Blogs

A new photography exhibition, open from 22 October 2013 – 30 May 2014, at the Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive will show a different and intimate side of the Museum’s collection.

‘Encounters: Photograph albums and their stories’ presents unseen photographs and photo albums, dating back to the 1850s, which have been chosen from a collection of over 600 photograph albums at the Royal Engineers Museum. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England, the exhibition explores the narratives that are told through photograph albums, scrapbooks and their intriguing mixture of private photography and commercial prints and postcards.

Cate Canniffe, Director, South East, Arts Council England, said: ‘This is a really fascinating project set in a venue that is really quite different for this type of exhibition. We are very pleased to be able to support this project, providing audiences with an opportunity to enjoy the story that this collection has to tell. It is a wonderful addition to our collection of photography in the South East, bringing something a little different to our current offering.’

The photograph albums also offer the opportunity to discuss the varying colonial relations as seen through pictures. This aspect is central to the photography collection, which largely exists due to the expansion of the British Empire. Explorers, travellers and Royal Engineers were active all over the globe and used photography as a key documenting tool. Challenging climates did not hinder them but inspired many Royal Engineers to develop new photographic methods – one of the most well-known figures being Sir William de Wiveleslie Abney.

 Alongside the exhibition, the Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive will also launch its collections website. This will make over 2000 photographs accessible online as well as a substantial part of the Museum’s wider collection.

About the Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive (REMLA)

The Royal Engineers Museum is Kent’s largest military museum, and holds it’s only Designated Collection of historical and international importance. The many galleries tell the story of Britain’s military engineers from the Roman period to the modern Corps of Royal Engineers. The millions of items in its collection tell a sweeping epic of courage, creativity and innovation and the stories of individuals of great renown (General Gordon, Lord Kitchener, John Chard VC) and the average Sapper who has helped the British Army move, fight and survive for over 200 years.

Open: Tuesday – Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm; Saturday – Sunday & Bank Holidays: 11.30am to 5.00pm; CLOSED MONDAYS

Admission: Pay once: get in for 12 months!

Adult: £8.00    Family: £21.50    Concession: £5.50   Children under 5, Students and Serving Royal Engineers: Free

Website: www.re-museum.co.uk, Twitter: @REMuseum, Facebook: The Royal Engineers Museum

The National Media Museum, Bradford are looking for a confident, flexible and highly skilled Curator to join their Collections & Exhibitions team. This is an exciting opportunity to develop your curatorial career by leading the content team for our 2014 summer exhibition. You will also manage two Associate Curators and take responsibility for all aspects of our Film and Broadcast collections.

The museum holds the national collections of Cinematography and Television, which include some of the most important objects in the history of the moving image. You will champion these collections; developing, shaping and interpreting them in creative and innovative ways. You will bring your enthusiasm and experience to the leadership of the team developing a major exhibition, to be held at the museum in 2014, on the challenges of natural history filmmaking. This will be the centrepiece of our summer programme for family visitors.

Closing date Monday 2nd September
Interviews will be held on Friday 13th September.
To find out more, please visit: 
https://vacancies.nmsi.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?MenuID=6Dqy3cKIDOg=

Viviane Sassen is one of the most exciting figures in contemporary fashion photography. In celebration of her first retrospective, In and Out of Fashion, on show at the Portrait Gallery, Sassen will be in conversation with Anne Lyden, International Photography Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland on 19 October 2013. 

See: http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/events-calendar/opening-lecture-viviane-sassen-in-conversation-with-anne-lyden

Hello, I am looking for information about this 1859 photo of a soldier,  It's an albumen print, 20.5 x 15.5 cm, ink inscription under the print; Harvey Bruce, LT, 1859.

Any information, even about the uniform or sword would be appreciated.

Thanks, David

It is always interesting to see how a photographic genre persists over time. I recently had the opportunity to see how one genre - ‘The important overseas visitor tours a factory’ remained constant over about 85 years. The first photograph shows a Western man in business suit being shown around a railway factory in China. It was one of a group of images found in an old suitcase in a junk shop. Papers in the collection identify the man as British and the date late 1920s – early 30s. When I sold the collection the helpful and knowledgeable Chinese buyer identified the factory as the Tangshan Railway Vehicle Company. And there on their website I found a modern day equivalent – a group of Western visitors being given a guided tour of the modern factory. Interesting to play spot the difference. In 1920 they brought in a local studio photographer to the factory and the images were presented on his embossed mounts. For the modern photograph someone probably just used their mobile phone.

and now:

We at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts have been investigating the early London career of British photographer Florence Vandamm, who worked in NYC from 1924 to her retirement in 1962.  We discovered that she opened her first studio in London in 1908.  This site has been very helpful at providing resources and links. 

The exhibition (Pioneering Poet of Light: Florence Vandamm & the Vandamm Studio) will open in mid-September and runs through the end of February.  Please visit. Click here: http://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/poet-light-florence-vandamm-vandamm-studio

We are blogging about Vandamm's work on the Library's www.nypl.org.  You can find them in he Vandamm channel or under my name.

Image: Re-discovered image from a glass negative of the Theatre Guild's 1928 production of Faust, NYPL. 

With crimes ranging from theft to child cruelty and rape, these photographs capture Victorian criminals immediately after arrest, and provide fascinating detail of their wretched existence – with charge sheets going as far as listing missing fingers or hands and any diseases the delinquents suffered from.

Previously unseen by the general public, the images were all captured between 1877 and 1930, and published in the Police Gazette trade magazine. They are believed to be among the first mug shots collected in Britain.

The Prevention of Crime Act 1871 made it a legal requirement that all people arrested for a crime must have their photographs taken.

Temporary Exhibition at The Prison & Police Museum,St Marygate, Ripon
until 30th November 2013. Details can be found here.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will host an exhibition of Cameron's work starting 19 August 2013 until 5 January 2014.

This will be the first New York City museum exhibition devoted to Cameron's work in nearly a generation, and the first ever at the Met. The showing of thirty-five works is drawn entirely from the Metropolitan's rich collection, including major works from the Rubel Collection acquired in 1997 and the Gilman Collection acquired in 2005.

Info here: http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2013/julia-margaret-cameron

LOS ANGELES—The Getty announced today that it was lifting restrictions on the use of images to which the Getty holds all the rights or are in the public domain. Getty President and CEO Jim Cuno made the announcement in a post on The Iris, the Getty’s blog.

"As of today, the Getty makes available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds all the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose," wrote Cuno, citing the new program. 

As a result, there are roughly 4,600 images from the J. Paul Getty Museum available in high resolution on the Getty's website for use without restriction—representing 4,689objects (some images show more than one object), including paintings, drawings, manuscripts, photographs, antiquities and sculpture and decorative arts. The Getty plans to add other images, until eventually all applicable Getty-owned or public domain images are available, without restrictions, online. 

The Getty Research Institute is currently determining which images from its special collections can be made available under this program, and the Getty Conservation Institute is working to make available images from its projects worldwide.

"The Museum is delighted to make these images available as the first step in a Getty-wide move toward open content," said J. Paul Getty Museum Director Timothy Potts. "The Getty’s collections are greatly in demand for publications, research and a variety of personal uses, and I am pleased that with this initiative they will be readily available on a global basis to anyone with Internet access."

Previously, the Getty Museum made images available upon request, for a fee, and granted specific use permissions with terms and conditions. Now, while the Getty requests information about the intended use, it will not restrict use of available images, and no fees apply for any use of images made available for direct download on the website.

"The Getty was founded to promote 'the diffusion of artistic and general knowledge' of the visual arts, and this new program arises directly from that mission," said Cuno. "In a world where, increasingly, the trend is toward freer access to more and more information and resources, it only makes sense to reduce barriers to the public to fully experience our collections."

"This is part of an ongoing effort to make the work of the Getty freely and universally available," said Cuno.

I am astounded by the generosity and knowledge of members here. Thank You.  So here is a puzzle: a photograph of the interior of the Guernsey Court House, 1859. On the back is a typewritten description listing the names of all present, titled "Figure 9" with an ink inscription:  "photograph kindly lent by Wm. Ingham" I am assuming this was lent to be published, but can find no record of it.

Would anyone know who the photographer might be?

This post is based in Collections Group within the team that is responsible for the National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP) at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
With financial support from Creative Scotland, RCAHMS is making a film in partnership with the Scottish Documentary Institute – http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/news/news130626.php - that will be screened at major events around Scotland leading to and during the Commonwealth Games.

As Manager of Design and Exhibition Services at the National Media Museum in Bradford you will lead exhibition design and production at the museum ensuring all galleries meet our high standards of design and interactivity. Providing strategic direction for the planning and scheduling of gallery replacement and life-span, you will have a direct impact on the quality of our visitor experience. 

Demonstrable experience of delivering effective and innovative 2D and 3D design solutions across multi-media and AV displays is essential, preferably gained in a museum or gallery environment. We're looking for a talented, creative individual who can lead and manage Gallery Media Developers, Designers and Photographers. 

You need proven project management skills and the vision to understand museum audiences and contribute to world-class exhibition experiences. You'll have the intellectual capability to analyse data, negotiate contracts and manage resources, delivering outstanding results across multiple projects. 

The National Media Museum is part of the Science Museum Group (SMG) which is devoted to the history and contemporary practice of science, medicine, technology, industry and media. Incorporating the Science Museum, the National Railway Museum, the National Media Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry, we are a unique family of museums offering truly unique career opportunities. 

To find out more, please visit: https://vacancies.nmsi.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?MenuID=6Dqy3cKIDOg=

Job ref: 36071; Closing date: 16/09/2013; Salary: £26,627

In the 1840s and 1850s, "Brady of Broadway" was one of the most successful and acclaimed Manhattan portrait galleries. Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Dolley Madison, Henry James as a boy with his father, Horace Greeley, Edgar Allan Poe, the Prince of Wales, and Jenny Lind were among the dignitaries photographed in Mathew Brady's studio. But it was during the Civil War that he became the founding father of what is now called photojournalism and his photography became an enduring part of American history.
The Civil War was the first war in history to leave a detailed photographic record, and Mathew Brady was the war's chief visual historian. Previously, the general public had never seen in such detail the bloody particulars of war--the strewn bodies of the dead, the bloated carcasses of horses, the splintered remains of trees and fortifications, the chaos and suffering on the battlefield. Brady knew better than anyone of his era the dual power of the camera to record and to excite, to stop a moment in time and to draw the viewer vividly into that moment.
He was not, in the strictest sense, a Civil War photographer. As the director of a photographic service, he assigned Alexander Gardner, James F. Gibson, and others to take photographs, often under his personal supervision; he also distributed Civil War photographs taken by others not employed by him. Ironically, Brady had accompanied the Union army to the first major battle at Bull Run, but was so shaken by the experience that throughout the rest of the war he rarely visited battlefields, except well before or after a major battle. The famous Brady photographs at Antietam were shot by Gardner and Gibson. 
Few books about Brady have gone beyond being collections of the photographs attributed to him, accompanied by a biographical sketch. MATHEW BRADY will be the biography of an American legend--a businessman, an accomplished and innovative technician, a suave promoter, a celebrated portrait artist, and, perhaps most important, a historian who chronicled America during its finest and gravest moments of the 19th century.

You can pick up a copy using the Amazon link on the right.

I am looking for any information on this British photograph. I believe it to be an albumen print, 22 x 12.5 cm. The only identification is a pencil inscription on the reverse which I can't quite make out "Tower, Mold ? Jan.7, 1856

I love the interplay of light on the fence lower right. 

Does anyone recognize this location?

Thanks in advance, David

This Thursday the 8th August see the inaugural meeting in what hopes to be a regular event exploring the history of photography and the application of alternative photographic processes, taking place at Double Negative Dark Rooms, 178A Glyn Road, Hackney, E5 0JE.

At 7pm, there will be informal talks from;

• Seb Sussman, founder of the Double Negative Darkrooms. http://www.sebsussmann.co.uk/ Processes Explored: Cyanotype Rex, Salt Printing, Gum, Copperplate photogravure, Lith Print, Pinhole, Slit Screen
• Gavin Maitland, photo historian, writer and curator who sometimes works at The Victoria and Albert Museum and Christies on digitization/catalogue projects. Gavin also runs the online social history archivehttp://www.arkpress.co.uk/ and http://photohistoryrulesok.blogspot.co.uk/ Processes Explored: Wet Plate Collodion.
• Constanza Isaza Martinez, visual artist and researcher working primarily with photography, with a particular interest in historical photographic processes. Constanza recieved a first class BA degree in Photographic Arts from the University of Westminster. http://www.constanzaisaza.com/  Processes Explored: Salts, Cyanotype

The event is organised by Melanie K, visual artist experimenting with photographic processes. Melanie recently graduated from an MA in Art and Science at Central Saint Martins. http://www.melaniek.co.uk/ Process explored: Cyanotype, Silver Gelatin, Daguerreotype

Following the controversy generated by the news that Barnardos was looking to divest itself or destroy its photography archive following digitisation the charity has issued a press release setting out its own position and intentions. BPH reproduces it below without comment and welcomes the level of interest shown in ensuring that the archived is preserved. BPH looks forward to a successful conclusion of those discussions. 

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Barnardo’s is digitising more than 200,000 images from its unique photographic collection - dating back to the 19^th Century - in a move to make it more accessible and protect its historical value.

This forms part of a bigger preservation project through which the charity ultimately intends to bring the entire archive, which has around 500,000 original images, together in one location.

The children’s charity is currently working with the National Archives to determine how best to do this and is also exploring where the archive might be housed in future.

The move is part of a regeneration scheme to modernise the charity’s headquarters in Barkingside, Essex. Until a decision is made on the permanent new home for the whole archive, Barnardo’s is seeking an arrangement with the company which is digitising its oldest images, that need to be kept in a climate controlled environment, to look after them in the short term. The remainder of the archive, which does not need special storage, will stay with Barnardo’s archive team for the moment.

Senior assistant director of children’s services Sara Clarke said:“Barnardo’s has a proud heritage of transforming the lives of some of the most vulnerable children in the UK which reaches back nearly 150 years. 

“Our photographic archive is an important piece of social history which we want to make more accessible whilst protecting its historical value.

“We are excited to be making use of 21^st Century technology and we have been inundated with offers to host the precious originals following the digitisation process, the most promising of which we are now exploring with interest.”

The prints are thought to represent the largest private collection of images in the country and is unique as it concentrates on one subject matter; children in Barnardo’s care. It includes a very rare ambrotype image of Dr Barnardo with children.

Barnardo’s will be having discussions with some prestigious organisations which have expressed interest in hosting its archive; a decision on its final destination will be announced next year.

Notes to editors

The earlier albumen prints were, according to records, likely to be the photographer’s own reference files as many were annotated with a number and in many cases, the child’s name.  The prints were pasted chronologically in a ledger, the binding of which disintegrated.  In addition Barnardo had his own narrow albums with three images per page.  He kept these for personal use to show visitors, parents and police.

The archive is currently available to researchers, academics, descendants of people in the photos and Barnardo’s children who are featured in the pictures. The archive is not available to the general public and some images are subject to privacy restrictions.

Ambrotype photographs are typically shiny in appearance and are created as negatives on a piece of glass and then transferred to a black background.

For more information on the history of Barnardo’s and the work we do today click here.

Anne M Lyden has been appointed International Photography Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, based at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. The job was advertised earlier this year (see: http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/job-international-photography-curator-national-galleries-of) and interviews were held in May. 

Lyden's last day at the Getty Museum was on Thursday and she thanked colleagues for '18 wonderful years' on her Facebook page which was quickly liked by over 60 people. An official announcement from the NGS is due after the Edinburgh Festival. BPH has known of the move since late June but had been asked to refrain from publishing by the NGS. As the news is now in the public domain and widely known BPH has taken the decision to publish.Those who know Lyden have widely welcomed the move with one person calling it 'awesome' and have commended the NGS for the appointment. 

The SNG photography collection consists of 863 images and the Photography Gallery, refurbished in 2012, is named The Robert Mapplethorpe Photography Gallery in recognition of a $300,000 donation from the Mapplethorpe Foundation. The funding will, over the next three years, be used to support innovative displays, exhibitions, research and related publications in the new space.

Lyden is currently an Associate Curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.  She is one of seven curators in the Museum's Department of Photographs, which was established in 1984 and has a collection of approximately 100,000 objects emphasizing the first 150 years of the medium. Contemporary photography has become increasingly relevant to the Museum's mission and all staff participate in portfolio reviews to inform themselves about current practices while critiquing work and offering insights into the manner in which large institutions like the Getty may spend several years following the career of an artist before committing to acquisitions or an exhibition. Lyden has been a reviewer for Atlanta Celebrates Photography; Review LA, Los Angeles; Palm Springs Photo Festival; and PhotoNOLA in New Orleans.Her final exhibition A Royal Passion. Queen Victoria and Photography will open at the Getty in 2014. 

A native of Scotland, Lyden received her Master of Arts degree in the history of art from the University of Glasgow and her Master of Arts in museum studies from the University of Leicester, England.  Since joining the Getty in 1996, she has curated numerous exhibitions drawn from the Museum's permanent collection, including the work of Hill and Adamson, P.H. Emerson, Frederick H. Evans, John Humble, and Paul Strand.  She is the author of several books including,Railroad Vision: Photography, Travel and Perception (2003), The Photographs of Frederick H. Evans (2010) and A Royal Passion. Queen Victoria and Photography (forthcoming, 2014).

Purpose of the Job: To research, develop and deliver content for an innovative programme of exhibitions, displays, multimedia and events.  This will include internationally significant, innovative exhibitions delivered for Media Space, working with colleagues at the Science Museum.

To ensure all processes & documentation is adhered to, liaising with colleagues across museum including Collections, Conservation and CCI.

See:https://vacancies.nmsi.ac.uk/VacancyDetails.aspx?FromSearch=True&MenuID=6Dqy3cKIDOg%3D&VacancyID=439

Key Deliverables/Accountabilities

1.           Research, develop and deliver authoritative and innovative content for permanent and temporary exhibitions, displays, on-line content, and events that provide inspiring experiences for visitors and build the Museum’s reputation for trialling bold, novel communication techniques including multi-media and interactive exhibits, to time and on budget

2.           Work with colleagues at the ScienceMuseum to research and develop internationally significant exhibitions for Media Space, and support the redisplay within theMediaMuseum

3.           Source and collect objects for exhibitions and associated events to aid visitors’ interpretation of agreed messages

4.           Manage placement students and volunteers as required

5.           Develop the use of web platforms to increase reach of the Museum and engage new audiences through on-line channels

6.           Write content proposals and exhibit briefs for exhibitions, on-line and interactive media to ensure agreed exhibition messages are successfully conveyed

7.           Manage relationships with external consultants and contractors to ensure delivery of agreed outcomes on time and to budget

8.           Co-ordinate the delivery of projects on time and to budget with effective management of resources

9.           Produce and deliver high quality events for a variety of audiences, including families and independent adults and enable the content to be leveraged through different media where possible

10.       Develop proposal documents and work with the Development team to deliver high quality funding proposals

11.       Work with the Press and Marketing team to increase media profile of exhibitions and events where possible and appropriate

12.       Take care of your personal health and safety and that of others and report any health and safety concerns.  Ensure proactive compliance with SMG H&S Policies, including risk assessments and implementing safe systems of work

Working Relationships and Contacts

• Senior Exhibition Manager (Line Manager) – to ensure effective delivery of cultural programme
• Head of Collections and Exhibitions(Senior Line Manager) – to ensure the exhibition programme reflects NMeM brand and values and is consistent with overall Museum programming
• New Media team – delivery of innovative multimedia products
• Design colleagues – delivery of high quality design for exhibition and associated products
• Exhibition Services colleagues – delivery and installation of gallery products
• Conservation – appropriate object handling and display
• Learning colleagues – delivery of associated learning products
• External experts – research of high-quality content
• External contractors – build of new exhibitions with specialist contractors; development and delivery of specialist content including software and interactives
• Collection colleagues – delivery of high quality content
• Visitor research team – co-develop interpretation strategies for exhibitions
• Development and fundraising – support the team and provide information for sponsors
• Marketing and communications – to ensure accurate and effective marketing and PR, maximising opportunities for external communications

Line Management and Budget Responsibility

Directly line manages: interns and volunteers as required

Budget Holder: Budgets of up to £20,000

May manage project budgets of up to £100,000
 

Candidate Profile

Experience

• Demonstrable evidence of co-ordinating the development and delivery of exhibitions and/or events
• Demonstrable evidence of delivering audience-focused projects in museums or large-scale visitor attractions and/or other media outlets
• Experience/understanding of all types of media and the challenges involved with delivering messages to a variety of different audiences
• Demonstrable experience of working with subject specialists to deliver accurate, engaging content for non-specialist target audiences
• Experience/understanding of effective team working, motivating and supporting staff and volunteers to ensure a cohesive, skilled and focused team.  Encouraging creativity, innovation and work of the highest quality
• Demonstrable experience of the 2D and 3D exhibition design process
• Demonstrable evidence of effectively working in a team, supporting colleagues and managing stakeholders
• Demonstrable evidence of developing sound curatorial ideas and innovative ways of engaging audiences with content

Skills, Knowledge and Relevant Qualifications

• A proven record in communicating contemporary practice of either Photography, Film & Broadcast or Photographic Technology, through print, multimedia, exhibitions or live events
• Strong communication skills and ability to write high-quality content for different media, including web
• A relevant degree in either Photography, Film & Broadcast or Photographic Technology or equivalent experience
• An understanding of museum-based exhibits and museum visitors
• Strong communication skills and ability to liaise with external specialists/organisations
• Ability to handle large quantities of complicated information and break down complex content and issues into simple, compelling stories
• Ability to research and develop accurate and engaging content within tight deadlines
• Proven track record of delivering projects on time that involves co-ordination of a number of stakeholders
• A high level of web literacy, preferably with knowledge of social media
• Ability to manage and deliver complex live events with a number of stakeholders 
• Excellent research skills and ability to originate ideas
• Evidence of strong negotiation and influencing skills
• Evidence of managing resources carefully
• Evidence of coordinating the work of different teams within demanding timescales
• Familiarity with and experience of the Prince 2 Project Management systems
• Ability to multi-task and prioritise effectively
• Ability to react positively to change and uncertainty
• Ability to work to tight deadlines, often in pressured environments
• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and stakeholders of different backgrounds, supporting and learning from other team members
• Ability to manage projects effectively, maintaining excellent standards and effective communication

Behaviours

• Team Working: Good team worker who demonstrates and encourages positive approaches, seeks to resolve issues and conflicts, focuses on win-win outcomes, actively champions the team; motivates others and enthusiastically shares knowledge & expertise, actively participates sensitively and flexibly as a team member
• Achieving Results: Takes initiative and ownership to deliver results within time, quality and cost expectations. Able to work to tight deadlines, often in pressured environments. Ability to manage projects effectively and efficiently, maintaining excellent standards and effective communication. Copes well with ambiguity, competing priorities and enjoys change. Motivated, self-starter, able to work to clear outcome targets
• Problem Solving & Creativity: Discusses problems appropriately, exploring viable options to resolve issues. Positive, proactive, unfazed by challenges and quick to look for new ways to problem solve
• Customer Service: Proactively helps, understands customers and acts to meet their needs, enthuses about the product or service or working collaboratively with non-specialist audiences in developing cultural offers, goes the extra mile, answers all questions & provides additional information
• Inspiring: Regularly meets with team members to clearly communicate direction for team and alignment with the organisation. Enthusiastic and committed to delivering innovative projects that place the Museum at the forefront of the field
• Developing: Supports teams by coaching, mentoring and leading as appropriate, ensuring professional and personal development. Encourages creativity and supports innovation
• Thinking: Makes sound decisions based on effective analysis and exploration of options. Prepared to challenge current thinking, look for opportunity for new approaches and take measured risks
• Leadership: Ability to communicate a vision, identify strategies required to achieve the vision and translate the vision into specific targets and tasks. Confident in decision making and able to manage resistance effectively

Scope for Impact

• Delivery of high quality, inspiring, audience focused experiences that increase visitor awareness of different types of media and the artistic, technological, social and cultural impact of it has on their lives
• Delivery of a regular, rich, engaging programme of innovative products that enhances the Museum’s reputation and inspires people to learn about, engage with and create Media
• Delivery of a series of high profile, internationally significant exhibitions in Media Space, building strong collaborative relationships with ScienceMuseum teams
• Establish relationships with stakeholder partners to ensure that exhibition content provides life-enhancing experiences for visitors and builds the reputation of the museum as an effective, collaborative organisation to work with
• Initiate partnerships to develop new ways of engaging researchers and experts with visitors and ensuring their experience in the Museum and online is memorable and unique
• Proactively establish effective working relationships with colleagues across the museum to ensure sufficient resource allocation and effective delivery of all projects

The Bodleian Libraries' public appeal to secure the Talbot archive has led to forty-two previously unknown photogenic drawings being discovered. They have been given to the Bodleian Library.

After hearing about the Bodleian’s campaign, Noel Chanan, biographer of John Dillwyn Llewelyn, was approached by Sir John Venables-Llewelyn, great-great grandson of the photographer, with a view to offering to place a previously unknown collection of forty-two early photogenic drawings by Talbot on deposit at the Bodleian, to supplement the Talbot Archive. These precious and fragile photographs, most of which are annotated by Talbot, depict mostly botanical specimens, as well as places including the cloister and the gothic gateway at Lacock Abbey (right), Oxford’s Botanical Gardens, and the Tower of Magdalen College. 

Other subjects include fragments of lace, a breakfast table, a tiger from a Bewick engraving (above, right), the Great Seal of England, and a facsimile of an old printed page.

Gifts to support the appeal to secure the Talbot archive for the Bodleian can be made here: https://www.giving.ox.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=3427

Oxford, 31 July 2013 -- The Bodleian’s appeal was launched in December 2012 with an initial deadline of the end of February 2013 to raise £2.2 million pounds needed for purchasing the Archive. A significant grant of £1.2 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) late last year gave the appeal a vital boost. Thanks to the most recent gift from the Art Fund along with donations from numerous other private individuals and charitable trusts, the Bodleian has managed to secure almost £1.9 million towards the purchase of the Archive.

The Bodleian has successfully negotiated an extension to the fundraising deadline and must raise the remaining £375,000 needed to fully fund the acquisition by August 2014. The Bodleian continues to seek and welcomes any further contributions to help acquire the only significant Talbot collection remaining in private hands.

Gifts to support the appeal can be made at: https://www.giving.ox.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=3427

Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund, said:  ‘We are delighted to be supporting the Bodleian Libraries’ aim to acquire a major archive of works by British inventor and photographer William Henry Fox Talbot.  This collection of material is of unparalleled importance in shedding light on both his life and his pioneering work. I urge everyone to support the final stage of the Bodleian's appeal.’

Richard Ovenden, Deputy to Bodley’s Librarian said: ‘We are extremely grateful for all donations which we have received so far, from the grants awarded by the Art Fund and the NHMF to all the individual donations. Every single one of them brings us closer to reaching our target of £2.25 million needed to acquire the Talbot archive which is an essential resource for scholars on the history of photography, the history of science, and a range of other disciplines.’

William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) was one of the greatest polymaths of the Victorian age, and is most famous today for being the British ‘founder of photography’.  The archive contains great potential for fuller understanding of the breadth of Talbot’s scholarly activities, and of the influences exerted by the women in his family, in particular their educative roles, their shared interests in botany, languages, art, travel and history that are so central to Talbot’s work, and their roles as practitioners, supporters, and collectors of the new art.     

Amongst the recipients of examples of Talbot’s earliest photographs were his aunt, Lady Mary Cole and his cousins, who lived at Penrice, near Swansea. Emma, the youngest of the cousins, was married to another of the South Wales gentry, John Dillwyn Llewelyn, and Talbot’s photographs quickly made their way to Penllergare, the home of the Dillwyn Llewelyns. Inspired by Talbot’s invention, Llewelyn became an early practitioner of the art of photography. 

The Talbot Archive also includes artefacts such as glassware and artworks that Talbot photographed for the ground-breaking publication The Pencil of Nature, the first book illustrated with photographs. There is a strong connection to Oxford, as the archive includes some of the first pictures of the city.

Alongside items related to his pioneering work in photography, the archive also sheds valuable light on his family life, his role managing his estate at Lacock, his life as a Member of Parliament, and his range of intellectual interests from science to ancient languages. 

The significance of the collection for various academic fields is reflected by the variety of well-known names who have lent their support to the Bodleian’s fundraising efforts to acquire the Fox Talbot archive:

• two of the world’s greatest photographers Martin Parr and Hiroshi Sugimoto;
• scientists: Sir Paul Nurse, President of The Royal Society; Sir Michael Berry, FRS, Melville Wills Professor of Physics, (Emeritus), University of Bristol;
• historians: Colin Ford, CBE, Founding Head, National Media Museum; Prof Martin Kemp, FBA former Prof of Art History, University of Oxford
• Michael Pritchard, Director-General of The Royal Photographic Society
• David Hockney, the best-known British artist of the 20th century

The Bodleian Libraries have now until August 2014 to raise the remaining funds.  A series of public events is planned to support access to the Archive, including a major exhibition in 2017. Highlights from the Archive will also feature in the opening exhibition for the Weston Library, and in a number of smaller displays.

About William Henry Fox Talbot

William Henry Fox Talbot (1800 – 1877) was a British humanist, scientist and inventor, best known for his invention of photography.  His 1839 announcement of the negative, which could produce multiple prints on paper, defined the central path for photography right down to the digital age. He became the first artist to be trained by photography. Talbot also made significant contributions to fields as diverse as Assyriology, astronomy, botany, electricity, etymology, mathematics, optics and politics. As a scientist, Talbot blended 18th century traditions of the amateur with 19th century concepts of progress and professionalisation. He was a Fellow of the Astronomical, Linnaean, and Royal societies; the latter gave him two gold medals, one for the invention of photography and one for mathematics. Talbot came from a family with strong diplomatic, social and royal connections and sat briefly as a Whig (reform) Member of Parliament. He sensitively guided his estate of Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire through the perils of the social uprisings in the 1830s and the expansion of the railways in the 1840s. Talbot published eight books and more than a hundred journal articles and was granted twelve patents. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate from Edinburgh University. Although personally shy, Henry Talbot was a brilliant figure who lived within a sphere of substantial influence.

About the Personal Archive of William Henry Fox Talbot

The Fox Talbot archive includes:

• original manuscripts by Talbot
• family diaries
• family drawing and watercolour albums and sketchbooks, including images made  by Talbot’s mother, his wife,  and by his sister
• correspondence
• early photographic images made by Talbot
• an image made by Talbot’s wife, c. 1839, which may be the earliest image made by a woman
• several hundred photographs received by Talbot - by other photographers from Britain and across the continent, contemporaries of Fox Talbot who shared their images and attempts at early photography
• portraits of Talbot and his family
• materials and artefacts related to the Lacock estate including estate plans, bills etc
• books from Talbot’s personal library
• musical scores from Talbot and his immediate family
• scientific instruments from Talbot’s own collection
• botanical specimen albums made by Talbot and members of his immediate family.

 About the Art Fund

The Art Fund is the national fundraising charity for art, helping museums to buy and show great art for everyone. Over the past 5 years we’ve given over £26m to help museums and galleries acquire works of art for their collections and placed hundreds of gifts and bequests, from ancient sculpture and treasure hoards to Old Master paintings and contemporary commissions. We also help museums share their collections with wider audiences through supporting a range of tours and exhibitions, including the national tour of the Artist Rooms collection and the 2013-2014 tours of Grayson Perry’s tapestries The Vanity of Small Differences and Jeremy Deller’s English Magic, the British Council commission for the 2013 Venice Biennale. Our support for museums extends to the Art Guide app – the comprehensive guide to seeing art across the UK, promoting a network of over 650 museums and galleries throughout the country, and the £100,000 Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year – an annual celebration of the best of UK museums, won in 2013 by William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow. We are independently funded, the majority of our income coming from over 100,000 members who, through the National Art Pass, enjoy free entry to over 220 museums, galleries and historic houses across the UK, as well as 50% off entry to major exhibitions.

Find out more about the Art Fund and the National Art Pass at www.artfund.org.