About ViewFinder

Summary

ViewFinder presents a selection of historic and more recent photographs from the National Monuments Record's important collections. There is a programme to add further material regularly. Please note: Many of the buildings photographed remain in private ownership and may not be visited. Please respect the privacy of their occupiers. ViewFinder consists of two elements: all the photographs are included in a browsable picture library, while selected images are structured into themes called Photo Essays. All the photographs are presented seamlessly on ViewFinder, allowing users to search across the whole archive at once.

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Background

The National Monuments Record (NMR) is the public archive of English Heritage. It curates an archive of 10 million items which are relevant to the archaeology, architectural history and social history of England. (For details phone 01793 414600.)

In 2000 English Heritage joined with Oxfordshire County Council, with funding from the Big Lottery Fund, to make 25,000 photographs available on the internet. This was a first step in making the NMR's nationally important collections accessible electronically. Since then, many more images have been added.

The Big Lottery Fund (formerly the New Opportunities Fund) is a Lottery distributor which funded projects to place educational content on the web to support 'life long learning': the target audience for this initiative was the general public. Schools and specialists will also find this material valuable.

The photographs available on ViewFinder

Many collections of photographs are available on the ViewFinder site. To search by collection go to the Advanced Search page and select an option from the 'Collection' category.

A strength of ViewFinder is the ability to search across collections for images of similar places or subjects. Searches can be made from the Basic and Advanced Search pages.

Collections available on ViewFinder

The more important collections included are:

Atkinson collection - Stonehenge

Professor Richard Atkinson directed excavations and reconstruction work at Stonehenge for the Ministry of Works between 1950 to 1964. This selection is of almost 200 of his photographs from this project.

Bill Brandt

Brandt was already a noted photographer when he was commissioned to work for the National Buildings Record (NBR), formed in 1941 to document buildings and monuments of architectural or historical significance in case of bomb damage. He worked on the project until 1943. He photographed churches, other buildings and streets in Chichester, Canterbury, Rochester and Colchester, and Spencer House in London. The NMR holds 446 of these images.

Philip Henry Delamotte made a photographic record of the Crystal Palace in circa 1859, soon after it was moved to Sydenham in South London. This rare set of 47 photographs which may be unique, adds greatly to our knowledge of this hugely important building.

England at Work

This is a selection of images illustrating England's industrial heritage. Photographs have been selected which illustrate a variety of industrial themes: including agriculture, coal mining, railways, textiles, tin mining, transport, windmills and social history.

Bedford Lemere

Harry Bedford Lemere (1864 -1944) was a professional photographer. Over 300 of his images are now showing, including many interior and exterior photographs from around London.

Nathaniel Lloyd

Nathaniel Lloyd OBE (1867-1933) was a successful business man who changed his career mid life to become an architect. His research interests were the evolution of the English House, brickwork and topiary.

Eric de Maré

The NMR's collection of 2,800 photographs by Eric de Maré is now available on ViewFinder. Eric de Maré (1910-2002) was an influential architectural photographer and writer. After training as an architect, he spent many years photographing and writing about industrial subjects in Britain. His particular interest was what he termed the "functional tradition" within architecture - this included canals, bridges and modern architecture. The resulting collection is fascinating both for its unique perspective on England's industrial history and also for the inherent aesthetic properties of the individual images.

John Maltby - Odeon cinemas

In the 1930s photographer John Maltby was commissioned to take photographs of all the Odeon cinemas by Oscar Deutsch, the founder of the Odeon cinema. The collection highlights their distinctive style both internally and externally.

Alfred Newton & Son

This family photographic firm was based in Leicester. Its output covers much of the country, but it is best known for recording the building of the Great Central Railway in 1894-1899. The NMR holds 3,960 negatives which provide a valuable historic record of life in the communities the new railway cut through. (The images of the construction of the railway are mostly held by the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland.)

Rupert Potter

Rupert Potter (1832-1914) was the father of Beatrix Potter. This collection shows black and white photographs of the changing face of Greater London at the turn of the 20th century as well as a few images linked to the Potters' family life.

S W Rawlings

Stanley W Rawlings worked for the Port of London Authority, including a period as photographer in the Information Office. The collection of 1,300 photographs broadly dated 1945-65, reflects this interest. It records life on and around the River Thames and its estuary, especially dock and harbour installation and shipping. Greater London accounts for 77% of the coverage, with Kent and Essex well represented.

H E S Simmons - windmills

Herbert Simmons (1901-1973) carried out private research into windmills and watermills for 40 years, many of which were photographed in the 1930s. A selection are on ViewFinder.

Henry W Taunt

Henry W Taunt was an important photographer who worked out of premises in Oxford between 1860-1922. His main interests were Oxfordshire and surrounding counties, the River Thames, customs and local history. As well as being a landscape and architectural photographer, Taunt was a keen observer of human nature, recording the activities of ordinary people at work and play. His photographs are owned partly by the NMR and partly by Oxfordshire County Council. Working together, 13,800 Taunt images have been added to ViewFinder. Many of Taunt's publications may be consulted at the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies (tel.: 01865 815749).

Nigel Temple Postcards - parks and gardens

Dr Nigel Temple (1926-2003) was a painter and historian who collected early postcards, mostly from the period 1900 to the First World War. The main theme of the collection is public parks and gardens.

W and Co

The W and Co collection is made up of 260 black and white photographic prints taken in 1890-1910. The collection focusses on the seaside resorts of the Kent and Lancashire coasts. A number of inland towns are are also represented, including Canterbury. The identity of W & Co Ltd is uncertain.

York and Son

York & Son was one of the largest English producers of lantern slides in the second half of the nineteenth century. Frederick York moved to London around 1861 and set up as a photographic publisher, issuing stereocards and lantern slides. The NMR holds 2,400 glass negatives for the period 1870-1900, including 832 stereoscopic negatives, which are now available on ViewFinder. The collection primarily covers the Greater London area, with limited coverage from Berkshire (notably Windsor, Eton, Ascot and Frogmore) and Surrey (notably Epsom). A wide variety of London street views, buildings and events are covered in the collection, including major monuments and views of the River Thames, of public events such as Queen Victoria's Jubilee, and of enduring features of London life, such as traffic congestion.