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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Large number of photos - circa 1917 - what to do with them?


MrEd

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On 10/12/2022 at 18:14, Interested said:

If you look on fleabay for similar photographs you'll get a feel for what sellers are asking - doesn't mean they'll sell for that though.

Hope this helps.

Thank you :)

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  • 2 months later...

Just an update on this thread. I have photographed all the images using my full frame DSLR - very high resolution.

The plan is to donate them to a university war studies department, or a smaller museum or institute that would actually do something with them. Ultimately they decision is out of my hands (it’s up to the museum trustees as to what to do) but a copy has been made of each photo (nearly 200) and they will be available in the digital archive at Cuckfield museum for researchers in due course. 
I am still in the process of permissions to post them here on GWF aswell, will update - but it may be several months. 
 

Ed

 

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  • 7 months later...

Okay just a final update, these have been transferred to the Royal Logistics Corp museum, and the transfer forms from Cuckfield museum to the RLC museum have all been completed and the collections manager came and collected them today. various universities with war studies departments, although interested, didn’t want them, so an inter-museum transfer had been completed!
 

So they have gone to a more appropriate home. Hopefully they will digitise them and/or make them available for researchers etc

Edited by MrEd
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On 23/10/2023 at 17:53, MrEd said:

Okay just a final update, these have been transferred to the Royal Logistics Corp museum, and the transfer forms from Cuckfield museum to the RLC museum have all been completed and the collections manager came and collected them today. various universities with war studies departments, although interested, didn’t want them, so an inter-museum transfer had been completed!
 

So they have gone to a more appropriate home. Hopefully they will digitise them and/or make them available for researchers etc

That’s good to know Ed.  It was good of you to go to that effort to ensure the preservation and accessibility of the photographs for future researchers and WW1 history enthusiasts.  Well done all round methinks. 👍

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8 hours ago, FROGSMILE said:

That’s good to know Ed.  It was good of you to go to that effort to ensure the preservation and accessibility of the photographs for future researchers and WW1 history enthusiasts.  Well done all round methinks. 👍

I haven’t, yet, got permission to post them all online myself which is a shame. I do hope they become publically available. As and when I hear more I will update this thread!

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  • 3 months later...
On 08/12/2022 at 05:29, Interested said:

The IWM used to have an archive of photographs in the old Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam) which I once visited, but don't know if this exists in this digital age

Perhaps the Cloth Hall in Ypres have an archive they could go to?

I cannot open the images as I would love to see the ones of the Cloth Hall Ypres as my Great Uncle John Thomas Lomas, married a Belgium girl and they helped rebuild it. They rebuilt and own the St Martin Hotel Ypres and the delicatessen from which they sold teas to the tourist.  His brother 53008 Wilfred Lomas was killed at Virile Farm 16th Dec 1917.

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good morning,

you have some picture to Loos in your album?

thank's.

michel

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On 28/10/2023 at 18:46, MrEd said:

I haven’t, yet, got permission to post them all online myself which is a shame. I do hope they become publically available. As and when I hear more I will update this thread!

Have they been digitised yet?  All military museums have been obligated by government (HM Treasury) to monetise their collections as much as possible, so I’m sceptical and anticipate that GWF members might find access to them behind a paywall?

Edited by FROGSMILE
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I don’t know, I will ask. I am hoping they will be accessible but it’s out of my hands!

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8 minutes ago, MrEd said:

I don’t know, I will ask. I am hoping they will be accessible but it’s out of my hands!

Exactly!

I reference my earlier comment on this thread.

NEVER EVER EVER donate to a museum.

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1 minute ago, caulkheader said:

Exactly!

I reference my earlier comment on this thread.

NEVER EVER EVER donate to a museum.

I couldn’t agree more, a friend of mine’s aunt donated a family WW1 MM to a local city museum, when he asked to see it, he was constantly put off, “due to it being in store”, that was until they owned up and told him that the MM had been sold to raise funds for the museum, myself, being cynical I have my doubts.

Also museums in general just don’t display enough items, largely due to the “modern” displays now used.

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1 hour ago, derekb said:

I couldn’t agree more, a friend of mine’s aunt donated a family WW1 MM to a local city museum, when he asked to see it, he was constantly put off, “due to it being in store”, that was until they owned up and told him that the MM had been sold to raise funds for the museum, myself, being cynical I have my doubts.

Also museums in general just don’t display enough items, largely due to the “modern” displays now used.

I think because they are largely rarely in the possession of curators with any real military interest, or experience nowadays (of whom there are now fewer due to demographics), and greatly under the control of senior museum staff who are more concerned with display methodology and so-called inclusivity and ‘de-colonisation’ issues.  A reflection of the world we’re living in.

Edited by FROGSMILE
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17 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

I think because they are largely rarely in the possession of curators with any real military interest, or experience nowadays (of whom there are now fewer due to demographics), and more under the control of senior museum staff who are more concerned with display methodology and so-called inclusivity and ‘de-colonisation’ issues.  A reflection of the world we’re living in.

Again, I couldn’t agree more.

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1 hour ago, caulkheader said:

Exactly!

I reference my earlier comment on this thread.

NEVER EVER EVER donate to a museum.

I didn’t, they were donated to a museum I am a patron of, and they couldnt keep them in their collection as they were outside of the remit of that museum and its charter, so they had to be moved on. Once they were accessioned into the museum collection officially they could only be transferred to another museum. This particular museum doesn’t sell stuff ‘out the back door’

Tell me, what exactly would you have liked me to do? Keeping them personally wasn’t an option, neither was selling them privately!

Edited by MrEd
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Just now, MrEd said:

I didn’t, they were donated to a museum I a a patron of, and they couldnt keep them in their collection as they were outside of the remit of that museum and its charter, so they had to be moved on. Once they were accessioned into the museum collection officially they could only be transferred to another museum.

Tell me, what exactly would you have liked me to do? Keeping them personally wasn’t an option, neither was selling them privately!

It’s not in anyway your fault, you had few good options and I think you made the best choice of those available to you.  The key aspect was preservation and you must surely have ensured that.

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2 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

It’s not in anyway your fault, you had few good options and I think you made the best choice of those available to you.  The key aspect was preservation and you must surely have ensured that.

Yes, they would have literally ended up in a skip if they hadn’t come to the museum, so I am not sure why there are some upset people on this thread….

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16 minutes ago, MrEd said:

Yes, they would have literally ended up in a skip if they hadn’t come to the museum, so I am not sure why there are some upset people on this thread….

To be fair I don’t think he’s upset, but just reinforcing his personal view based upon frustration that he might have experienced in the past.  What’s that expression about - you can only please some of the people some of the time (…or something similar).  You did the best you could and I for one applaud you for that.  Without your interest and effort they would probably at best have disappeared into the dark vaults of a private collector, and at worst been lost altogether through poor handling.

Edited by FROGSMILE
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I did copy all of them so when sufficient time has passed I will probably just put them on GWF anyways

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6 minutes ago, MrEd said:

I did copy all of them so when sufficient time has passed I will probably just put them on GWF anyways

I’m positive that will be most appreciated.  Thanks again for preserving them.

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4 hours ago, MrEd said:

Yes, they would have literally ended up in a skip if they hadn’t come to the museum, so I am not sure why there are some upset people on this thread….

I am not upset, merely frustrated that you did not heed my, and others, warnings.     What I, and others, predicted has now come to pass. 

As to ‘ending up in a skip’, no, if offered on the open market, there would have been any number of individuals or organisations ( no, not me) falling over themselves to buy and preserve them.

Sorry, but we will not find common ground on this, so I will now ‘butt out’. 
(probably).

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3 hours ago, caulkheader said:

I am not upset, merely frustrated that you did not heed my, and others, warnings.     What I, and others, predicted has now come to pass. 

As to ‘ending up in a skip’, no, if offered on the open market, there would have been any number of individuals or organisations ( no, not me) falling over themselves to buy and preserve them.

Sorry, but we will not find common ground on this, so I will now ‘butt out’. 
(probably).

Good no skin off my back, the decision what to do with them was not down to me at all. Feel as frustrated as you like. I couldn’t really care less. 
I did what I could, which was quite limited, because as I said, the decisions weren’t mine to make. The initial plan by the museum was to just send them to the IWM…. Which I managed to stop, but the decision by the museum directors was that they should go to a university (none were interested) or another museum, selling them wasn’t an option.

I don’t know what _exactly_ you expected me to be able to do….. you are right, we won’t see eye to eye on this as I think you are being unreasonable. Pretty much the only contribution you made to this thread was to say ‘dont donate to IWM’ which I had already said I had advised against. No one said ‘don’t donate to museums’ and you are missing the point these had _already_ been donated to a museum by a third party….

12 hours ago, battle of loos said:

good morning,

you have some picture to Loos in your album?

thank's.

michel

Will

have a look for you and send you any that are 

Edited by MrEd
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good evening,

thank's.

michel

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