prince is now available as a free download.  The year is 1888, and Louis Le Prince is finally testing his "taker" or "receiver" device for his family on the front lawn. The device is meant to capture ten to twelve images per second on film, creating a reproduction of reality that can be replayed as many times as desired. In an otherwise separate and detached world, occurrences from one end of the globe could now be viewable with only a few days delay on the other side of the world. No human experience--from the most mundane to the most momentous--would need to be lost to history.

In 1890, Le Prince was granted patents in four countries ahead of other inventors who were rushing to accomplish the same task. But just weeks before unveiling his invention to the world, he mysteriously disappeared and was never seen or heard from again. Three and half years later, Thomas Edison, Le Prince's rival, made the device public, claiming to have invented it himself. And the man who had dedicated his life to preserving memories was himself lost to history--until now.

The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures pulls back the curtain and presents a "passionate, detailed defense of Louis Le Prince...unfurled with all the cliffhangers and red herrings of a scripted melodrama" (The New York Times Book Review). This "fascinating, informative, skillfully articulated narrative" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) presents the never-before-told history of the motion picture and sheds light on the unsolved mystery of Le Prince's disappearance.

Click here to download a PDF of  the book. 

Special Auction Services is to offer a rare - most likely unqiue - four lens magic lantern designed and built c.1897 by David William Noakes (1859-1934). The lantern is accompanied by a two large groups of slides. The lantern and slides were passed to the vendors' grandfather and he and his son used the lantern before it disappeared from view. 

In a technical foreword to the catalogue entry Dr Richard Crabgle, writing in the Magic Lantern Society Journal (no. 30 / 2022)  describes the history of the lantern. He notes 'The lantern itself is in its original wooden carrying case, with additional boxes for lenses, illuminants and slides. For transport and storage, the enormous brass lens tubes are removed and carried separately; even so the lantern in its case is too large for a single person to move any distance. Two groups of slides accompany the lantern. The first group comprises around 1500 wood-framed slides, in sets corresponding to the lectures Noakes gave in the 1890s...The second group comprises approximately 5,000 3¼ inch slides, mainly photographic ‘views’ but including some transfer slides (Primus, Theobald etc.) of fairy tales and other entertainment subjects.'

Accompanying the lantern are a number of technical papers, lantern programmes and photographs showing Noakes' workshop including the qud lantern.

Crangle notes 'I suggest that the lantern was built in or soon after 1897, for D.W. Noakes’s own use in his lecturing engagements. That date, paradoxically, coincided with his retirement as an optical manufacturer: an 1897 trade press account says that was because he took on more work for the family’s hay merchant business after his father’s retirement. In 1897 Noakes was planning to set up a “miniature workshop” at his new home, “so that when any idea pertaining to lanterns occurs to him he will be able to practically carry it out in a manner worthy of a lantern enthusiast.” It’s tempting to see the Quad lantern as just such a personal project, perhaps realising a long-nurtured dream.'

The ‘Noakes Quad’ will be offered with the principal collection of approximately 1,500 mahogany-mounted 3¼i n sq and other Magic Lantern Slides directly related to David Noakes, with associated artefacts and ephemera, as Lot 41.

The secondary collection of approximately 5,000 3¼in sq Magic Lantern Slides, which appears to be from diverse sources - although some slides appear to mirror the titles and contents of the principal collection with some titles possibly in David Noakes’ hand - will be offered separately as Lot 42 to Lot 78. The online catalogue will be available shortly. See: https://www.specialauctionservices.com/Auction-Calendar/2023/Photographica-and-Cameras-Auction-(5)

The National Portrait Gallery is hosting two events around its Yevonde: Life and Colour exhibition. On 15 September the NPG will hold a panel discussion chaired by Chanel Curator for the Collection, Flavia Frigeri, and include panellists Juno Calypso, Ajamu X and Marika Takanishi Knowles to discuss role-play in the arts. On 29 September a study day will consider the breadth of Yevonde’s innovative photography. 

The exhibition closes on 15 October 2023

Details: 
Yevonde panel discussion:  role-play in the arts / 15 September 
Study Day: Yevonde - an exploration / 29 September 

This one-day, in-person, interdisciplinary workshop will bring together researchers, archivists and curators to explore twentieth-century photo-magazines from across the British Empire and Commonwealth during the so-called ‘golden age of photojournalism’. Registration is now open - it is not being streamed so attendance in person is necessary.  

As well as the birth of photojournalism, the seismic political, cultural and technological revolutions of the interwar period also gave rise to a novel publication format – the photo-magazine. As Stuart Hall characterised it in his seminal 1972 essay on Picture Post, these were ‘image-over-text’ publications which gave primacy to the photographic image arranged into dynamic layouts and photo-stories by an innovative cadre of picture editors and art directors.

Exemplified by photo-reportage from the Spanish Civil War, this novel format was catalysed during the Second World War via widely circulated visual information campaigns by both commercial organisations and political actors. In the postwar period, the photo-magazine format was deployed by British occupying forces in defeated Germany. Photo-magazines were also a vital element of flourishing public relations initiatives by both newly established agencies of the UN and a host of industrial and manufacturing companies concerned about image management.

Thus, throughout the central decades of the last century, the general readership photo-magazine was developed and used to communicate with large, diverse and/or distant audiences. This format constituted a defining aspect of a public’s visual experience prior to the segmentation of magazine audiences from the 1960s and the dominance of television. This period – arguably, the golden age of photojournalism – coincides with the decline and disestablishment of the British Empire.

A selection of papers will look at publications from across the British Empire and Commonwealth in this period. These will address how such photo-magazines sought to instruct and entertain; how they represented social issues; how they othered and racialised indigenous communities; how they documented conflict; how they obscured, as much as revealed, historical developments; how they constructed, connected or divided audiences and publics; and how they explored or framed key tensions in the changing political landscape of the British Commonwealth and its constituent dominions and dependencies.

Hosted by the Tom Hopkinson Centre for Media History at Cardiff University, this initiative is a collaboration between Dr Tom Allbeson (Senior Lecturer in Media History, Cardiff University) and Dr Kevin Foster (Associate Professor in Literary Studies, Monash University).

Photo-magazines across the British Empire & Commonwealth, c.1930-65
Friday, 22 September 2023
Cardiff
Free
See the programme and register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/photo-magazines-across-the-british-empire-commonwealth-c1930-65-tickets-714578191607?aff=oddtdtcreator

Launched online last week is the Sankey Family Photography Collection of 10,000 photographs taken by father and son, Edward and Raymond Sankey in Barrow-in-Furness. The physical archive, now housed at Cumbria Archives, is a collection of glass plate negatives and postcards of Barrow and the north-west, which is believed to be the largest of its kind, documenting Barrow between the years of 1890 and 1970.

The images were catalogued and digitised as part of the Seeing the North with Sankey Project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage fund with the support of a team of volunteers.

See: https://signalfilmandmedia.com/sankey-website-launch/

Image: Duke & Duchess of York at Walney Bridge / 4 Apr 1935

Bonhams auction of the Lesley Mees Collection Votes for Women includes several lots of photography including an album c.1908-1909 showing 'joyous scenes' of suffragettes leaving Holloway prison, and other subjects. It is estimated at £1500-2000. 

To accompany the Museum of Bath at Work's exhibition Face to Face: Victorian and Edwardian Portraits of Working People in Bath made from negatives from the studio of Tom Carlyle Leaman at number 7, The Corridor off Union Street and showing Bath people in the 1890s-1910s, the museum holding a study day.

The day will explore some of the themes in the exhibition. 

Study Day programme
Each talk will include time for questions and discussion
10.00 Welcome and introduction
10.10 Nick Russell on Photography in the 19th century and photography in Bath
10.55 Ann Cullis on Dress, accessories, hair, fashion styles, and making methods
11.40 Kirsten Elliott on Department stores and shops in Bath
12.30-13.30 Lunch break
13.30 June Hannam on Working lives: the jobs they did, with focus on women workers
14.15 Bath Record Office staff on Bath Record Office, introducing the resources available
14.55 Close, and concluding questions/discussion
15.15-16.00 Researching your family history beginners advice; where and how to start; problem-solving and problem-sharing

Details: https://bath-at-work.org.uk/event/introductory-talks-face-to-face-victorian-and-edwardian-portraits-of-working-people-in-bath/
Museum of Bath at Work
Julian Road, Bath BA1 2RH
e: mobaw@hotmail.com 
w: www.bath-at-work.org.uk

The next Photograph Fair takes place at  the Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury on Sunday, 24 September from 0930-1500. The venue will also host the Ephemera Fair. 

Details: https://etcfairs.com/ephemera-fairs/

When colour photography emerged in industrialised societies in the late nineteenth century it sparked industrial and scientific interest for some and aesthetic and conceptual concern for others. Over the course of fifty years, from 1890 until 1939, the accessibility of colour photography changed dramatically, culminating with the widespread uptake of Kodak Corporation’s Kodachrome colour-coupler technology in the late 1930s. Kodachrome reversal film redefined the photographic industry. It was celebrated as the solution to nearly one hundred years of research and development concentrated on finding a way to make affordable and practical colour pictures, and was so proficient that by the early 1940s it was in position to usurp the majority of competing colour processes established before it.

The flourishing industry of colour photography that existed before Kodachrome was driven largely by improvements in technology, including the introduction of aniline dyes and faster equipment; increased accessibility because of changing economies; and evolving conceptions of colour in public consciousness as it related art, advertising and collective taste. Although most nascent colour photography enterprises failed, the sheer volume of processes introduced signifies an enormous amount of creative velocity attributable to diverse thought and experimentation on behalf of colour photography’s innumerable stakeholders. Through consideration of the meaning of colour in contemporary British society, and the economic and social networks that underpinned the industry, this thesis aims to establish a stronger understanding of the competitive and dynamic market for early colour photography between 1890 and 1939.

Chromatic Imagination: Realising Early Colour Photography in Britain, 1890 to 1939
Hana Kaluznick
Online: 19 September, 1100-1230 (EDT)
Organised by the Color Photography in the 19th Century and Early 20th Century group
Details: https://www.chstm.org/content/color-photography-19th-century-and-early-20th-century-sciences-technologies-empires

In his lifetime, Leeds-born Wordsworth Donisthorpe patented a motion-picture camera, helped found the British Chess Association, wrote prolifically on libertarian politics and even invented a language.

The great What If will tell the story of Donisthorpe’s strange, one-of-a-kind camera, which was based, extraordinarily, on the flax spinning machines in the Leeds mills of his father, George Edmund Donisthorpe. It will look at a film sequence shot by Donisthorpe in 1889, just weeks after another inventor, Louis Le Prince, shot his own sequences in Leeds as well as Donisthorpe’s last-ditch efforts to fund his experiments by attempting to blackmail one of Bradford’s most respected industrialists.

A forgotten pioneer, Donisthorpe’s story will be presented by local historian, Irfan Shah, along with revelatory new material, as we pose the question: would the history of cinema have been different if Wordsworth Donisthorpe had been better at blackmail?

The talk will be given in the wonderful cinema of the Leeds School of Arts at Leeds Beckett University and introduced by Professor Robert Shail.

Details and register here: https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/events/heritage-open-days/hod-wordsworth-donisthorpe-and-the-great-what-if/

Historic England’s Archive and Library is the nation’s archive of England’s historic environment. It is a national collection with nearly 15 million items, mostly photography and documents. including nationally important collections covering archaeology, architecture, social and local history.  It is an accredited Archive and a recognised place of deposit. The collection continues to grow for now, and for the future.

We have an important role in telling the story of England; its shared memories, lived histories and diverse cultural identities. We conserve, save and safeguard, as well as share, collect and generate income.

As Head of Archive & Library, you will lead and manage a specialist team. You will be responsible for shaping the way we collect, manage, conserve and make available archive assets in line with Historic England’s strategic objectives and priorities. You will ensure that we share our collections – both physical and digital - in accessible, inspiring and engaging ways and that our collections are increasingly inclusive and representative. You will be responsible for development of the growing archive of born digital material, working with the Head of Digital Engagement to develop an integrated ecosystem that ensures our collections are held in the most cost-effective way and accessible to the widest possible audience.

Details here: Head of Archive and Library - Historic England - Applied (beapplied.com) 

The American photographer and educator John Benton-Harris has died. After completing US military service, in 1965 he settled in London, working as a staff photographer for London Life magazine.

See: https://www.johnbenton-harris.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Benton-Harris and

https://www.huckmag.com/article/photos-celebrating-the-eccentricities-of-london?fbclid=IwAR3srW5_ZFN58xbYHqY-gNHHX_srH44cedb3M1ND1dqyf-uDfz7kU3oRavs

Aeon, the digital magazine, has just published online a fascinating essay on slum photography which was at the heart of progressive campaigns against urban poverty, and was also a weapon against the working class poor. It is written by Sadie Levy Gale a PhD candidate in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University, Wales. The paper mainly uses examples from London. 

See:  https://aeon.co/essays/slum-photos-were-weaponised-against-the-people-they-depictpublishes

Image: Southwark slum, London Metropolitan Archives 

There are a series of visits and online collection talks coming up over the next few months organised by the RPS's Historical group. First up on 2 September is a visit to the John Rylands Library where Tony Richards will discuss advanced heritage imaging techniques, which will be followed by a look at highlights from the library's photography collections.

Following on are: 

• 7 September - the RIBA photography collection (online)
• 19 September -  the William Graham collection at the Mitchell Library (online)
• 4 October - Little Woman. The art of being Jane Wigley, daguerreotypist (online)
• 6 October - Visit to Bradford Industrial Museum and its photography collection (live)
• 22 October - Celebrating the Bromoil Circle Archive - demonstration, talk and display (live)

Full details and registration are here: https://events.rps.org/en/celebrating-the-bromoil-circle-archive-4a2N4Lhk0L/overview

Image: Ken Hill FRPS, Welsh Moor, Bromoil print, c.1980s.

As Collections Assistant (Data,) you will prepare, conserve, digitise and catalogue historic photographic material from the National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP_

The National Collection of Aerial Photography – ncap.org.uk – is one of the largest collections of photography in the world, a centre of excellence and standard-setter for the custodianship of historic aerial photography. NCAP holds over 30 million
aerial images that record key moments in history and places throughout the world.

Part of Historic Environment Scotland, NCAP sits within the Marketing and Engagement Directorate. Now at risk from environmental and historic deterioration, the DOS and ACIU Projects are preserving and digitising our collections using collaborative robots (cobots).

As a Collections Assistant (Data), you will prepare and conserve historic photographic material for digitisation to prescribed standards and will ensure that sufficient record is available for digitisation using robotically-operated digitisation workstations. You will load, unload and program workstations and prepare records for return to remote storage upon satisfactory completion of digitisation. You will undertake geospatial cataloguing, associated image processing, and quality assurance to prescribed technical standards. Key responsibilities and duties will include;
Process and conserve historic photographic material to NCAP record handling standards so as to minimise risk of damage during digitisation and storage.

• Create digital images using cobots and scanners, handling original aerial photography, and associated records, for the DOS and ACIU Projects.
• Ensure the quality of digital images produced meet NCAP standards for the creation of digital surrogates.
• Undertake post-processing work including renaming, cataloguing and metadata to NCAP standards.
• Work to and meet production targets and deadlines.
• Maintain and update administrative records associated with the digitisation workflow, notably process tracking systems.
• Adherence to established standards, practices and procedures is essential; thoughtful and informed modifications are welcomed.
• Working across several teams, positive collaboration and cooperation is essential.
• Frequently moving relatively heavy boxes of archival material is required, as is at times working in a climate-controlled/cold room.

See job details here

Read more on the National Collection of Aerial Photography here: https://ncap.org.uk/

Image: Muirhouse; Edinburgh; Midlothian; Scotland, 1991

Historic England has just released 20,000 photographs captured by reconnaissance aircraft over England during the Second World War. The photos show airfields, military bases, towns, and countryside in England between 1943 and 1944. The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) reconnaissance aircraft flew hundreds of sorties over England during the Second World War.

he Historic England Archive’s USAAF Collection comprises over 20,000 photographic prints taken by USAAF photographic reconnaissance (PR) aircraft during the Second World War. Nearly 19,000 frames have been catalogued.

Most of the photographs are vertical aerial photographs measuring 8 x 7 inches, 9 x 9 inches and 18 x 9 inches. Additionally, over 400 oblique 9 x 9-inch aerial photographs have been catalogued. Many of the photographs in the collection show areas of the English countryside that include military sites amongst patchworks of fields. There are views of villages and towns, with coverage extending from Cornwall to the Wash, and from the Sussex coast to urban Lancashire.

See the interactive map and information here to explore the collection: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/archive/collections/photographs/usaaf-collection/

Image: Anti-tanl ditch surrounding Cissbury Ring Iron Age hill fort, Worthing, West Sussex, 22 April 1944.

BPH has been advised that John Benjafield, the former dealer in photography and photohistorian has recently died. Based in Norwich, John had a successful career as a dealer in vintage and collectible photography, photographic illustrated books, and was a regular at auctions and fairs from the 1980s to 2000s. He was a regular exhibitor at the former London Photograph Fair, held at the Bonnington Hotel. 

More recently, John had turned his attention to sharing his extensive photographic knowledge, especially that of East Anglia and contributed text to A Victorian Gentleman's North Norfolk about the Norfolk photographer W J J Bolding (1815-1899), and in 2016 he set up a website Early Norfolk Photographs 1840-1860  

Please share your own memories of John. 

The Science Museum Group has published its 2022-23 accounts and performance metrics. Of particular note are those relating to the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford.  The headline number relates to visitor which have yet to rebound across the SMG. Those for the NSMM are at 187,000 for 2022-23 compared with 421,00 pre-pandemic. 

The SMG has set a target of a return to the pre-pandemic numbers although the NSMM will be impacted by the closure of the museum pending the opening of the Sound and Vision Galleries in 2024.

The full report can be seen here