All in the Family: Preserving Canine History - Libby Hall, a

By Scott Broecker

Thanks to one woman's passion for dogs and collecting, thousands of vintage photos have been saved from the rubbish bin. It all began when Libby Hall, a former press photographer, started casually collecting photographs that had been removed from old photo albums. This was in the mid-1960s, when old photo albums were sold and their contents

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF BISHOPSGATE INSTITUTE

discarded. As the photos were rescued, Libby, a lifelong dog lover, began sorting out the photos with dogs.

The collection slowly grew and before long Libby had a network of dealers keeping a lookout for photos, as well as a friend who did house clearances. Libby and her cartoonist husband, Tony, would attend auctions and search for photos at postcard fairs and car-boot sales (the UK version of a flea market).

Ranging in date from as early as the 1850s up until 1940, the photos are in various formats, from cartes de visite and cabinet cards to Kodak snapshots. The photos are from several countries and show a wide diversity of people and their dogs. The

"A picture is worth a thousand words,” and although many of the stories behind these photos have been lost to time, the photos themselves can speak volumes.

dogs in the photos are usually front and center, showing them as the well-loved and cherished family members that they were.

They say, "A picture is worth a thousand words,” and although many of the stories behind these photos have been lost to time, the photos themselves can speak volumes. In many of the early photographs humans often remained rigid and stoic. However, in the presence of their canine friends they often loosened up and some of them can be seen actually smiling or looking very content.

In one, a young British soldier, possibly just returning from war, poses with the little dog that he

perhaps grew up with. Another shows a young couple and their new baby as well as their little Terrier, who is presented as proudly as their new young one. A kilt-wearing Scotsman poses with his four dogs nestled beside his argyle socks, and a multiple-generation family of 15 poses on their home’s pillared entry steps with their beloved mixed-breed dog seated comfortably on a chair in the center.

After 40 years of collecting, Libby Hall published her first book in the year 2000. By

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that time, she had between five and six thousand photographs of dogs—the largest collection of its kind in the world. Since then, she has published three more books, with another more autobiographical book due out this year. The titles of her current books are: Prince and Other Dogs; Postcard Dogs; Postcard Cats; and These Were Our Dogs. All include beautiful photo collections from the turn of the last century that celebrate our love for man's best friend.

Libby says that her greatest delight is to share her collection of pictures. “What matters to me is others seeing them. I never made any money from my books because I spent it all on buying more photographs.”

The collection was donated to the Bishopsgate Institute in London by Libby Hall in October 2012. It is now preserved and available to view in the Researchers Area of the Special Collections and Archives at Bishopsgate Institute during opening hours.

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A Measure of Dogs will be Hall’s fifth photography book, and will bring together for the first time the animals of her own lifetime: the dogs, cats, and two ducks who saw her across

two continents and through a plethora of jobs and 42 years of marriage, as well as writing four bestselling books.

Enjoy the sampling of photographs from the Libby Hall collection. These are photographs we might never have seen. Thanks to Libby, these photos and many,