Perhaps a long shot, but I’m trying to identify a North Yorkshire photographer who just put his initials on his postcards.
I recently purchased a couple of cards, with similar initials, one was of the Farndale Show, postally used from Kirkbymoorside in August 1910,. The other, seen here, I have now identified as having been taken outside St. Mary's Church, Church Houses, Farndale East; it looks like they are waiting for Godot!
I’ve also seen examples with the same initials on the Helmsby Archive, in their “Around and about” photo album, one of Farndale Band (HA09448) and one of Lastingham Church (HA09358). However, they don’t know the parochial photographers identity.
Any assistance in identifying the photographer would be gratefully received.
Comments
I don't think so. I'm currently half way through a hand list of studios and their addresses in Whitby because in the book it's all in the text so difficult to find. I'll let you know if I see it hat address again. Likely to be next week now.
Many thanks!
Thanks for the suggestion of Harry H. Arnett, I don't have a copy of that book. However, having done a bit of research, I’m not certain that he is ‘our man’.
Harry Herbert Arnett (1864 – 1940) was born in Huddersfield, in the 1881 Census, aged 16, he was a Draper’s apprentice, by 1891 he was a Draper’s Assistant, still living with his parents in Huddersfield. By the 1901 Census he was living in Ruswarp with his wife and their first three (of 5) children, he was still a draper, but now an employer. From the children’s places of birth it appears that the family moved to Whitby c.1894. In August 1895 the house and shop” now occupied by Mr. Henry H. Arnett, draper”, in Bridge Street and Sandgate was offered for sale.
Following a change of trade, he was subsequently a regular advertiser in the Whitby Gazette, in April 1897 he was running his Remnant and Carpet Warehouse from 2 Bridge Street. In December 1900 he moved from there to Rooms over a shop in Old Market Place.
References to his photographic activities (and even the Camera Club) are scarce in the Whitby Gazette. In January 1901 he presented a series of his lantern slides, by then, apparently, he was “well known as a worker in stereoscopic photography”. In May 1903 he lent some local slides to be shown at a meeting of the Rechabites “Safeguard of Whitby” Tent. As an aside, in an adjoining piece the Gazette understood “that Mr. F. M. Sutcliffe has purchased a large villa site at Carr Hill, Sleights, from Mr. Frankland Wood, and intends erecting a private residence there”.
In January 1906 some of his slides were shown on a large canvas erected in Station Square to entertain the large crowd that had gathered to await the telegraphed results of Chamberlain’s victory.
I found no further references to H.H. Arnett in Whitby Gazette after February 1906. I would appear that he moved to Doncaster. When is not certain as he did not advertise in the Doncaster press. However, in the self-completed 1911 Census he was living at 19 Victoria Road, Balby, Doncaster, and described himself as a “Clothier (Dealer)”. It appears that he continued to live there. In the 1939 Register he was described as a “Seed Salesman (Importer)”. He died the following April and was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Cantley, Doncaster.
Just to throw a spanner in the works, the letters may well not be the photographer’s initials at all. This does not look like a professional pictures to me but more like a snapshots taken by somebody on the sidelines.
The picture looks like it was taken with a Kodak Autograph camera or similar and the letters would’ve been quickly written on the film with the stylus at the time of taking. When people did this, they usually were writing what the picture was of.
Very few people signed their negatives unless they were a business or wanted to copyright them.
Apparently, there were different types of autographic film. Some which rendered the writing as white and others as black.
Scratching on the negative gives black writing and painting on a negative gives white, but the latter was hard to do neatly.
The writing is in the wrong place for Autographic writing.
From experience elsewhere, your best chance of finding HA may be to check in local newspapers, as they were beginning to use photographs in their local coverage at around this time. He or she may have been semi-professional, producing local postcards of events as a sideline and also selling images to the Press. With luck your may find HA acknowledged in print. Good luck.
PK
Morning Rob
HA is not a photographer that I have come across yet. We are currently working on a project to research the Photographers of Scarborough. One of the bits remaining unfinished is the 20th. You can see how far we have got here - https://www.photoscarborough.org.uk/
The area that the photos are from - Kirbymoorside is very much William Hayes country so a trip to the Ryedale Folk Museum or the Beck Ilse Museum in Pickering might be helpful.
I have a day planned in Scarborough Local Studies Library soon and will let you know if I find anything.
Jonathan
Hi Jonathan, I've just had an initial look at your photoscarborough website, looks promising. I have copies of a couple of the Bayliss's books, and a number of CDVs by Scarborough photographers. I have a large collection of CDVs by the Eastham brothers and have done quite a bit of research on them, I could update your biography if you are interested. I have also done some research into Oliver Sarony, and to a lesser extent Napoleon, I've never seen two so facially dissimilar brothers. I plan to delve deeper into your website when time permits. Regards, Rob
Thanks Rob
It's really very early days for the website. We add information when we have time. Always happy to get more information and help to flesh out the information. Many of the photographers are well known and we've not been spending to much time on them yet, just enough to ensure it's the right person. The Bayliss's have been really helpful and give us all of their research. Any help that you can give us would be great. Thanks Jonathan
Would the initials be for 'Helmsley Archive"? (though not sure it existed back then) If you're from round here you already probably know, but the only two photographers I'm aware of were William Hayes and Sydney Smith who both did similar photographs. William Hayes had his studio in Hutton Le Hole - still on show along with his archive at the Ryedale Folk Museum.
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