A project involving the Derby Evening Telegraph's photographic department has won an award in recognition of its commitment to local history publishing.

Picture The Past - picturethepast.org.uk - holds more than 42,000 historic pictures, some of which have come from the Derby Evening Telegraph and the Nottingham Evening Post archives. It is jointly managed by Derby City, Derbyshire County, Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County councils.

Visitors to the site are able to download low-quality images for research purposes free of charge, but if people want a picture as a good quality photograph for a gift or for display in their own home they buy it through the Derby Evening Telegraph's photographic department.

Carol Seal, the Evening Telegraph's commercial photography manager, said: "We were happy to help with this worthy project, which is a fantastic resource for people interested in historical images from this region.

"It has been so popular that we are also planning to start publishing some of the archive's pictures in our monthly Bygone Derby supplement."

This month, Picture The Past was presented with the Alan Ball Local History Award 2004. The awards are made every year by the Library Services Trust to public libraries and local authorities which - through books, magazines, websites or any other form of the written word - promote their communities' local history.

More than 8,000 visitors to the website view more than a million pages every month. The website has also allowed Northcliffe Electronic Publishing to use some of its Victorian images on the award-winning headlinehistory.co.uk website.

Michael Saich, chairman of the Library Services Trust, said: "Picture the Past was successful in competition with both print and non-print entries in gaining one of the main awards.

"The Trust was impressed by how successfully the partners worked together to create the website."

Back to the photography index

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or
e-mail pastill@nep.co.uk