December 2020 Blog Posts (25)

A new BBC ALBA documentary to be transmitted on New Year’s Eve reveals newly discovered photos taken during the construction of the railway line between Fort William and Mallaig from the late 1890s. Arguably one of the most spectacular railway lines in the world, this collection of over one hundred plates were unearthed in a sale in Cornwall in…

The National Science and Media Museum in Bradford is undertaking the digitisation of the Daily Herald Archive to greatly improve the public accessibility of this nationally important collection. We are therefore recruiting two Junior Photographers to start on the 1^st February 2021 in…

There's a delightful accessible online 1974 short BBC documentary of elderly Gandolfi brothers of Gandolfi & Sons camera makers of Peckham, London which company had operated in the area for over 100 years. The artisan nature of the skilled brothers at the end of their camera crafting working lives has one of the brothers in…

The Hyman Collection has published its 2020 annual update which can be read on its website. Of particular note is the availability of bespoke loans and exhibitions from the extensive collection and the establishment of the Hyman Foundation, a new charitable foundation to support photography in Britain.…

While not directly related to the subject of British photographic history, unless you count mention of Felice Beato's panorama photographs of the Japanese capital taken in 1863, I'd like to share this online gallery tour of an exhibition of early Japanese photography now on view at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. I've learned so much from this group and…

The University of St Andrews is pleased to offer a full scholarship funded by St Leonard’s Postgraduate College, to support an exceptional student undertaking doctoral research in the following project: Feminist Documentary Photography and Activist Networks.

The past two decades have witnessed a surge of scholarly and curatorial interest in feminist…

The University of Liverpool is offering a PhD studentship entitled 'The Migrant Eye: Reactivating the Photographic Past through Archives and Exhibitions in Liverpool and North West England'. It is supervised by Professor Michelle Henning and Dr Jordana Blejmar, both in the Department of Communication and Media.

This collaborative…

The School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC) has a long-standing reputation as a world-leading centre for innovative teaching and research. The following studentship is available: Amnesty, Archives, Activism: Photojournalism and the Development of Human Rights Media Campaigns in Britain since the 1960s. Supervisor and contact information to…

The Network for Developing Photographic Research is inviting researchers to participate in an upcoming monthly event series, 1000 Words, which will start at the start of 2021. The idea is very simple: each speaker selects one photograph, uses it to write roughly 1,000 words reflecting on a key aspect of their research and presents it in the…

The 100th anniversary of the Cottingley Fairies, one of the most famous hoaxes of the twentieth century, is being marked by a new exhibition curated by an academic from the University of Huddersfield. It will open in January 2021 at the University of Leeds Brotherton Library, subject to COVDI restrictions being lifted. It is curated by …

As a Conservator at the National Science & Media Museum in Bradford, you will work closely with the other members of the core Conservation & Collections Care (CCC) teams based at all SMG sites, and alongside project teams, this may also include supervising short term staff, students and volunteers.…

From various sources I have collected hundreds of 35mm slides from the 1960s showing views of Devon, Cornwall and Wales. These are high quality family shots. I also have slides of Switzerland, Italy and Madeira taken by semi-profession photographers. I have not got space for them. Does anyone out there collect such images. Free to a good home.

This among an interesting bunch of late 1800s and early 1900s glass plate negatives that Harrow School has offloaded from their archive are now up for sale on Ebay. Is this lad in military uniform, or is he in some civilian gear that, for example, hotels dressed their minions up in? Maybe he's a 'Telegram Boy'. Anyone recognise his get-up?

Thank you…

The Journal of Victorian Culture Online the blog and online platform of the Journal of Victorian Culture has published a short paper by Rose Teanby titled 'Wish You Were Here: Victorian women pioneers of travel photography'. In it Rose discusses several early British and European women…

Geoff Belknap, Head Curator at the National Science+Media Museum, Bradford, has written an extended blog discussing how photography is being collected within the Science Museum Group.

Photography presents particular challenges because of the ubiquity and extent of the medium, although the museum continues to collect both photographs and photographic…

The Photographers’ Gallery has announced highlights of its 2021 programme, including major exhibitions of Sebastião Salgado and Helen Levitt, the 25th anniversary exhibition of the Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation Prize, a rare exhibition of archival photographs from the Guardian Picture Library and a newly commissioned work by Turner Prize co-winner,…

10×10 Photobooks is pleased to announce the launch of a new program of annual photobook research grants to encourage and support scholarship on under-explored topics in photobook history. The first year’s theme expands on 10×10’s forthcoming project What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843 to…

James William Newland’s (1810–1857) career as a showman daguerreotypist began in the United States but expanded into Central and South America, across the Pacific to New Zealand and colonial Australia and onto India. Newland used the latest developments in photography, theatre and spectacle to create powerful new visual experiences for…

Colin Ford, one of the first curators of photography in Britain and the founding head of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, will be talking to Gilly Read about his career on 28 January 2021. 

The event is free but registration is required here:…

The Stanley B. Burns M.D. Historic Medical Photography Collection has been acquired by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University. It  includes images of physicians and medical scientists at work, operation rooms, hospital wards, laboratories, nurses and nursing, notable physicians, surgical specialties, and war…