Sixteen years ago, as a bit of a joke, I started a on-line weekly forum for sharing old photographs called Sepia Saturday. Over the years, it has brought together people from all over the world who love to share old photographs from their collections. This week is our 800th Sepia Saturday, and my contribution is … Continue reading A Sepia Milestone
Category: Family Photographs
The Longtown Cyclist
My great uncle, Fowler Beanland, left his native Keighley in the early years of the twentieth century to work in Longtown, Cumbria. He was a great collector of photographs and picture postcards, and this photo of his "old friend", John Audley, comes from his collection, which I was lucky enough to inherit half a century … Continue reading The Longtown Cyclist
Sitting On The Dock
This rather strange hybrid of a photograph and colourful daubing emerged from an archaeological dig conducted on the top shelf of one of the bookshelves in my room. If I created it, I have no memory of doing so. The woman in the photograph is my mother, and the man - Uncle Charlie - a … Continue reading Sitting On The Dock
Walking Snaps
In the days before smartphone selfies, many personal photographic archive would be populated by "Walking Snaps". Professional photographers would line seaside promenades and take random shots of passing visitors, and prints would later be displayed in shop windows and be available for purchase. There is a wonderful naturalness about such photos - as in this … Continue reading Walking Snaps
Priceless
I've spent a fair amount of my life taking photographs, and whenever I am tempted to question whether I would have been better off doing something else, I look at photographs like this one. It's far from being a great photograph; it's badly cropped and full of distracting shadows. But it's my father, and it's … Continue reading Priceless
Baby Burnett
My brother sent this photograph to me the other day - in my role as "the Burnett family historian" - suggesting it was either me or him. I tried doing a facial recognition analysis based on the rest of my family photos and it suggested it was a young Aunty Miriam (which it clearly isn't). … Continue reading Baby Burnett
Mystery Date
This photograph was part of a collection of family photos. The only clue as to the subject is a date stamped on the back, 6th January 1929, and the name of the studio where it was taken, Jerome. Could it be my mother? The dates fit, and there was a branch of Jerome's in Bradford. … Continue reading Mystery Date
That Magnificent Girl In Her Flying Machine
This is a wonderful photograph of my father's cousin, Ivy Burnett. She was born in Birmingham in 1906, and this photograph must have been taken when she was three or four. The great craze at the time was the new flying machines, and many photographic studios would have mock-up sets for sitters to use. Thus … Continue reading That Magnificent Girl In Her Flying Machine
Needing A Measure
My mother's uncle, the splendidly named Fowler Beanland, was a great bowling enthusiast, and this is one of his photographs. It has a caption - Bowling At Devonshire Park, Keighley - but no date. I know that he lived, worked - and bowled - up in Cumbria in the early years of the twentieth century, … Continue reading Needing A Measure
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