The National Portrait Gallery has announced a major partnership with the global leader in family history, Ancestry. Over 125,000 digitised portraits from the Gallery’s extensive Collection will be made available to Ancestry users, and to celebrate, the National Portrait Gallery is working with Ancestry to launch The Nation’s Family Album – a search for undiscovered portraits of everyday British people collated into a representative online album. The initiative invites people of different ages, backgrounds and cultures in the UK to delve through suitcases in attics, scour photos on walls or flick through albums on bookshelves and submit their favourite family images.
Entrants will be in with the chance of having their own family photographs and stories included in an online exhibition, as well as a display at the iconic National Portrait Gallery in London when it reopens in 2023, following the completion of its Inspiring People redevelopment project.
The Nation’s Family Album is set to be an important record of our collective history, as it will highlight, celebrate and capture the rich and diverse family stories across Britain, making it easier for future generations to find out more about their family history.
Entries open today and submissions must be uploaded digitally by Thursday 30 June 2022. Any person in the UK may submit a maximum of three images that relate to the following themes: Belonging, Legacy, Connection and Identity.
Later this year, a panel of experts – including the National Portrait Gallery’s Chief Curator, Dr Alison Smith, and family history expert Simon Pearce from Ancestry – will shortlist a selection of portraits that best encapsulate the themes of The Nation’s Family Album.
The UK, Portraits and Photographs, 1547- 2018 collection, launching on Ancestry today, captures British history and culture in a variety of mediums, including paintings, photographs, sculptures, drawings, and prints. The National Portrait Gallery showcases the work of many acclaimed artists and photographers, but portraits in the Collection are selected primarily for their subject matter and the sitter’s importance to British culture and history. As well as many iconic portraits of famous figures, the collection includes images of individuals from all walks of life, including:
- David William Richardson - Teacher; second son of Elizabeth Marion and Neil Richardson
- Lydia Dorothea Benoly - First woman mayor of Bethnal Green; social worker and teacher
- Mairi Chisholm - Motorcycle ambulance driver, nurse and photographer
For more information about how to submit your family photographs, entry Terms & Conditions and to explore the collection, visit www.ancestry.co.uk/FamilyAlbum. To buy copies of the portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, please visit www.npg.org.uk/shop/npgprints.
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