Sunday 31 October 2010

Revealed after 75 years: The British Legion’s shameful visit to Hitler


The Daily Mail: Read the full story - Click Here
Share/Bookmark

Friday 29 October 2010

A true photo reunited....


http://www.metro.co.uk/home/
Share/Bookmark

How an old photo sparked teacher and pupil reunion after 50 years

A PHOTO that appeared on a Portadown website has reunited a teacher and her former pupil after more than 50 years.
Mrs Mona Martin, who lives in Margretta Park, had found some old photos, including one of herself as a young teacher (then Miss Kennedy) with her class at Hart Memorial PS, taken in the early 1950s.

Her husband Bertie duly sent the photos to local photographer Jim Lyttle to include of his website of images of Portadown past and present.

Little did Mrs Martin know that one of the pupils pictured, Gordon Mullen, now living in Australia, would recognise himself and begin a chain of correspondence that culminated in a recent reunion in Portadown.

Said Mrs Martin, “We had a message from Gordon to say how thrilled he was to see the photo of his old school ‘especially Miss Kennedy who I was seriously in love with’!”

Gordon, married with a grown-up family, recalled that his teacher, on whom he had such a big crush as an eight-year-old, had red hair.

The pair, with their respective spouses, met up at a recent reunion at the Seagoe Hotel, before the Mullens went on to visit an uncle in Armagh, and then on to Scotland and London, where they have a son.

Said Mrs Martin, “We had a lovely dinner together and it wasn’t one bit awkward. We just seemed to click.

“What I remember about Gordon as a child is that he was always so well-dressed and clean and tidy. He used to wear a little, V-neck pullover.

“We had some good laughs in the classroom. I was just out of Stranmillis teacher training college and I was young looking so maybe I didn’t seem as old or strict to the children as some of the other teachers did.

“If one of the children said or did something funny, I would have laughed with them.”

The then Miss Kennedy taught at Hart Memorial PS for around 10 years before getting married and giving up teaching to devote herself to married and family life.
 
READ FULL ARTICLE : CLICK HERE

Share/Bookmark

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Harold Wreglesworth reunited with lost family photographs

A PENSIONER has been reunited with decades of family photographs found in an attic in York.
Harold Wreglesworth, 70, of Holgate Road, came to our offices in Walmgate to collect the albums after reading an appeal in The Press for remaining family members to come forward.
Mr Wreglesworth said he read the article and noted the names mentioned in it were like those of his own family. 

Then, when he saw the photograph alongside the story, he realised it was no coincidence.
The photograph albums, which were initially thought to belong to the Edwards family, which owned Edwards’ convenience store on the corner of Ash Street and a newsagent in Poppleton Road, actually belonged to Mr Wreglesworth’s aunt and uncle, Emily (Em) and Harold Brown.
Em Brown (nee Noel) lived in and managed the shop in Ash Street, so she was good friends with the Edwards family. 

She was also a keen photographer, explaining the many photographs of them and the shop.
The albums also include many photographs of Em’s sister Phil, and Phil’s husband Harold Wreglesworth – Mr Wreglesworth’s mother and father – and their three children; Mr Wreglesworth himself, his brother, Noel, and his sister, Phil. 

Mr Wreglesworth said: “Em was a fanatical photographer and her other claim to fame is she was one of the fastest knitters in York. She knitted socks for two or three members of the Poppleton Road junior football team.”
“We don’t have that many old photographs,” said Mr Wreglesworth, as he turned the pages of about 30 years of his family history, including their annual daytrip to Scarborough. He said they brought back many memories both happy and sad, but that he was pleased to see them. 

Many people wrote into The Press with their memories from Ash Street during this era, including Eileen Gray (nee Scaife), of Beaverdyke, who lived on Poppleton Road between 1935 and 1961. Mrs Gray recognised Em Noel, who she used to keep company in the shop and was then her bridesmaid when she married Harold Brown in about 1946.
The furniture shop SM Gawthorne Ltd, incorrectly labelled as Mr Edward’s shop in the photograph albums, actually used to be based in Petergate. 


Share/Bookmark

Official Photos: Sir Winston Churchill's Funeral

Heading towards St Paul's, London
A Photos Reunited Facebook Album : View More of these photos
Share/Bookmark

Tuesday 26 October 2010

Almost Lost forever...

A recent posting on the 'The Age of Uncertainty' Blog (http://ageofuncertainty.blogspot.com/) highlights the plight and near death expereince of a wonderful collection of 19th century photographs.

Someone at work came across a wonderful album of photos from the 1860s. They took one look and promptly threw it into a bin. Minutes later, a forklift truck was due to empty the bin's contents into a large skip, which would then be transported to a plant that pulped paper products and turned them into useful things, like lampshades and road surfacing material.

Luckily, by sheer chance, somebody else was curious enough to pull the album out of the bin and when they saw the contents, they brought it straight to me. As soon as I opened the pages, I knew that this was an exceptional find.

As with almost every album I find, there are no names or places, although judging by the stone walls and dales, I think that it comes from the north of England. There is only one date - 1863 - but even if there wasn't, the fashions are quite clearly mid-Victorian.

This is the England of Charles Dickens, George Eliot and Wilkie Collins.

 











View full online collection: CLICK HERE
Share/Bookmark

Monday 25 October 2010

PhotosReunited.com is coming to a town near you…

Photos Reunited.com appreciates just how important your old photo memories are. We also realise how difficult it can be to make the decision to package them up and send them by Courier or recorded delivery with the Post Office to a company such as ours to have them digitally scanned.

Digitally scanning your old photographs offers tremendous benefits that range from, creating digital copies that will protect your photos for many generations to come, easier access to photo restoration services and not least of all you are able to share digital images via the Internet with all your family and friends.

However, for many, these benefits are simply not worth even taking slightest risks (and the risks are extremely low) that your photographs could be lost or damaged while in transit to and from the digital processing centre.
In order to alleviate any concerns and to ensure that the benefits of our services are made available to as many people as possible we are launching the Photos Reunited Photo-Protect Clinics. We will be taking our equipment and expertise on the road to host Photo-Protect Digital photo scanning clinics across the UK.

The Photo-Protect Clinic’s will be held at local village halls, libraries, social clubs, British Legion clubs, church halls, and similar venues throughout the UK. If you attend one of the clinics you will have the opportunity to meet members of the Photos Reunited.com team who will be available to discuss any specific photo digital scanning requirements you may have. In most cases we aim to fulfil all your scanning requirements while you wait…we may even provide you with a nice cup of tea!

If you would like us to come and visit your local town or village then simply let us know by emailing us on: EMAIL

For more about the Photo Reunited.com Photo-Protect Clinic’s please visit our web site Photos Reunited.com  or Blog where full details including dates and venues will be published and updated.

Share/Bookmark

RN-T.com - Capturing the Past local photographer Bill Bussey sees a resurgence in popularity of his nostalgic photos

RN-T.com - Capturing the Past local photographer Bill Bussey sees a resurgence in popularity of his nostalgic photos
Share/Bookmark

Sunday 24 October 2010

The Cliff House Project - heritage at its best




The goal of this website is to preserve the visual imagery of Adolph Sutro’s Victorian Cliff House. It was neither the first structure nor the last to carry the name of Cliff House, but it was certainly the most grand. Sadly, its existence was short-lived. 


It was constructed in 1896 and, like so many wooden structures of that era, burned completely to the ground in September of 1907.









The Cliff House Project Website
Share/Bookmark

The Royal Familiy reunite their photos on Flickr



















She has famously given YouTube and Twitter the Royal seal of approval. Now the Queen is to establish a presence on picture-sharing website Flickr. Up-to-the-minute images of the Queen and other members of the Royal Family will be streamed on to the new Buck­ingham Palace Flickr page.

The site will initially store 600 images of the Royals and will have 28 sections covering senior members of the Royal Family including the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and Princes ­William and Harry.




Share/Bookmark

Saturday 23 October 2010

Linyl: Turntable Plays Visual Memories

Designer Ishac Bertran developed an interactive music project called Linyl in which he used an old record player, not to play music, but to evoke old memories through photos played as discs. By attaching a color light sensor to the record player, he was able to create a nostalgic ambiance using colors that were extracted from the photos.
















Read more: CLICK HERE
Share/Bookmark

Thursday 21 October 2010

Shorpy Historic Photo Archive

THE 100-YEAR-OLD PHOTO BLOG...
Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.

http://www.shorpy.com/
Voted TIME Magazine 15th Best Blog 2010
Share/Bookmark

Tuesday 19 October 2010

The Lost Passport Photo Gallery

The creator of the 'Lost Passport Photo Gallery' explains why.....

Many years ago, a very good friend turned up at my house saying, “Look what I’ve just found!” He handed me a battered photo of an old-looking guy and remarked on how odd it was to have found such a thing. The guy himself looked a little shifty (as do most people in passport photos) and a lengthy discussion took place regarding the possible origins of the bloke. I placed it on my mantle piece for all to see and to invite further discussions about who the guy might be.



It remained there for a few days, frequently drawing attention from visitors. People would ask, “So who’s the guy in the passport photo?” To which I would reply, “I haven’t a clue. It’s just some random chap’s photo my mate found in the street”. Nothing much was ever said after that. I’d get a few odd looks, but people would generally leave it at that. A few people would comment on who he might be, on his possible past, etc., but not to the extent to which I’d hoped.


About a week later, he turned up again with another passport photo. Again, this was found dropped on the street. We commented on how strange it was to have found 2 random passport photos in the space of a week and stuck it on the mantle piece with the other
Then it started getting crazy.
He kept finding more and more passport photos every week, all of them found either in the street or on the back of buses, etc. Each of them was added to the collection and soon we had about 20.
Naturally, this provoked slightly more interest from visitors than before, each of them saying that surely we can’t have found all of these just lying around. Most people were surprised that they were all genuine lost passport photos and many people didn’t believe that you could find so many in such a short space of time.
The funny thing was though, the people who didn’t believe it would generally turn up a few days later saying, “You’re not going to believe this, but look what I’ve just found!”.
The rest, to quote a tired cliche, is history…

Read more: The Lost Passport Gallery 
Share/Bookmark

Sadly- the very reason why you need to protect those photo memories

Cricket club's history wiped out by blaze.

PRICELESS trophies, score books and photos have been lost after a fire completely gutted the clubhouse at Hampton Hill Cricket Club.
More than 20 firefighters were called to battle the blaze which started in the pavilion, in Bushy Park, near Hampton Hill High Street, just after 3am on Saturday (October 9) morning.
Using hose reels were able to bring it under control and extinguished it just before 5.30am, but the pavilion had been destroyed. The devastating fire claimed a lot of memories from the club's 155 year history, including trophies and old photos.
A spokesman for the club, said: "It is with great sadness that we have to report there has been a major fire at the Hampton Hill CC Clubhouse. Nobody was hurt, but the building has been totally destroyed. For the purposes of safety to the public, the building will be demolished as soon as possible.
"The club takes out insurance for events like this, and we have already started putting plans together for the reinstatement of the building. We will do everything we can to ensure that the club can continue to function as normally as possible in 2011. There are many priceless things which have been lost as a result of this incident, including photos, score books and trophies.
"However, we will of course endeavour to rebuild the clubhouse in a manner which preserves as much of the tradition and heritage of our 155 year old club."
Gas cylinders which were in the clubhouse at the time had to be cooled down by firefighters after the fire had been put out.
Although the pavilion was mostly destroyed by the fire, the building was demolished during Saturday for safety reasons according to a Royal Parks spokeswoman. The site has been fenced off while builders remove the rubble.
The cause of the fire in currently being investigated by the London Fire Brigade.

Read more: Click Here
Share/Bookmark

Monday 18 October 2010

Old photos reveal tale of Japan and Jews of WWII

A former Japanese Tourist Bureau helper's 70-year-old diary has sparked an international search after it was discovered to contain photographs of supposedly Jewish men and women he helped escape the Nazis. 


The yellowing images appear to show Jews who were led from the clutches of the anti-Semitic Nazis by Germany's close allies, Japan.


The photos were found in an old diary owned by Osako, who was a young employee of the Japan Tourist Bureau at the time, and died in 2003.

Read more: Click HERE

Share/Bookmark

Historical Photos: Boat Passengers Escape in 1915

History comes alive via the photos below showing people streaming off a wrecked boat almost 100 years ago. The Pollockshields wrecked in 1915, and came back to the public attention yesterday due to tourists discovering an ammunition box from the 95-year-old wreck in the waters of the Coral Beach Hotel.















Read Full Story: Click Here

October 18, 2010 by bernews
Share/Bookmark

Irish Archive - 630,000 old photos










This website is hosted by the Archives & Records Association, Ireland in order to provide a practical and interesting online information service for the general public (but more especially educators and their students) on archival material and archive services in Ireland.


Using this website you can learn about the enormously diverse and exciting historical resources available in archive services around the country, where to find them and how to use them. Many of the archive services have provided digitised examples of some of the most significant and popular collections which they hold.

If you are a student or teacher you can find digitised documents on specific periods in history by clicking on 'Sample Documents'. These are gathered from archive services around the country and can be printed out for use in the classroom or for your own study purposes.
LearnAboutArchives.ie is supported by the Heritage Council of Ireland. The Heritage Council promotes interest, education, knowledge and pride in the national heritage.

Web Site: Ireland Archives
Share/Bookmark

Friday 15 October 2010

Old Birmingham Photos


Share/Bookmark

Thursday 14 October 2010

Convenient sharing for your old photos online

What do you do today when you want to share your old photos with your family and friends? It’s not so straightforward when in all likelihood your photos are kept in either old photo albums or even in the proverbial ‘shoebox’. The answer is that we simply don’t share our old photos often enough because it's inconvenient.

Billions of digital photographs are uploaded and shared every single day using the Internet. For the first time we have the ability to instantly share our photographs with our close family and friends, in the time it takes to upload them to our digital photographs to our Facebook, Flickr and Twitter accounts.
However, before any of our old photographs can be dropped into this high-speed digital social network  they of course need to be digitised first.

Photos Reunited will not only digitise and scan all your photos at 600dpi and return your original photos along with a CD/DVD copy of the digital copies, we will also upload a copy of your photos to your FREE online Photos Reunited account where they will be waiting to greet you when you log-in. Using your free Photos Reunited account you will be able to invite your family and friends to view your photos. You can also share them by either Email, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and many other social sites all with the push of a ‘Single Button’ from within the Photos Reunited web site.


Imagine how much pleasure you will experience from being able to share all your old photos quickly and conveniently with any relatives living on the other side of the world,  old comrades from your military days, former school friends and work colleagues. Remember, your old photo memories are likely to mean as much to these people as they do to you. 

Your Photos Reunited account is completely free and is available to anyone who wishes to register. It provides  a secure online space in which you can store all your old photos at full resolution to ensure that you always have a back-up copy  and able to instantly share or print your photos.

Photos Reunited – Make all your yesterdays, tomorrow’s today!
Share/Bookmark

Wednesday 13 October 2010

Photo Restoration - Why do I need Photo Restoration?

Photo Restorations are essential, you are preservingan important part
of family history, and your family will have to continue on the memory for
the next generation. If left un-restored the negative or print could end up
just that, un-restorable and future generations will not have that vital visual
link to their past. So even if it’s a simple retouch of a face, or torn up
faded photo that needs a complete cleanse and restore, don't leave it,
act now.

Next protect the image with acid free tissue or paper to prevent any
further damage by the immediate environment, then get it restored, but
don’t just get one print get two. If you give a copy of your newly restored
photo to another family member then it’s more likely your precious
memories will survive for generations to come as you are not the sole owner.
Far too often all the family heirlooms are kept in one place and should the
worst happens then all is lost.

Next get a digital copy too. It’s all very well getting the prints done but if
you get a CD/DVD with your images on then you can keep a digital archive.
Don’t just leave them on a CD though, if you upgrade your PC make sure
you copy the images on the latest media, in this fast paced world you never
know when your storage will become obsolete.

Finally if you have one why not upload it to an on-line photo-share or 
online storage space, you can then share it with the world if you want
and let you relatives know its there. Who knows maybe they will get the
bug and take the plunge to get their old images restored too?

To summarise, 1. Digitally protect your photos    2. Get it restored 
3. Get two copies   4. Take a copy to CD/DVD  
5. Share/store the photos on line

More Information: www.image-restore.co.uk

Share/Bookmark

Old Photo Restoration

Here are some examples of what can be achieved
Share/Bookmark

Tuesday 12 October 2010

House renovation unveils photo mystery

THE search is on to reunite three mystery wedding photos with their owners – after they were discovered hidden behind a fireplace at ahouse in Peterborough.
The photos – believed to have been taken in the 1940s or 1950s – were found when the gas fire was ripped out as part of renovation works at 77 Croyland Road, in Walton, Peterborough.
The work is being carried out by property maintenance business Westone Housing, which is refurbishing the house in order to rent or sell it on.
Owner of Westone Housing, Liz Lucking said: “The workmen took the fireplace out of one of the bedrooms and found these wedding photos inside the chimney.
“It’s a really strange place to find something like this.
“We thought that they must have been lost.”
Now Mrs Lucking is hoping to reunite the photos with their rightful owners.
She added: “They are beautiful photos and you would have thought they would be missed.”
It is not known how the photos got behind the fireplace or how long they had been hidden there.
The names and details of the happy couple getting married and the family members in the photos, as well as the place where they were taken, also remain a mystery.
One of the only clues that the photos yield is that they were shot by the late Alex T Gill, who used to own a photography shop in Park Road, Peterborough.
Mrs Lucking said: “I’ve been told he was quite an expensive photographer and very well known.”
All of the photos are professionally mounted. The largest of the photos shows the newly married couple outside a church.
Two smaller ones show the couple with three bridesmaids and family members.

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk
Share/Bookmark

How to Protect your Photos from Disaster and Theft

In this day and age of digital living, there are still so many families that have not converted their old photos to digital images, even with the potential for disaster lurking. There are so many potential disasters that can rob you, your children and future generations of the ability to enjoy these visual memories, yet many families never think about this until it is too late.

Depending on the number of photos that you have and the amount of spare time that you have, your options for protecting your photos include: 1. scanning them into a computer yourself and then storing them on a third party server or photo sharing site. 2. Scanning them into a computer yourself and then storing them on a CD or DVD offsite. 3. Hiring a photo professional scanning company to scan them for you.

If you have lots of photos or are limited on time, option number 3 is probably your best bet. Today’s digital imaging technology is accessible to anyone with a computer. Photos can be scanned and retouched, and then multiple copies made and distributed, all while the original lies safely tucked away.
Share/Bookmark

What to Avoid When Storing & Handling Your Photos

  • Dirt, dust, and oils from your hands can cause permanent damage. You should handle prints and negatives along the edges, preferably while wearing white cotton gloves.
  • The worst places to store your photographs are in an un-insulated attic or basement. Constant high temperatures and humidity in the summer and low temperatures and humidity in the winter can cause your photographs to become brittle and crack. In severe cases, it may cause separation of the emulsion (image) from the support (paper base) of the photo. Dampness can cause photographs to stick together. Insects and rodents, commonly found in basements, also like to feed on photos. The best conditions for storing photographs are in a location with a consistent temperature from 65°F-70°F with a relative humidity of about 50%. These aren't always possible in a home environment, however, so if your photographs are especially important to you, you may want to consider storing them in a safe deposit box at your bank where the conditions are ideal.
  • Do not store your negatives in the same place as your photographs. If something happens to your photos or albums, your negatives will still be available to reprint your treasured family heirloom.
  • Do not write on the back of your photos with standard ball-point or felt-tip ink pens. Unless it is marked specifically for use on photos, most ink contains acids which will eat away at and stain your photos over time. If you must mark a photo and don't have an acid-free photo marking pen available, then write lightly with a soft lead pencil on the back of the image.
  • Do not use rubber bands or paper clips to hold photos together. Rubber bands contain sulphur which can cause your photo to deteriorate. Paper clips can scratch the surface of your photos or negatives. Clippings should be photocopied onto alkaline paper.
  • Do not use paper clips to hold photos together or in albums. They can scratch the surface of your photos or negatives.
  • Do not display important photos in your home. The glass can stick to the emulsion over time. Sunlight will cause your photo to fade. If you want to display a precious photo, then have a copy made and display the copy!
  • Do not use glues (especially rubber cement) or pressure sensitive tapes to mend photographs or hold them in albums.  Most glue contains substances such as sulphur and acids which will cause your photos to deteriorate. Look for special photo-safe glues and tapes in the archival section of your favourite photo or craft store.
  • Avoid exposing photographic materials to anything containing sulphur dioxide, fresh paint fumes, plywood, cardboard, and fumes from cleaning supplies.
  • Water and fire can ruin your photos. Keep pictures away from fireplaces, heaters, dryers etc. Avoid water damage by storing photos on high shelves well away from water pipes and in locations not prone to flooding or leaks (don't store in the basement or in a closet which backs on a shower, tub or sink).
  • Avoid cheap photo albums and paper and plastic storage products that aren't specifically made for storing photos. Regular envelopes, Ziploc bags (unless Ph neutral) and other things commonly used for photo storage aren't always safe for your photos. Use only lignin free, acid free, un-buffered paper for storing photographs or as interleaving paper in albums. Use only PVC-free plastics such as Polyester, Mylar, Polypropylene and Polyethylene.

Share/Bookmark