Blogs

A year or so ago, I found a tinted daguerreotype of an unidentified young lady by Elliott & Fry (E&F). The case and lining paper behind the daguerreotype carry the E&F name and address (55 Baker St., London). The shape of the case and mount window seem quite unusual.

I am puzzled by this item for two reasons.

1. E&F were established in 1863. By this time daguerreotypes were not commonly made as far as I understand.

2, Although E&F are very well-known, I can find no other daguerreotypes, or indeed any other type of cased image, by the firm. 

I have some questions:

1. Has anyone seen any other daguerreotypes by E&F? 

2. Does anyone know if E&F, or other studios established after 1860, may have sub-contracted daguerreotype orders out to other studios or hired freelance daguerreotypists on an ad hoc basis? 

3. Does anyone know of any interesting literature on post-1860 daguerreotype production in London or elsewhere?

4. Does anyone recognise the sitter? 

I attach images of the case cover, lining paper and daguerreotype plate.

Calvert R. Jones: Photographs and Drawings is on view at Hans P. Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs until 31 March, 2023. Reverend Calvert Richard Jones (1802-1877), the Welsh marine artist, is recognized as one of the most talented and sophisticated of the early photographers. The recent emergence of previously unknown calotypes, daguerreotypes and drawings from his family archive reveals a diverse and colourful artistic career. Most of these works are being exhibited for the first time. The newly discovered daguerreotypes are a true revelation. Only a single daguerreotype was recorded until last year when a small number of Jones’s family portrait daguerreotypes appeared.

Calvert Jones derived truth from nature and found in photography an accurate means of producing studies for artists. William Henry Fox Talbot’s most successful pupil, Jones explored the fusion of Talbot’s negative/positive calotype process with his skills as a draftsman and marine painter, particularly during his Mediterranean travels with Christopher Rice Mansel 'Kit' Talbot, Fox Talbot’s younger cousin. As a competent draftsman schooled in the rules of perspective and form, Calvert Jones brought a vitality and an unusually high degree of artistic sensitivity to the new medium of photography.

Hans P. Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs, established in New York in 1984, is a dealer in 19th and early 20th century photographs.  The gallery is located at 962 Park Avenue at 82nd Street in New York City. Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday, noon-6pm and by appointment.

For more information, contact (212) 794-2064 or info@sunpictures.com or visit www.sunpictures.com.

The National Portrait Gallery has announced its opening programme with photography to the fore. The first exhibition will explore the life and career of twentieth century photographer, Madame Yevonde, who pioneered the use of colour photography in the 1930s. The show will survey the portraits and still-life works that the artist produced throughout her sixty year career, positioning Yevonde as a trailblazer in the history of British portrait photography. Since 2021 the NPG has owned much of Yevonde's archives and negatives and the exhibition will show vintage work alongside never-before-seen colour prints made from her negatives. A new book will accompany the exhibition. The exhibition is part of a three-year programme surveilling women in portraiture. 

Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm will share, for the first time, an extraordinary archive of rediscovered and never-before-seen photographs taken by Paul McCartney. Shot during the period in which John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were propelled from being the most popular band in Britain to an international cultural phenomenon, the exhibition provides a uniquely personal perspective on what it was like to be a ‘Beatle’ at the start of ‘Beatlemania’. Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

In 2024 the gallery will show 150 vintage prints from Julia Margaret Cameron alongside that of contemporary artist Francesca Woodman. 

Nicholas Cullinan. Director of the NPG was asked by BPH how photography would be presented in the new NPG galleries and said that photography would be woven in to the displays throughout the gallery and would also have a gallery dedicated to photography as a medium. 

The NPG re-opens on 22 June 2023. 

Yevonde. Life and Colour
22 June – 15 October 2023

Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm
28 June – 1 October 2023

Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron. Portraits to Dream In
21 March – 30 June 2024

https://www.npg.org.uk/

The intellectual property expert Naomi Korn and the National Science and Media Museum form part of a case study into the use of orphaned works, and how adopting a risk aware approach to the use of 'orphaned' images in the Daily Herald archive instead of the risk averse approach typically adopted. This opened up the opportunity to digitise some of the Daily Herald images. The piece appeared in Archive and Records Association's arc magazine.

It is available free as a PDF here: https://naomikorn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ARC-Jan-Feb-23-inc-Risk.pdf

Dr. David Barber has published new research about Excelsior Stereoscopic Tours whose 3D cards feature in photo collections around the world. It explores the career of Milford Elsworth Wright (1861-1918), the stereographer behind the company and traces his journey from Perry, Ohio to the Lancashire mill town of Burnley.

See: www.pressphotoman.com

The Photographic Collections Network has several upcoming events. Booking is free. 

Creative Commons Licenses and Collections
Wednesday, February 1, 2023 - 2-4pm GMT free / donation, online
Want to know more about how to navigate the different CC licenses, and find out if they work for your archive or collection? In this two-hour training session, Creative Commons will provide a brief overview of what CC licensing and public domain tools are, as well as their context in copyright, and movements for open knowledge and culture. This will help you understand if CC is right for you and help you understand how to choose and use CC licenses and tools,via interactive exercises for workshop participants. 
https://fulcrm.link/2/16613/2897/r691148mrl44u7676m32845f977477r8

What Photographs Do
HOLDING DATE TBC Fri 3 March, 1:30-2:30, free/donation, online
What are photographs 'doing' in museums? Why are some photographs valued and others not? Why are some photographic practices visible and not others? What value systems and hierarchies do they reflect?

This talk by Elizabeth Edwards and Ella Ravilious explores how museums are defined through their photographic practices. It focuses not on formal collections of photographs as accessioned objects, be they 'fine art' or 'archival', but on what might be termed 'non-collections': the huge number of photographs that are integral to the workings of museums yet 'invisible', existing outside the structures of 'the collection'. These photographs, however, raise complex and ambiguous questions about the ways in which such accumulations of photographs create the values, hierarchies, histories, and knowledge-systems, through multiple, folded, and overlapping layers that might be described as the museum's ecosystem.
https://fulcrm.link/2/16614/2897/433mm4m7rr756fmr50u1mlr34778360c

Booking is free for all these events, with the option of a donation to support PCN's work. You will receive a confirmation email when you book, and the event link will be sent to you on the day of the event.

The Peter Marlow Foundation encourages, examines and celebrates the photography of humanity, its impact and legacy. From 2023 it will do this from a gallery based in Dungeness, Kent, housing an extensive archive and library, and offering workshops, exhibitions, residencies and talks to schools, the public and professionals.

The Foundation aims to have an active gallery, workshop and residency space that will be well used by photographers, visitors to Dungeness and schools. The gallery will be a destination for those interested in photography and a unique cultural space for visitors to Dungeness. Its director is Jess Phillips. 

Peter Marlow (1952-2016) was an eminent photographer, a member and two-time President of the international photography cooperative, Magnum Photos. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 2006 and his work is held in 12 public collections worldwide. Born in Kenilworth, outside Coventry, Peter studied psychology at Manchester University, graduating in 1974. His photography career began in 1975 while working on an Italian cruise liner in the Caribbean. Peter’s work as a photographer spanned 41 years, capturing major world events for prestigious magazines and newspapers and his personal long form projects.

Details: https://petermarlowfoundation.org/

and Charity Commission entry: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/5142452/charity-overview

The Archives and Library Fellowship is offered annually to allow an individual to undertake a research project focused on the Paul Mellon Centre’s Archives and Library.

This is an exceptional opportunity to undertake sustained, original research focussed on the Centre’s collections. These include an extensive Photographic Archive, over 15,000 auction catalogues, and nationally important holdings of art historians’ papers, are an outstanding resource for the study of art and architectural history, historiography and theory, photography, publishing, exhibitions histories, and through specific holdings of personal archives, intellectual networks, queer history and the social history of knowledge production. The successful applicant will be expected to pursue a research project using the Archives & Library collections over a period of 12 months and will have the opportunity to disseminate their findings through the Centre’s programme of talks, publications, events and displays.

The Fellowship is an award of £10,000 for a period of 12 months. During this time the Fellow will be required to carry out detailed research engaging critically with the Archives & Library collections at the Centre, which is based in Bedford Square, London. For international applicants and those who would need to travel to London there is an additional bursary available to support travel and accommodation.

Details: https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/fellowships-and-grants/archives-and-library-fellowship

Dick Weindling and Marianne Colloms have published research recounting the story of a photographer, Frederick Beckert, living in Kilburn, London, in the 1920s and 1930s, and was an expert forger of bank notes - and the detective work that brought him to account. 

See: https://kilburnwesthampstead.blogspot.com/2023/01/making-money-in-kilburn.html

This short talk presents research on a rare early photograph album from mid-1860s Natal, South Africa, which contains around 50 portraits of African subjects, with inscriptions by its owner, representing the first few years of studio output in Natal in the new affordable format of cartes-de-visite. The talk will explore the album's contents and present some of the tantalising research findings that have emerged so far.

Monday 30 January, 14.30 
With Dr Christopher Morton
Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
Details: https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/event/research-on-an-early-photograph-album-from-natal-south-africa

The British Library’s Talbot Collection comprises a major archive of correspondence, notebooks, photographs and other material relating to the life and work of the British inventor of photography William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877). Formerly held at Talbot’s family home at Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, the collection was presented to the British Library in 2006 by Petronella and Janet Burnett-Brown. These materials illustrate the breadth of Talbot’s cultural and scientific interests and achievements, in fields as diverse as mathematics, botany, astronomy and the decipherment of Assyrian cuneiform. The photographic component of the collection comprises approximately 1,500 paper negatives and prints by Talbot and his circle made between 1839 and the mid-1840s. In addition to Talbot’s own photographs, the collection includes important work from the 1840s by contemporaries such as Rev Calvert Richard Jones (1804-1877) and Rev George Wilson Bridges (1788-1863). There is also a small collection of daguerreotypes which includes portraits of Talbot, his children, as well as his assistant Nicolaas Henneman (1813-1898). This material is complemented by albums of drawings and prints by members of Talbot’s family.

The aim of this placement is to undertake research on the photographic equipment used by Talbot in the development of his early photographic processes. This placement will build upon existing research and examine the objects in relation to Talbot’s research notes, correspondence and notebooks that are also held at the Library. https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/talbot-collection

Open to current doctoral students. Full eligibility criteria, funding information and details of how to apply are available on the British Library website: https://www.bl.uk/news/2023/january/phd-placement-opportunities   and  https://www.bl.uk/research-collaboration/doctoral-research/british-library-phd-placement-scheme

Metals and minerals are of the earth - extracted, purified, dried, cut, mould, extruded, dissolved and filtered. Photographic images are of the earth, they are metals and minerals, polished, coated, sensitised, exposed, developed, washed, fixed, displayed. We rely on the sensitivity of these metals to depict the world around us, the earth that they come from.

Silver has taken a leading role in this history - it is a history of colonisation, extraction, and depiction. From Louis Daguerre’s Daguerreotypes to Henry Fox Talbot’s calotypes in the early 1800s, to today’s digital Chromogenic prints - silver is seen as unbeatable when it comes to making a quality, archivable photographic image. However, silver is not the only metal used for image making.

The London Alternative Photography Collective present Beyond Silver, an exhibition that explores the relationships between analogue photography and metallurgy. The exhibition will consider the use of silver in photography, as well as shining a light on many of the other metals that are used within photographic image production, in both historical and contemporary practice. In addition to silver, the exhibition will include works which utilise  lesser known metals in photography including iron, copper, tin, aluminium, platinum (above) and palladium.

Exhibiting artists: Ignacio Acosta, Victoria Ahrens, William Arnold, Alex Boyd, Alice Cazenave, Caitriona Dunnett, Hannah Fletcher, Jo Gane, Kate Goodrich, Martha Gray, Charlotte Greenwood, Constanza Isaza, Ellisa Jane Diver, Soham Joshi, Melanie King, Liane Lang, Sara Mulvey, Andrés Pardo, Oliver Raymond-Barker, Megan Ringrose, Kris Skyla, Sayako Sugawara, Diego Valente, Eileen White

Public Programme:

Wednesday 18th 6 - 8pm = Private view
Thursday 19th 10am - 12pm = Electromagnetic field Cyanotype workshop with Martha Grey
Thursday 19th 12.30 - 1.30pm = Artist and curator lead exhibition tour

Beyond Silver
19 January-3 February 2023
The Hive 43-47 Vittoria Street, 43-47 Vittoria Street, Birmingham, B1 3PE
Details: https://www.rmlt.org.uk/Event/beyond-silver

The Museum of Gloucester is celebrating the two hundred and twenty-first anniversary of the birth of polymath Charles Wheatstone in Barnwood, near Gloucester. Although his name is still remembered all over the world, Wheatstone never got the credit he really deserves. This prolific inventor, musical instrument maker and professor of experimental philosophy was a shy person and, unlike some of his contemporaries and their modern equivalents, never blew his own trumpet.

Whilst some inventions which he helped promote have been wrongly attributed to him, others have been credited to somebody else and history has not been kind in honouring him. There are no monuments to him, no statues to remember his achievements by, and even his grave in Bethnal Green is so undistinctive that it is difficult to find.

Photo historian Denis Pellerin, from the Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy, will take you on a three dimensional journey to discover the inventor of Stereoscopy (which we now call 3D) and show how this invention, which, strangely enough, Wheatstone never considered as his most important, changed the way the Victorians perceived the world around them. Stereoscopy gave birth to a craze which may not have lasted very long but produced millions of amazing images and has been through several revivals since it first started back in the 1850s.

Nearly two hundred years after its discovery, Stereoscopy is not only the magic carpet it was for Wheatstone’s contemporaries, taking them to far away places without leaving their fireside; it has also become a wonderful time machine, showing us the Victorians, famous or anonymous, as they really were, in a way no traditional photographs can.

Details and booking: https://www.museumofgloucester.co.uk/events/celebrating-charles-wheatstone-in-glorious-3d

On 16th January 1862, 204 men and boys died following the Hartley Colliery Disaster in Northumberland. New research published today to mark its 161st anniversary - at www.pressphotoman.com - investigates when the 'after the accident' photographs in the Royal Collection were taken. 

Image: Royal Collection Trust.  W & D DOWNEY (ACTIVE 1855-1941). Hartley Colliery after the accident 30 - 30 Jan 1862. Albumen print | 15 x 20.4 cm (image) | RCIN 2935022

International photographic societies and camera clubs burgeoned in the late nineteenth and into the twentieth century. The mutual support and collaboration amongst individual members along with the practical and educational undertakings of these self-reliant photographies is a fitting focus for the recognition of photographers who could assert themselves and see themselves as a community of practice of their own making.

The educational projects of photographic societies and camera clubs were shaped by an infrastructure that enabled collaborative forms of communication; products of socio-technical networks that fostered new relationships of learning between the individual and the collective. From the late 1870s, the number of clubs and societies began to soar: the fourteen groups recorded in the British Journal of Photography Almanac in 1877 had grown to 365 by 1910. Almost weekly the pages of the photographic press reported the foundation of new clubs and societies. At a time when the number of amateur photographers themselves was expanding, and club life was seen as a respectable social occupation, the cooperative ethos on which these ‘local schools’ were built was considered by contemporary commentators as a ‘culture of rational exchange’ and fostering an ‘ideal of sociability identified with liberal education, eloquence and good fellowship’ (Sawyer, Photographic News, 1883: 286). These organisations ranged from amateur groups that emulated learned societies to less socially exclusive and formal, and to camera clubs based in hospitals, workplaces or mechanics institutes. There were national societies, such as the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, the National Photographic Association of the United States, the Société Française de Photographie, the Japan Photographic Society, and a plethora of album clubs and postal camera clubs exchanging prints or lantern slides for aesthetic critique.

Historical accounts of clubs and societies are sparce, because many of these groups, considered to be minor, were not listed in the photographic annals and the greater numbers of their collections have been broken up, dispersed, and even lost. Yet, club life from an understanding of how people learnt (or should learn) photography, allowed its membership to receive by various ways a collaborative and efficient training and, through group participation, to escape some of the technical pitfalls which beset many photographers who proceeded to work alone.

This one-day workshop opens a critical conversation about the under-researched emergence and decline of these clubs and societies, outlines new ways to research, theorise, and interpret their educational projects, and asks what this reveals about the values and meanings that members attached to these practices and of how photography consolidated and strengthened the bonds amongst those groups.

The workshop welcomes papers for 20 minute presentations from students, early career researchers, those working in photography, education and heritage, visual and popular culture, media and communication studies, medical humanities, social and cultural history, history of art, material and design cultures, and any other related fields of research.

What roles have the learning communities of photographic societies and camera clubs played in the histories of photography and visual culture? How did club life, at times recognised as popular and progressive, fraternal, instructive and sociable, cement cooperative strategies for growing bodies of amateur and professional photographers to learn from one another? Were these clubs and societies mostly ‘fraternal’ male groups? How did this space intersect with narratives of gender and subtexts of brotherhood in its educational and entertainment uses for female groups? Did any standout for their female or children’s membership?

Proposals may explore, but are not limited to:

• Global histories of the camera club and photographic society (from any historical period)
• Photographic societies and camera clubs as supplementary schooling
• Amateur groups emulating learned societies
• Launch of the Amateur Photographer in 1884 and the rise in popularity of Amateur Societies
• International, national and regional differences in the organisation of both photographic societies and camera clubs
• The role of periodicals in drawing together societies and clubs and consolidating communities of practice
• Education, sociability and instruction within the practices of clubland culture
• Society networks and intersecting communities of learning
• The RPS and female ‘Colour Group’ members
• The relationship between gender and clubland
• Camera clubs specifically for women or children
• Collaborative education to enhance members’ active participation
• Scientific, medical, colonial photographic committees, societies or clubs
• The material culture of clubrooms, exhibitions, soireés, meetings, lantern evenings
• The social and cultural roles of exhibitions of societies and clubs
• The relationship between the RPS and affiliated provincial camera clubs
• Power relations in the clubroom
• The legalities of club life and presidents, secretaries and officials, especially in small self-regulated clubs 
• The relationship between postal, microscopical, album or lantern slide clubs and modern communication technologies in urban and non-urban contexts
• Amateur photographers and the survey and record movement
• Links with other types of bodies that sponsored photographic societies such as field, naturalistic and archaeological societies, companies
• Photographic federations, unions, associations, and inter-society arrangements
• The rise and decline of clubs and societies   
• Researching societies and clubs in archives and special collections

Paper proposals should be submitted as one Word or PDF document to Dr Jason Bate j.bate@bbk.ac.uk by Monday 20th February 2023. The document should include:

• Your full name
• Email address
• Institutional affiliation (when applicable)
• Paper title
• Proposal of no longer than 250 words for presentations of 20 minutes
• Short biographical note (100-150 words)

Event format: The event will take place in the History and Theory of Photography Research Centre at Birkbeck in London (UK) in person, and we will be able to accommodate fifteen presentations, and offer £50 towards travel expenses for up to four PhD students. 

Keynote speaker: Dr Michael Pritchard, photographic historian and Director of programmes for the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain.

CfP: Photographic Societies and Camera Clubs
Thursday 25 May 2023
Birkbeck College, University of London, in person
Deadline for paper proposals: by Monday, 20 February 2023
Dr Jason Bate e: j.bate@bbk.ac.uk

The Albert Kahn departmental museum in France has released nearly 25,000 colour photos of early 20th-century life into the public domain and over 34,000 others that are free to use as part of a project to assure visual history is not forgotten. Called Archives of the Planet, the project was started in 1908 by French banker Albert Kahn who wanted to photograph humanity around the world. Kahn hired 12 professional photographers who visited 50 countries until the project concluded...

Read the story here: https://petapixel.com/2023/01/11/nearly-70000-color-photos-of-early-20th-century-are-now-free-to-use/

Visit the museum collection here: https://albert-kahn.hauts-de-seine.fr/

From its origins, both cinema and photography recorded the daily life bodies: workers leaving the factory, women dancing the serpentine dance, babies having breakfast, urban strollers or the bourgeois families’ portraits. The wonderful and strange capacity to offer a presence amplified the new forms of Modernity’s corporeal culture, and corporeality became one of the great issues for cinema and photography. Among the many bodies that began to appear in the images between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, we are interested in observing the sick bodies, both victims of physical and mental illnesses....

14th International Seminar on the Origins and History of Cinema
Visions of the sick body Physical and Mental Pathologies’ Representations in Photography and Early Cinema
Girona, 8 and 9 November 2023
cfp deadline 30 April 2023

Read more and details: https://www.girona.cat/shared/admin/docs/1/4/14seminari_call_for_papers.eng.pdf

The announcement of photography’s invention in January 1839, first in Paris and then in London, introduced a ‘new power’ into British life. This new power—the capacity to automatically capture the images created in a camera—was soon being used for every conceivable purpose.

A New Power traces the development and dissemination of photographic images within Britain during the medium’s first fifty years. Comprising over 160 items, the exhibition features not only early daguerreotypes and salted paper prints but also paintings, sculptural busts, periodicals, prints and even elements of the first computing engine, along with various kinds of copies of photographs used to illustrate newspapers and books. By showing how photography intersected with all aspects of a nascent modernity—including industrialisation, science, art, the role of women, celebrity culture, journalism, publishing, race, class, colonialism, and consumer capitalism—the exhibition reveals photography’s crucial role in making Britain the society it is today.

The exhibition’s curator, Geoffrey Batchen, is Professor of History of Art at the University of Oxford. A scholarly symposium responding to the exhibition will be held at the Bodleian Library on March 18.

A New Power. Photography in Britain 1800-1850
S T Lee Gallery, Weston Library, Oxford                                       
1 February 2023 – 7 May 2023
Free admission 
https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/a-new-power

A peak at the exhibition installation underway, courtesy of Geoff Batchen. 

I an trying to find information/contact details for these photographers:

Alan Richards

John Stonex

Michael Taylor

Peter Wilkinson

D Baxter

Edward Pritchard

Ron Chapman

Tony Morris

Dunstan Pereira

Malcolm Aird

Fill Bullock

David Gaynor

Any information gratefully received. 

The National Science and Media Museum is about to undergo a radical and ‘once-in-a-generation’ transformation ready to inspire millions of visitors to Bradford City of Culture in 2025. Huge changes will be delivered by December 2024, through a £6 million capital project called ‘Sound and Vision’, including two new galleries, a new passenger lift and improvements to the main entrance. 

To facilitate these works, the National Science and Media Museum has announced a period of temporary closure from June 2023 to summer 2024. The Sound and Vision Project will create two significant new galleries and increase the museum’s overall accessibility and relevance to key audiences.  

The galleries, accompanied by an engaging activity programme, will showcase key objects and stories from the museum’s world-class collections of photography, film, television, animation, video games and sound technologies. Thanks to National Lottery players, the project has been awarded initial funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to develop the transformational plans. The project also has support from the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund 2022-24 and Bradford Metropolitan District Council. 

When the museum opened in 1983, it was home to ‘the largest cinema screen in Britain’ and continues to run an IMAX and Pictureville Cinemas, which remains a big part of its visitor offer. During the closure period Pictureville Cinema and Bar will continue to operate, open seven days a week with an enhanced programme, as this has separate entrance arrangements and facilities. 

The museum already provides many opportunities to learn about the principles of light and sound. It is at the forefront of STEM education and communication thanks to Wonderlab, its passionate team of Explainers, collaborative work with schools, plus festivals and events that bring the collections to life. The development of the new galleries will transform the heart of the museum, updating core collections displays to increase their relevance to local communities and deliver fully on the Science Museum Group’s mission to inspire futures and ambition to be open for all. 

• The development will involve the complete remodelling of two floors of the building, opening up unused spaces and reimagining the display and interpretation of the core collections. 
• In addition to the new galleries, the project will see the ground floor of the museum  reconfigured, creating a new public space and an enhanced visitor welcome. 
• The installation of an additional passenger lift and the renovation of the existing lift will increase accessibility and enable all visitors to move around the building with ease. 
• The project has sustainability at its heart, with set goals around energy and carbon reduction, resource efficiency, responsible procurement and sourcing of products and services used in the gallery, alongside wellbeing, and community skills and engagement strategies. 
• The displays and interpretation will be informed by close consultation with local communities to ensure the museum’s relevance to visitors and engage underrepresented audiences.  
• The new galleries will ensure the museum’s position as a cultural cornerstone when Bradford becomes City of Culture in 2025 and will align with ambitions to harness young audiences and foster new creative opportunities across the district. 
• Sound and Vision also complements the city’s ambitious ten-year culture strategy Culture is our Plan and supports the wider region’s commitment to building a digital economy.  
• A vibrant activity plan sits alongside the development of the new galleries. It supports greater access, new employment and volunteering opportunities and is focused on enabling more people – irrespective of class, race, age, ability, gender or faith – to engage with the museum.  
• During the temporary closure period, a range of outreach activities with community groups and schools– in person and online – will enable audiences to stay in touch and track progress. 

The existing displays on levels three and five of the museum will gradually be removed from the beginning of February, so visitors are invited to come and say a temporary farewell to their favourite objects in the coming weeks. Wonderlab, the Kodak Gallery, Games Lounge and temporary exhibition space will remain open until the summer, with a dynamic public programme culminating in Bradford Science Festival 24 May – 4 June. 

In 2025, the city of Bradford expects to welcome visitors in unprecedented numbers. Thanks to this radical transformation, Bradford’s national museum will be a key attraction, inspiring wonder amongst audiences and ensuring its relevance for many years to come. 

Jo Quinton-Tulloch, the museum’s Director said: 

“This major investment in the museum will radically transform our visitor offer both in terms of content and accessibility. In the new galleries, visitors will be able to find stories that resonate with them, showing how all areas of our collections – from photography to gaming – are embedded in every aspect of our lives, and inspiring the next generation of creatives, inventors and scientists. During the period of museum closure, we look forward to welcoming cinema visitors and working with local residents to curate the new galleries. 

With the additional lift and revamped foyer, we will be able to welcome many more visitors, which will be vital as we approach Bradford’s year as City of Culture in 2025. The new permanent displays on levels three and five and the enhanced public space in our new foyer will futureproof Bradford’s national museum for decades to come.” 

Anne Jenkins, Executive Director of Business Delivery at The National Lottery Heritage Fund added: 
“We are delighted to be supporting the National Science and Media Museum to develop their ambitious plans to transform their site and make this national and local treasure one of the star attractions for City of Culture 2025. In addition, the museum’s commitment to community engagement and skills development ensures that the Sound and Vision Project will have a lasting and meaningful impact.” 

UPDATE 19 Jan 2023

The NS+MM and provided a statement on collection access: 

We are committed to facilitating research, and wherever practicable, access to the collections. We are still working through detailed plans for the temporary closure period but we can reassure you that the collections certainly won’t be inaccessible for the full closure period. Please keep up to date via our website and social media channels, and feel free to check in again nearer to the closure date if you need to plan ahead. You can contact our collections team here: Access to our collection | National Science and Media Museum

Details of the Sound and Vision project can be seen here: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/about-us/sound-and-vision-project