On Saturday 1st November, my colleague Rochelle and I represented the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive (SJPA) in a special ‘Meet the Collections’ event run by Jersey Heritage. This particular event focused specifically on photography, examining the changes and development of photographic equipment, technology and processes over the last 150 years.
The event was held between 09:30 and 13:00 at the Sir Francis Cook Gallery. It was a rare opportunity for the public to view firsthand, a range of incredibly valuable and historically significant photographic collections held by both us and Jersey Heritage Archives.
On one side of the room, Rochelle and I set out a wide-ranging display of photographic equipment and related items, each of us looking after one of the two large tables allocated to the SJPA. Directly opposite stood an equally impressive array of cameras and equipment. This selection—carefully chosen by our Jersey Heritage colleagues, Neil Mahrer and Susan Freeby—added real depth and balance to the exhibition.
We are delighted to report that the event was extremely successful, generating a large and enthusiastic turnout of individuals across all ages and backgrounds, with a varying array of experience and understanding of photography. We estimate that around 40-50 people in total attended the morning. The event was a fantastic opportunity for us to show off the vast array of items that we hold in our archive, dating right back to the 1850s.
Rochelle’s table focused on a range of photographic prints, albums and other reproductions, including:
- Various nineteenth century carte de visites and cabinet cards, taken by Jersey based photographers.
- Examples of nineteenth century family souvenir albums, along with loose snapshot prints.
- Various photographic manuals including two ‘ENSIGN Handbook of Photography’ booklets from the early twentieth century, an ‘Ilford May 1936 Price List’ and ‘The Granville Guide’ by Grainville Photographic Products, c.1930.
- Example of a ‘hand-painted’ portrait print, a popular nineteenth century process of tracing a painting over a photograph.
- A framed albumen print featuring one of the first photographs ever taken of the Jersey [Western] Railway in 1870.
Above: Rochelle by her collections table.
The table which I manned focused primarily on a range of photographic negatives, plates and slide transparencies, including:
- A box of 35mm negative film featuring ‘micrographic’ photographs, relating to a broad range of subjects.
- A selection of original nineteenth century glass plate negatives, stored in their original box.
- A series of early twentieth century lantern slides, relating to various Jersey themes and locations.
- Three examples of late nineteenth/early twentieth century stereoscopic images, accompanied with a stereoscope.
- A range of assorted positive colour film slides from the ‘Arthur Mourant Collection’, one of our key/major photographic collections.
Through the event there was a constant stream of visitors to both stalls. On Rochelle’s stall the Daguerreotypes generated particular interest. On my stall the same can be said for the stereoscopic images and the 35mm colour slides from the Arthur Mourant Collection.
It was brilliant to meet such a diverse array people over the course of the event, all with very different understanding and knowledge in terms of photography. The broad range of material we displayed served to provide a really in-depth overview of our collection, as well as an opportunity for us to explain the why, and how, we store such items.
Above: The SJPA Team, Max Le Feuvre (left) and Rochelle Merhet (right). (Photographer: Jeremy Percival)
INTERESTED IN OUR COLLECTIONS?
If this event or article has sparked your interest in the SJPA and the collections we hold, we recommend exploring our shared catalogue with Jersey Heritage. It currently includes more than 30,000 digitised images from our collection, with new material added all the time.
We also encourage you to visit the excellent Digital Collections site on the main Société Jersiaise website. This interactive platform lets you view many of our key collections in high-resolution detail. You’ll also find a wide range of material from the SJ Library Collection, along with new content from across the organisation, including bulletin articles, talks and lectures.
Lastly, do make sure to visit and follow the dedicated SJPA Instagram page for exclusive department updates, as well as sneak previews of materials from both recent and new collections!
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. If you have any questions or would like to get in touch, please email us at photoarchive@societe.je or call us on +44 (0)1534 633398.
LINKS
SJPA page on the SJ/JH Shared Catalogue: SJ Photographic Archive | Jersey Heritage
SJ Digital Collections – Société Jersiaise
SJPA Instagram – Instagram
SJPA Linktree Page – linktr.ee/SJPA
Article and photographs by Max Le Feuvre – Photographic Archive Assistant, Société Jersiaise.
