Amongst our very dedicated research team is Kathy, who will have been volunteering for us for 4 years in December. In her time with us she has specialised in researching the soldiers and Nurses of WW1. As 100 years since the ending of the First World War was approaching I knew that Kathy, with her…
Archive / Archives / Banstead / conservation / digitisation / Glass Plate Negatives / Knights-Whittome / Preservation / Royal portraits / Sutton / Uncategorized
As digitising our main collection of plates has slowly but surely come to an end, we have lastly come to look at a lovely surprise we were gifted with earlier in the year, thanks to Rob Williams and Janet Rice. Below they have kindly put together an introduction to the plates and their history… We are…
Archive / digitisation / Edwardian / Glass Plate Negatives / hospital / Nursing / portrait / Uncategorized / Women / WW1
Today’s post is brought to you by our dedicated research volunteer, Elizabeth, who’s writing and discoveries are always a treat, and is today uncovering Winifred Knaggs’ story. On first glance it would appear that the two photographs we have of Miss Knaggs in Nurses uniform, would be a big clue and we would hope that her…
Archive / Banstead / digitisation / Glass Plate Negatives / portrait / RNAS / School / Teaching / Uncategorized / WW1
Research for today’s post comes from James Crouch of the Banstead War Memorial Project, who often brings us wonderful insight to the lives of our sitters of which we are incredibly grateful! Demolished around 1980, Banstead Hall was a Boys School for a century and we have several Knights-Whittome photographs of its students in our…
Archive / digitisation / double exposure / Exhibition / Glass Plate Negatives / local history / portrait / Sutton / ww2
Today’s post is written by one of our dedicated Volunteers, Margaret, who became involved with the project when she stumbled upon a portrait of her Great Aunt, Winifred Lilian Garman, amongst our collection. Upon discovering the Past on Glass project Margaret has since been a keen Negative Digitiser and Researcher and is today bringing us…
This week marks the return of London Writers Week, a celebration of new writing in the UK, and also 106 years since a particular David Knights-Whittome photograph was taken of the Carshalton Convent School boys. An unlikely connection it may seem! However, as you may know, over the last year we are proud to have…
Today’s post is written by our volunteer Elizabeth, who was inspired to research 4 plates titled ‘baby Sparenborg’, and unravel the lost story of a British family with German origins, living in England during WW1. It is often impossible to tell how the sitters came to have their photographs taken, and this is a key…
Today’s post is the research of James Crouch, of Banstead Historical Society. James has contributed to this blog on a few occasions before, and his writing is a treat; beautifully bringing to life the individuals pictured in our plates. Thanks to James for sharing the story of Master C Beall with us today. Betchworth Butcher,…
In a recent post about creatively reimagining the Knights-Whittome collection through fictional writing we observed how difficult it can be to really empathise with an individual when just faced with a list of bare facts. It is not often that we are privy to a real life observation about one of our sitters than gives…
Research today, comes from our wonderful volunteer Elizabeth, who has worked hard to track down information about a lady from the collection, Ellen Munday, as well as the family for whom she worked for during the time the photograph was taken. The story leaves many questions still to be answered but certainly gives a fascinating…
She drew a breath that held her still – Looked past the brim and hid her will. But glance confess the thoughts within, A girl gleams through and brings us in. Kirsteen Coupar Miss Guinlet, 23 October 1916. Quatrain We are very excited this week to reveal the result of a wonderful collaboration between the…
Following on from Emma Bonson’s blog last week on using X-Ray to investigate blocked plates, Ellie Pierce, a conservation student at the University of Lincoln, continues our conservation series by telling us about her experience of using a Multi Spectral Imaging Microscope to investigate the plates. Thanks to Ellie for today’s piece… On Monday the…
