Library news
Digitisation project
A recent project has digitised over 200 photographic images, using the camera original acquired from the New Opportunities Fund grant to the Church Plans Online digitisation project. The material (MS. 3607 and MS. 3614) was selected from a large acquisition of over 1800 photographs, glass negatives, lantern slides, and postcards (MSS. 3601-3615), so that digital images could act as surrogates for public access to the originals, which consist of fragile glass negatives and lantern slides. The digitisation was funded by the Friends of Lambeth Palace Library.The collection comprises photographs by two early commercial photographers, Richard Keene (1825-1894) and James Willoughby Harrison (1873-1960). A few are ascribed to Richard’s son, Charles Barrow Keene (1863-1937), an accomplished photographer in his own right, who continued in the family business until his death in 1937. James Willoughby Harrison trained as a photographer with Richard Keene, and upon Charles’ death, inherited books and photographic collections from both men. The collection at Lambeth was donated in 1991 by Hazel Willoughby Harrison (James Willoughby Harrison’s daughter), a generous benefactor to the Library.
These digital images, along with the whole collection and its catalogue, can be consulted in the Reading Room at Lambeth Palace Library. While the photographs are largely of topographical subjects in the Midlands, there are also images taken elsewhere in England and abroad. The images include a glass negative (MS. 3607/59) of Keene's earliest known image, thought to date from 1853.