Digital: British Journal of Photography 1854-

[Michael Pritchard]

The British Journal of Photography has been digitised up to 2005 with the remainder to be completed early in 2016, BPH first reported on the project here back in 2013. The digital archive is currently only available to colleges, universities and institutional subscribers via Proquest.

The publisher of the BJP, Apptitude Media, is intending to make the digitised BJP from 1854 to the present day accessible to the wider public in 2016, although BPH understands that the charging model has yet to be determined. 

See the Proquest Art and Architecture catalogue here.

BPH will report when the BJP becomes publicly available but in the meantime from its January 2016 issue the BJP is delving in to its digital archive for a regular back page feature. 

[Michael Pritchard]

HI, Roger. As I understand it for reasons related to photographers' copyright there is no current plan to make the historical BJP issues available digitally. As you have discovered bound volumes of photographic periodicals tend to be bound without adverts. I have done a lot of research in to the Houghtons and H-B if you have questions or access to trade catalogues and other materials please contact me off list. 

[Roger Mead]

Hello Rob,  Thanks for your reply. The period that I am researching is up to 1915 specifically Houghtons up until the merger with Butchers. I had not seen your previous post and am not quite sure how to find it however that will be my task for this morning.

regards

Roger

[Rob Whalley]

Hi Roger,

I have heard nothing either. What time period are you looking at?

You might also want to look at another discussion in the Forum, last July, on 

BJP and the missing years and more

if you have not seen my post on that.

Regards

Rob

[Roger Mead]

Hello, I am wondering what the current situation is here . I have found some back issues on line but they all have the advertisements stripped out which are an important aspect of the research that I am currently undertaking.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks  

[Michael Pritchard]

Not as far as I know. I will make some enquiries. 

[Rob Whalley]

Michael, Proquest still seems to have an institutional bias, did anything come of the idea of "wider public access" to BJP?

[Roddy Simpson]

Thanks Michael, once it is complete it will be a very useful and accessible research source. Another small point is that when searching the digital BJP the search term is not very boldly highlighted. The yellow does not stand out when there is a lot of text.

[Michael Pritchard]

Hi, Roddy. I have had the following from the BJP: 

Some of our earlier volumes were missing or too fragile to scan, but all missing volumes have been sourced via the British Library and are being scanned currently. I am hopeful that by March/April the archive will be complete.

[Roddy Simpson]

I looked at the digital BJP thinking it would be a very useful research tool for the history of photography but found it a big disappointment. It only starts in 1875 and most years up to1904 are missing so useless for nineteenth century research. I accessed it through Glasgow University Library but it was Proquest so assume it is the same for all institutions.