Station Square 1895 - Tarbell

The Museum possesses over 17,000 photographs mainly glass-plate and negative form dating back to the 1860s. It also has an increasingly large collection of prints, due to the digital age, which allows glass plate negatives to be scanned and an acceptable image obtained, a process hitherto far too expensive to undertake photographically by a small museum. Also there is a very large collection of around 8,000 slides ranging from glass lantern slides to modern projector slides, which are used by the Society in lectures and for reproduction and illustration purposes.

With the exhibition gallery in the new wing, a series of photographic exhibitions is planned, the first of which was held in 2006 on the theme of Shops and Streets of Whitby. It is hoped that at least one photogrpahic exhibition will take place annually, as well as slide lectures featuring Whitby life as recorded in the image collection.

There are two publications of photographs taken from the Whitby Museum collection, collated by the Curator, and published by Tempus in the series "Around Whitby" and a second volume 'Second Selection' of the same name.

Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (1853-1941)

Rear View - Frank Meadow Sutcliffe

Construction of East Pier 1913 - Frank Meadow Sutcliffe

Old Whitby Bridge 1905 - Frank Meadow Sutcliffe

A nationally and intemationally acclaimed pioneering photographer who helped to develop photography as an art form as distinct from purely a recording medium. Sutcliffe worked in Whitby from the mid-1870's until his death. 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. They include many of the harbour, fishing and fisher-folk. 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 Literary and Philosophical Society has the copyright, are available from the Sutcliffe Gallery, Flowergate, Whitby, who also publish several volumes of selected images.

Incidentally Frank Meadow Sutcliffe was the secretary of the Society from the early 1920s until his death in 1941.

Tom Watson of Lythe (1863-1957)

Tom Watson's Camera

Watson was a contemporary of F M Sutcliffe, in whose shadow he worked. His photographs of everyday life and scenes are social documents of the late Victorian and Edwardian era. All his photographs were developed and printed without the aid of electricity in any form, his studio 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.

Hugh Lambert-Smith (1900-1981)

Hunter's Shop 1920's - Hugh Lambert-Smith

Hugh 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, producing a mural for the wall of the Whitby Mission to Seamen and designing scenery for amateur dramatic productions for many years. He was a founder member and president of the Whitby Photographic Society. Many of his negatives, covering Whitby and district from the 1930's to the 1960's are now in the archive of Whitby Museum.

The Doran Brothers(1900-1987)

Cook's Smithy in Church Street 1930's - Doran Bros.

Fire Station appliances 1930's - Doran Bros.

Herring Fleet 1950's - Doran Bros.

Whalebone Shed 1930's - Doran Bros.

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 many of the marine amd shipping subjects which passed their premises on Marine Parade next to the harbour during the post-war years, including fishing and the work of the lifeboats. 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.

John Tindale (1921-2001)

Point Duty in Bridge Street 1950's - John Tindale

John Tindale was for many years a chemist and professional photographer in Whitby. A large collection of his prints from the 1950's on, 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, besides the later years of the Fishing industry. John Tindale was for many years the editor of the Society's Annual Report. 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 thereby giving a continuity to the colection dating from the 1860's. This, recording of Whitby and Whitby life, is being continued by the present Curator D G Sythes, with the newer digital imaging prcoesses.

Reflections Information Centre 2003 - Des Sythes