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Newspaper photo archive plan wins £60k lottery funding

A plan to digitise a regional daily’s photographic archive has secured nearly £60,000 in lottery funding.

The Express & Star Photographic Collection partnership has received initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund to preserve photographs dating back over the past century in an online archive.

The partnership, set up by the Express & Star in conjunction with the University of Wolverhampton and local museums, aims to make an estimated one million photographs dating available to the public via an online platform.

The cash will go the University as the grant-holder rather than to the newspaper.

Express & Star editor Keith Harrison, front left, with colleagues from the project partnership

Editor Keith Harrison said:  “We are delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund has  supported our partnership with the University of Wolverhampton, WAVE and local community groups.

“Many of these photographs are deteriorating with time, so it is excellent news that they will be preserved digitally to be searched, free of charge, by the general public.”

Dr John Pymm, Dean of the University of Wolverhampton’s Faculty of Arts, said: “It is excellent news for the partners and the wider community that this exciting archive project has won initial HLF support.

“We know that this valuable collection is a substantial historical source and a mass of regional personal stories. It documents a huge shift in the social, economic and physical landscape.”

The Express & Star photo archive has been described as one of the most important regional photograph collections in the country, including images of local ways of life which have since disappeared.

The collection includes wartime images which were not published at the time due to government censorship and a photograph of American civil rights activist Malcolm X visiting Smethwick in 1965, nine days before he was assassinated.

Following digitisation, the original images will be transferred to Wolverhampton City Archives where they will be preserved for future generations.

Malcolm X visits Smethwick in 1965, shortly before his assassination

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  • June 10, 2014 at 12:43 pm
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    “The Express & Star photo archive has been described as one of the most important regional photograph collections in the country, including images of local ways of life which have since disappeared.” Good on the E&S and its partners.

    How ironic that elsewhere on HTFP is reported the kind of changes to newspaper photographic coverage which will leave future generations with an ‘archive’ of nothing but blurred selfies, poorly composed mobile phone pictures and submitted publicity shots…

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  • June 10, 2014 at 2:08 pm
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    And what about all those hard copies & negs that were summarily dumped by many newspapers in the early years of digital?

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  • June 11, 2014 at 8:11 am
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    Anyone know what the Manchester Evening News did with theirs?

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