West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS) has recently been passed the photographic archive of the Ernest Ethelbert Slater (1850-1928). The large collection of lantern slides and negatives was transferred to WYAS by the Aireborough Historical Society. The collection had been stored in a dry well for many years before being passed to the Historical Society. Work has started on conserving the slides - some of which have suffered from damp and poor storage - and digitising them. The majority are still in their original wood slide boxes.
Ernest Slater was a an amateur photographer in Yeadon, West Yorkshire, and a member of Yeadon Photographic Society which closed in 1905. Slater gave a number of lectures about photography including his own tour across Canada in the early 1900s. He very active in recording activities in the town and had an informal approach his photography often capturing people in relaxed activities and unawares that they were being photographed. Slater also documented his travels and the collection includes slides from Egypt, Canada, asd well as closer to home in Leeds, York and Cheshire. Slater was manager of Manor Mill in Yeadon and some of his slides include views of mill and its interior, streets scenes in Yeadon and posed shopkeepers outside their stores. The majority date from the 1880s-1910s.
There is a display of images and some of the slides boxes from the collection at the WYAS premises in Morley.
WYAS would welcome any information about Slater and his life and photography. Contact: WY Leeds Archives Leeds@wyjs.org.uk
Details of the opening hours to see the display are here: https://www.wyjs.org.uk/archive-service/contact-us-and-opening-times/leeds-archive-services-opening-times-and-information/
See: https://aireboroughhistoricalsociety.org.uk/yeadon/people-yeadon/slater-ernest-ethelbert-photographer-family-friends-photographs-c1870s-onwards-09/ and https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/23476841.photographer-ernest-e-slater-captures-evocative-images-times-past/
Images: right: Ernest Ethelbert Slater, c1900; left: a selection of images from the WYAS display. All are modern reproductions from original lantern slides.
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