Unearthing History

Archiving Project

Time for a quick catch up on our Heritage Lottery Funded archiving project. We have had wonderful support and volunteers are champing at the bit to get started. However, in trying to make a viable space for people to work we have run into a bit of a road block....

The cellar underneath the new archiving room-to-be.

As you can see there is a huge pile of rubble still to shift, but we need to clear it in order to insulate the room above. This section was completely full - the doorway was completely blocked. As clearing has commenced we have found many artifacts, including complete glass negatives, old bottles and packaging. It look like it was used as the on site dump and we are being careful to sift through as we go.

Anyway, now that we know what we are up against we are creating a temporary space for volunteers to work in the office so we can get on with the actual archiving. Opening the workroom proper will have a to wait a little while but will definitely be a cause for balloons and a few bubbles when we achieve it!

Some of the waste glass that has been shifted below the new work room. It stands around a metre deep.

Glass plate negatives, old chemical bottles, and packaging are being salvaged.

The negatives we really want to start working on

Photo History East Midlands

Geoff Blackwell ARPS

We have the pleasure of the company of Geoff Blackwell this weekend, who has been enlightening us on the history of photography and how it ends up in Derbyshire; a prequel to Winter's photographers!
We've gone through Nicéphore Niépce, Thomas Wedgewood & Humphry Davy,
Louis Daguerre, and Fox Talbot! Alfred Barber brought the daguerreotype to Nottingham, and by the 1850's there were over 20 studios in Derby!

Geoff Blackwell (centre) in the original photo studio.

Geoff is very kindly going to look into whether 45 Midland Road in the oldest purpose built photo studio in the UK / world. Many earlier studios were added into preexisting spaces.

We're having great feedback from Twitter, do follow us if you have an account!

Many thanks to @WWWinterLtd for a great @heritageopenday. Looking forward to seeing how your #HLFsupported photography project 'develops'!
— HLFEastMids (@HLFEastMids) September 12, 2014

...and Tim Wannacott (currently starring on BBC's Strictly Come Dancing) has been spotted in our window!

Noticed a great portrait of @TimWonnacott in the shop window as I passed @WWWinterLtd in Derby this morning. #bargainhunt #Photography
— martkelly (@martkelly) September 11, 2014

Here is Tim 'behind the scenes' on his visit to the studio after filming with Hubert for the BBC. If you're passing and you see his portrait in our window why not take a selfie with him! :D

Time to Celebrate

We are on a high at the moment - this week we are open for Heritage Open Days AND we have announced phase 1 of our Heritage Lottery Funded archiving project *big cheesy grin*.

Heritage Open Days 2014

In case you've been on Mars and missed all the tweeting, facebook posts and newsletter, we will be open on Thursday 11th, Friday 12th, & Saturday 13th of September as part of National Heritage Open Days. There are many more venues taking place across Derbyshire but we hope you will make a point of dropping in to Winter's for a tour of the premises which this year, in honour of the WW1 centenary will include a few images of British soldiers and German Officer Prisoners of War from the period.
Other lovely points of interest are antique camera equipment, heritage oddments, and the building itself, dating from 1867. You can read a bit more about these on the Heritage Open Days website blog where you can also read about 1000's of exciting heritage events and venues across the UK.

Heritage Lottery Funding

We did it! It has been a long and winding process but phase 1 of our HLF bid has been approved and we are keen to get started.
This will involved preparing a work and storage room, and then on to the interesting bit - working towards archiving the thousands of plate glass negatives. Many of you have kindly already shown interest in volunteering; if it's something you are interested in do get in touch for a volunteer form and we'll take it from there.

Thank you

A quick thank you to everyone who came to last years Heritage Open Days. It was your enthusiasm and support that gave us the memento to take on this endeavour. we also want to thank Jane Middleton-Smith who will be working with us as our professional archivist, and artist-in-residence Debbie Cooper who has been fundamental in guiding us through the process., whilst working on her own project, 'Derby Anon', involving some of our original portraits and the people of Derby (including you?)

Ancestry

Are you related to Walter William Winter?

As part of our heritage research we are tracing the descendants of W. W. Winter and his families and we would love to hear from you!
Here is some of the information that we have:

Charles Family Lineage

Walter William Winter married Sarah Charles (nee Ball) in 1864. Sarah had three children with her first husband Emmanuel Nicolas Charles, who founded the photography studio that Winter took over after Charles' death.Sarah and Emmanuel were survived by their eldest son Alexis Leon Charles (b.1851), who himself had a son, Alexis Amand Dallison Charles (b. 1876).
Are you a descendant of the Charles family line? Please let us know!
You can see an image of the Charles family grave at Nottingham Road cemetery in Derby on flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/33947032@N05/9472324084/

Winter Family Lineage

After Sarah's death in 1883, Winter got married again to Hannah Ness Ruddle (b.1855-d.1930) in 1889 with whom he emigrated to Canada after 1909. We are currently exploring their time in Canada. We think they appear on the 1921 census in Nanaimo, British Columbia, and may be buried in the churchyard of St Mary's in Metchosin.
Do you know anymore?

Get in touch!

Do let us know if you have any bits of info regarding Sarah and Emmanuel's descendants, or Walter and Hannah's. We would love to know if any of them carried on in the family tradition.

Email me:

FAO Hannah, office@wwwinter.co.uk

National Heritage Open Days

It's that time of the year again!

We are furiously publicising our involvement in National Heritage Open Days this year and we hope to be celebrating some very exciting news (wink wink, nod nod).

Free heritage tours, 11th to 13th September

This will be only our second year of opening up to the public but is the 10th anniversary for National Heritage Open Days and I am delighted to say there are a few more local sites this year including The Silk Mill and St Mary's Bridge Chapel.

It is, of course, also the centenary year of WWI. As many of you will already know, Derby has been behind the glorious and moving poppy installation at the Tower of London (http://poppies.hrp.org.uk/about-the-installation) with the poppies being hand produced by Derby artists on Pride Park.
We will be displaying local photographs from our archives during the open days including images of prisoners of war from camps in Derbyshire and the surrounding counties. We hope it will act as a poignant reminder of all those live affected.

Special guest speaker

We are very excited to confirm that Geoff Blackwell ARPS, writer and researcher and Council Member of The Royal Photographic Society, will be joining us to give a talk on 'The Origins of Photography and the East Midlands'. The talk will take place in the studio at around 10.15 on Saturday 13th September with a maximum of 20 places, but Geoff has kindly offered to repeat the session subject to demand for places. Do phone us asap on 01332 345224 if you would like to book a place!

For more info on our heritage tours and to book your place, check on website heritage page, email us on office@wwwinter.co.uk, or give us a ring on 01332 345224.
You can read about all the different Heritage Open Day events on the national website :-)

Hubert: Here, There & Everywhere

In Demand!

Hubert has been out and about this last week or so. Most notably, he has made friends with the lovely Tim Wonnacott, and faced the gruesome depths of Derby Gaol.

On the Beeb

Hubert met Tim at Keddleston Hall filming for a new BBC2 show, The Great Antiuqes Map of Britain, which should be out in the Autumn. Tim got to grips with an antiques field camera, and was introduced to a Winter's Collection print of Derby County football hero Steve Bloomer.

 

Local Derby Heritage

The reopening of the Police Museum in Derby had long been the dream of the late Wayne Johnson, and many hours of hard work finally came to fruition with the set up of the museum in it's new home at Derby Gaol on Friargate. Hubert was there to record the opening ceremony attended by Wayne's family, The High Sherriff of Derbyshire, David Coleman QPM, and local historian Richard Felix.

 

All this reminds us of how lucky we are at Winter's to be part of Derby's rich heritage!

A Rather Fabulous Foursome

Who are these handsome lads and lasses? Who indeed!

We may not know who they are or what they did but they have one thing in common for certain - they were all photographed at W. W. Winter Photographer's in Derby, on quarter plate glass negatives, most likely in the late 1940's.

How do we know?

There's a rather fabulous project going on at W. W. Winter's at the moment. We have our very own Artist in Residence. Debbie Adele Cooper has been combing our archive, delicately scanning these old glass negatives to reveal a myriad wonderful faces. Her research has taken her back through traditional darkroom printing and now onto vintage photography techniques.

Get involved and have your photo taken!

The rediscovery of these lost faces reminds us of our personal histories and the traces we leave... perhaps the above sitters had families in Derby. Maybe their offspring are living here today. Do you look like one of the people in the portraits that Debbie has revealed? Then she wants to hear from you now!

You don't have to be related to the people in the pictures, just have a resemblance to the original, and a link to Derby yourself.

Take a look at the DerbyAnon website - new images are still being added.

Follow the project on Twitter and Instagram via @archive_artist

Contact Debbie via email through info@debbiecooper.org

We look forward to seeing you in the studio and finding out whose face you fit!