The Photographic collection covers almost the entire history of the gallery, starting from the beginning of the 20th century. Most of it is related to two types of events: exhibitions and educational events (workshops, lectures, talks, community events, artists residences in schools etc.). Sometimes it is not the Archive who holds the copyrights for images, including the most popular ones, such as artists’ portraits or the installation views, so these images are not available for buying and copying, but still available for viewing by the readers.
Unfortunately, photographs of educational subjects are not fully described, and they are not in the online catalogue. There are also a number of special smaller collections within the photographic collections, such as the Glass Slides for the Magic Lantern, which were used to accompany lectures held at Toynbee Hall and the Whitechapel Gallery in the 1880s-1910s.
To see an image in full, press the left button on mouse. To see its details, press the right button, select “Open link in a new tab”, and zoom in.
You can see the Catalogue of the Archive Holdings HERE.
The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift was a movement founded by the poet John Hargrave. a mixture of handcrafing, camping and mysticism. Installation shot. WAG/PHOT/
Students assembling at the gallery's door with their artworks.
Image with with Pterodactylus, originally a black and white etching by the French artist Edouard Riou, published in the book by Louis Figuier 'La Terre avant le déluge' (1863). The slide is manually coloured. Such slides accompanied lectures in the 1890s-1910s. WAG/PHOT/GP/18
Photograph by Horace Warner (1871-1939) of the Whitechapel Spring Exhibition (1901) with children visitors. WAG/PHOT/A1/2. The Archive holds several photos from the same set. Most likely the children were related to the photographer. The Gallery used their images for advertising on several occasions.
Clement Attlee speaks at the opening. The original photos are kept at the Roland Penrose Archives, Dean Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
