Online: National Archive of Geological Photographs

[Michael Pritchard]

Dr Anthony H Cooper writes...The British Geological Survey National Archive of Geological Photographs “GeoScenic” is online, but may not be a resource that members have come across. The collection includes over 50,000 photographs dating back to around 1850 with around 30,000 GeoScience images and 20,000 special collection images. They can be searched using subject browsing, or the advanced search that allows date ranges to be specified. There is also a map browser for geographically located images. Many of the geological photographs are records of the landscape and industry dating from the present back to the late 18^th Century.

It can be accessed at:

http://geoscenic.bgs.ac.uk/asset-bank/action/viewHome and images 1000 x 1000px may be downloaded without charge for non-commercial use. 

Of particular interest to British Photographic History are the special collections, many of which have been donated to the Survey and are listed below with the number of photographs in each shown in parentheses. Included among them are the collection of Survey staff photographs includes many notable geologists, amongst them: John Phillips, T.H.Huxley, Sir Robert Impey Muchision, Sir Archibold Geike and Henry Thomas De La Beche. The Leeds Cave Club collection charts early underground exploration while the Teale collection of photographs illustrate the Africa of the 1900-1930’s as encountered by some of the first geologists to survey those parts.

I highlight this collection to the membership and suggest that perhaps a link to the National Archive of Geological Photographs could be added to the quick resources listing.

Special collections:

•                Dr. R. Kidston Carboniferous fossil plants (3618)

•                H.W. Haywood, Leeds Cave Club (633)

•                British Science Association (BAAS) (6936)

•                Vesuvius - historical images (37)

•                Henry Mowbray Cadell archives (532)

•                1936 Royal Society expedition to Montserrat - The A.G. MacGregor archive (338)

•                W.J. Reynolds Collection (181)

•                Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London. c1855 -1900. GSM.MG.E.5 (45)

•                Survey staff photographs. Geological Survey and Museum and Royal School of Mines, 1850-1910. IGS1.639 (138)

•                J.V. Stephens Italy collection taken during the Second World War (170)

•                Mount Etna eruption 1892 (9)

•                F.W. Harmer collection, East Anglia (45)

•                George Scott Johnstone collection - Scottish mountains (1893)

•                E.O. Teale photograph collection 1900s-1930s (mostly Africa) (421)

Image: W. Norrie, Ross of Mull (looking through Nun's Cave), 1890