Photographs
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| Eastside c.1862 | Station Square 1895 [Tarbell] |
Introduction
The Museum has an extensive photographic collection based on some 17,000 glass plate and film negatives dating back to the 1860s. There is also an increasing collection of photographic prints and some 10,000 slides ranging from glass lantern slides to the positive transparencies of the later twentieth century. We are now also gradually acquiring a number of digital photographs especially of objects, engravings and paintings in the Museum collections, and are undertaking a long-term programme of digitising the negative stock for ease of reproduction and as a back-up to the originals.
The collections are available to the public (by prior arrangement) as well as members of the Lit & Phil, and are drawn on by individual enquirers and scholars, authors and publishers, archaeologists and town planners among others.
Since the completion of the new wing in 2005 the Museum's temporary exhibition programme has included an annual photographic exhibition drawn from our collections beginning with the shops and Streets of Whitby in 2006 and including Fishing, Local Villages and Wreck and Rescue. The 2011 exhibition has been on the theme of The Many Faces of Whitby.
Two books of images from our collections are available, both chosen and collated by the late Des Sythes (curator 1994-2008) and published by Tempus, "Around Whitby" and "Whitby - the Second Selection". The Museum also sells CDs or hard copies of images & text on Fishing, Victorian/Edwardian Seaside and Victorian Farming, and two DVDs with a large and varied selection of images from the collections.
The greater part of our holdings are the work of seven local photographers: Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (1853-1941), Tom Watson (1863-1957), Hugh Lambert-Smith (1900-1981), The Doran Brothers (1900-1987), John Tindale (1921-2001), and our recent curator Des Sythes (1929-2008). Brief biographical details and examples of their work are given below. However, we also have smaller collections of work by, e.g. Mrs Baird, J T Ross (1862-1929) and more recently Stanhope White and Peter Thornton.
Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (1853-1941)
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A nationally and internationally acclaimed pioneering photographer who
helped to develop photography as an art form as distinct from a purely
recording medium. Sutcliffe worked in Whitby from the mid-1870s until his
death. He was also, from the early 1920s until his death, secretary of
the Lit & Phil. Most of the photographs for which he is now famous were
taken, often out-of-season, for his own satisfaction rather than as part
of his 'bread and butter' work which included much portraiture. They
include many of the harbour, fishing and fisher-folk, but all carefully
posed. His equipment ranged from the cumbersome brass and mahogany
full-plate cameras with their wet collodion process of the late
nineteenth century to the hand-held bellows types of this century
using celluloid negatives. Copies of many of his photographs, of
which the Whitby Lit & Phil has the copyright, are available from
the Sutcliffe Gallery,
Flowergate, Whitby who also publish several volumes of selected images.
[Biographical details by courtesy of Chris Roberts & Roger Pickles, Hon. Curators of Photographs] 
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| Ship at Bog Hall [FMS 17-34] | Black & White [FMS B34] |
Tom Watson of Lythe (1863-1957)
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Watson was a contemporary of F M Sutcliffe, in whose shadow he worked. He
was born in Ruswarp but moved to his beloved Lythe around 1865. After leaving
school, he worked for 15 years at Mulgrave Castle but times were hard at
the end of the 19th century and he determined to try his hand at earning
a living through photography, until then, only a hobby. Throughout his
career he enjoyed the patronage of his former employer, the Marquis of
Normanby, and many of his photographs are of Mulgrave Castle, the estate,
and the estate workers. All his photographs were developed and printed
without the aid of electricity, his studio at Lythe being without this
service until the post-war years at the end of his life. Nevertheless,
the results are equal to those of any modern laboratory. His images of
everyday life and scenes in Whitby and many of the surrounding villages
are social documents of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. He was
one of the first to see the potential of seaside postcards and those he
produced are now widely sought after.
[Biographical details by courtesy of Chris Roberts & Roger Pickles, Hon. Curators of Photographs]
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| Unveiling of Caedmon Cross 1898 [S 58] |
Mulgrave Castle treefellers & children 1896 [Wat 2098] |
Daily Mail aircraft, Tate Hill sands c.1914 [Wat 2103] |
Hugh Lambert-Smith (1900-1981)
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Lambert-Smith was born in Whitby and served as a pilot in the Royal
Flying Corps during World War One. He then qualified as an optician with
a business in the town, later running a photographic business as a sideline.
He was also a painter, designing for the 'Wings for Victory' campaign
in World War Two and producing a mural for the hall of the Whitby Mission
to Seaman, which can still be seen there, as well as designing scenery
for many amateur dramatic productions. He was a founder member and
president of the Whitby Photographic Society. Many of his negatives
covering Whitby and district from the 1930s to the 1960s are now in
the archive of Whitby Museum.
[Biographical details by courtesy of Chris Roberts & Roger Pickles, Hon. Curators of Photographs]
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| Boulby Bank galleries 1948 [HLS 01-13a] |
Children at shop window 1954 [HLS 38-14] |
Herring fleet in lower harbour [HLS] |
The Doran Brothers (1900-retired 1987)
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Terry and Eric Doran inherited the family photographer's business started
by their grandfather in 1905. Apart from their commercial work within the
holiday resort of Whitby they photographed almost every coastal vessel
which passed their premises on Marine Parade next to the harbour for
several decades, as well as the fishing industry and work of the lifeboats.
Thanks to the Dorans, we also have an astonishing record of shipwrecks
occurring over more than a quarter of a century. Looking at their photographs,
it is a wonder that vessels can still ply the local waters without being
holed by all the submerged tonnage! They will be remembered most of all
for their faithful recording of people and events which remind us of
Whitby's heritage. They retired in 1987, and their collection of negatives
was purchased by the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society for the
Museum in 1994, with financial assistance from the Marquis of Normanby.
[Biographical details by courtesy of Chris Roberts & Roger Pickles, Hon. Curators of Photographs]
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| Children in a Whitby Yard [Dor 18-23] |
Sailing coble Lily 1930s [Dor 05-08] |
Drilling rig Eskdale Moor [Dor 19-07] |
John Tindale (1921-2001)
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John Tindale was for many years a chemist and professional photographer
in Whitby. He worked in the family chemists business started by his
father, Charles, for a short period including collecting film for
processing from customers on his bike before going to university and
later seeing service in the Second World War. At that time, it was
common for chemists to have a photographic side to the business and
John opened a studio and pharmacy in Skinner Street in 1947. Much of
his commercial work was commissioned by local public bodies which
resulted in an extensive record of the re-building of Whitby. He also
worked for many years as a freelance photographer for the Whitby Gazette
chronicling the social life of Whitby and its citizens. Throughout his
professional life, he was a member and keen supporter of the Whitby
Photographic Society and Whitby Lit & Phil, whose Annual Report he edited
for many years. A large collection of his prints from the 1950's onward,
taken for the Whitby Gazette, were donated to Whitby Museum after
the newspaper was sold by the original owners, the Horne family, in
the 1980's. They record post-war changes to social life in the Town as
well as much re-building. We also retain his comprehensive record of
the local fishing industry during the 50s and 60s. Before his death in 2001,
John Tindale gave to the Museum his library of negatives dating from the
1950's until his retirement in the late 1970's.
[Biographical details by courtesy of Chris Roberts & Roger Pickles, Hon. Curators of Photographs]
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| Fortune's Kipper-smoking house [JT 3571] |
Tame fox [JT 901] |
Tempest prognosticator [JT 1118] |
Des Sythes (1929-2008): Photographic Curator of Whitby Museum 1994-2008
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Des was born in East London within sight of the Thames and had a lifelong
interest in ships and the sea. Shortly after World War Two he joined
Trinity House as a lighthouse keeper and served in most of the major
lighthouses round the UK, finishing at Whitby High Light until automation
and his replacement by a microchip. He was a talented water-colour artist,
keen member of Whitby Rotary Club and helped produce the Talking Newspaper
for the Blind as well as giving illustrated talks. He never claimed to be
a photographer but tirelessly recorded Whitby and its changing buildings
and townscapes. As curator of Whitby Museum's photographic collections he
listed and catalogued many thousands of our negatives for the first time
using his own home computer. With the completion of our new temporary
exhibition room in 2005 he instituted and mounted a series of annual
photographic exhibitions. His collection of marine and Town photographs
and images of items in the Museum's collections bring our holdings up to date.
[Biographical details by courtesy of Chris Roberts & Roger Pickles, Hon. Curators of Photographs]
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| Golf balls [DGS] |
Abbey 2002 [DGS] |
Reflection in TIC 2003 [DGS] |