PHOTOGRAPHS play a vital role in our history. Images of important events, of our changing landscape, industry and culture. They make up a visual timeline of life through the ages.

Used by people from historians to researchers and members of the public, photographic archives are among the most important libraries in the country.

Bradford is extremely fortunate in having one of the most extensive, fascinating photographic archives in the UK.

Part of Bradford Museums and Galleries collection, Bradford Museums Photo Archive is held at Bradford Industrial Museum in Eccleshill.

The museum service has held photographic collections in some form for many years, however, the idea of centralising it evolved over the last two decades.

In 2004 the museum acquired the vast CH Wood collection - 350,000 prints and negatives generated by Bradford-based commercial photographer whose work ran from the 1930s through to the 1980s. The company closed in 2000.

“He was a pioneer in aerial photography. He took his first flying lesson aged 14 not too long after the First World War - when aerial photos were first used for reconnaissance - and was already taking photographs at that time,” says Bradford Museums photo archive assistant John Ashton.

“After acquiring his work we began to look at our photographic collections differently. This coincided with the drive for a website whereby the public would be able to see the images and buy copies.”

The various collections include images taken during the early part of the 20th century by Christopher Pratt, the grandson of the respected furniture maker and retailer of the same name, offering a unique view of the city's society and industry in the years leading up to the First World War. The collection was donated by his son.

The Belle Vue Studio Collection reveals captivating portraits of individuals and families taken over decades at Belle Vue Studio on Manningham Lane.

“Famously, the collection was rescued from the studio premises,” says John

“The studio was run by photographer and re-toucher Tony Walker. He photographed many of Bradford’s newcomers from the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and South Asia in the 1950s-1970s. The 17,000 or so images he left form a valuable record of Bradford’s people at that time.”

Much of the studio's original work was lost along with most written records when it closed in 1975. The studio was cleared in 1985 and 17,000 glass negatives were acquired. The collection has around 17,000 images taken in the studio, 10,600 of which have been digitised and are available to view online.

“One Belle Vue portait is of Mohammad Sharif. His grandson called me one day to say that he’d found the only photo he’d ever seen of his grandfather. It was quite moving.”

The extensive BHRU photograph and audio collection was produced in-house by Bradford Heritage Recording Unit in the 1980s and 90s.

Other images include those from Bradford Scientific Association lantern slide collection, the Frank Hartley collection relating to public transport in Bradford, Salts collection and many company collections.

“Smaller collections and individual photographs have come in through donations since Bradford’s first museum opened in the 1870s,” says John. “While we do encourage donations, as with all other collections, each one is judged by set criteria before being accepted. For example, the content needs to be relevant to Bradford.

“The beauty of the archive as a whole is that its collections flow chronologically - from early small collections mid to late 19th century through Christopher Pratt early 20th, CH Wood, all 20th, BHRU 1980s-90s and now our latest Through Our Lens, all digital, some taken by phone, documenting young people’s experiences of the pandemic.”

The collection is an important historical record of the district and its growth and of those who lived and worked there.

“An image can tell a story on its own or it can sit alongside other historical records to help us build a picture of what Bradford was like and is like now,” says John. “It enables us to learn about moments in history, such as when the first motor car came to Bradford, the Busby Christmas parades and the changing face of the district from new buildings to Italian, Eastern European, South Asian and African and Caribbean migration to the district.

“Admittedly it’s a tiny fraction of the whole archive. There are 18,375 images available for the public to view online. We are currently exploring ways to accelerate digitisation but it is quite time-consuming, or expensive if we have a collection digitised externally.”

Thousands of images in the collection are as yet unseen.

John adds: “At most events or seminars we attend, other museums have photo collections of maybe tens of thousands at the most. We have more than half a million in total. It’s also significant that we own the copyright to the vast majority of our photos.

“At least a couple of the collections - Belle Vue and CH Wood - we believe have national as well as local significance.”

The precious collection of glass and film negatives and prints are carefully stored.

“Each negative has its own archival envelope with four flaps, so it can be opened without touching the negative and then placed in a purpose-built unit which will hold thousands,” explains John.

The photographs are also affected by relative humidity and temperature which can affect the life span of the image and are stored in conditions required to properly preserve them.

The archive contributes to many exhibitions in Bradford. “As the negatives are digitised to a high resolution they can be printed very large,” says John.

“We as a museum service are fortunate to have had colleagues in previous eras who recognised the importance of photographic collections in telling the story of our community. Our continuing task is bringing them together in one recognised name, raising its profile and, crucially, adding to it so the story in photos continues.”

*To access Bradford Museums Photo Archive visit photos.bradfordmuseums.org