Contents A Man of Many Parts by Justin Hughes
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Family Fortunes by Heather Randall
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Claines Fete at Severn Grange 1909
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Severn Grange and Whinfield Data
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Claines Connections by Geoff Sansome
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Census of England and Wales 1911
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Magic lantern demonstration at the Old Palace
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Some of AHW's drawer front labels
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Conserving the Magic by Geoff Kington
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Whinfield's Cabinet and commemorative brass plaque
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Photo of nine drawers and their contents
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Drawer #2 'Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand'
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Whinfields Cabinet of Curiosities: REDUCED!
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A short history of the Magic Lantern by Richard Crangle
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All Round The World aka A Voyage in the Sunbeam
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The Pink and White Terraces seen through Magic Lantern slides by Brian Ricketts
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Hand colouring slides with Northwick Primary School
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I was a wandering sheep
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All Round the World evening lecture at Huntingdon Hall
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All Round the World evening lecture at Claine's Church
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Haiga from 'Round The World' by Paul Conneally
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Paste Up Projections inserted around the Hive
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Death of Mr A H Whinfield
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St.Paul's Church, Bendigo, Victoria, 7th May 1892
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What is Missing by Rob Hewitt Thanks, Credits and More Info
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A Man of Many Parts
by Justin Hughes
Arthur Henry Whinfield (pictured) collected and took photographs of many subjects, from religion and architecture, to travel and lost landscapes, from stories and warnings of the temperance movement to geology and archaeology. His interest in archaeology is a curiosity. He had ended his frequent travels across the globe not long after he married Laura Jane Curtler, in 1903. From then on he ventured into Europe several times, to Italy and France and Germany. The slide collection has a good number of sites depicted in Pompeii, Rome and Venice. But, he also took a great deal of time exploring his homeland and became increasingly fascinated by Roman settlements being excavated on his doorstep. He recorded, photographically, two major sites during their unveiling; at Wroxeter in Shropshire and at Kenchester in Herefordshire. Unusually for the time (1913-14) he photographed archaeological structures using stereoscopic photography -a structure at Wroxeter is depicted here (below). When viewed with the stereoscope device (similar to a 'View Master' that was popular in more recent times), the image becomes three-dimensional. It is clear to see why Whinfield went on to serve as President of Worcestershire Archaeological Society in 1916; an organisation which continues to this day, with his interest in different cultures and civilisations and the relics of stone they left behind. In March 1918 Laura Jane Curtler, recently widowed to her husband Arthur, donated his collection of photographic lantern slides to the then Worcester Diocesan Church House. Now known as the Worcester Diocesan Church Trust, they were key partners in this Heritage Lottery funded project, which was also supported by lots of partners in the local community who have all helped make the AHW collection more accessible. We worked closely with artist/curator Rob Hewitt who developed a series of creative responses to the collection and curated public events, exhibitions and led workshops. This year-long art engagment programme, called Missing, focussed on bringing new readings and meanings to the collection and has helped to open it up as a resource and as a source of inspiration. This publication is a snap shot into the research journey and a record of the artistic responses by Redhawk Logistica, into the many parts of AH Whinfield's life and we are grateful to everyone who has contributed.
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Family Fortunes
by Heather Randall
Arthur Henry Winfield was born at Elkington Hall, his mother's family home in South Elkington, Lincolnshire in 1863. Arthur was born into a well-to-do family who provided the vicars for South and North Elkington and beyond, though his grandfather apparently enjoyed a relativley work free existence as a "clergyman without cure of souls." His father's family the Whinfields also produced clergymen. Both Arthur's brothers, Herbert Edward and Walter Grenville were men of the cloth, as were his great grandfather, his grandfather and father, though wise investments during the 19th century allowed the latter to retire from work and reside at Severn Grange, Claines living comfortably off funds. Original investments in Great Western Railway increased over the years; Arthur's grandfather left £35,000 worth of shares, which by the time his own father died, had increased to over £55,000 worth. Inheriting even a portion of this money in 1902 allowed his three sons well off for the rest of their lives. Wealth came to the Whinfields from all quarters; his great grandmother Ellen Bouchier (also Bourchier) Wrey came from a family whose Bourchier history is directly traceable to Edward III. Her marriage portion in 1790 included not just funds totalling £919 but more importantly shares in the New River Company, that brought water to parts of London. A good investment that served the family well, even though Ellen's part was a mere one half of one third of one thirty-sixth of the New River Water Works. Unlike his brothers and his family on both sides, Arthur never appears to have considered the church as a living. Instead he can be found on the 1881 census in Croydon as a student of engineering. By 1884 he is entered for the first time on the list of students in the Institute for Civil Engineers Yearbook with an address in Welwyn Hertfordshire. The next time he appears on the same list in 1886 his address has moved to Victoria in SW London , where he is working for the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. But horizons were vast in the 19th century and the wanderlust that tempted so many sons of Britain, urged Arthur to pastures new. In 1888 he is bound for Melbourne, Australia, where the next year he is recorded in the New South Wales Gazette as "Henry Whinfield engineer". The hobby for which he is to be remembered, photography, had clearly taken hold of him by this time and a letter exists from 1892 in which his colleague W A Brooke, discusses the slides and the text to accompany them at the next public lecture slide shows. Where he travelled and how far remains a mystery; only one passenger list has a possible ‘H Whinfield’ travelling from Melbourne to Brisbane. If his slides are to be taken as evidence, he travelled far and wide before returning home in 1897. Perhaps the fact that his parents were now elderly brought him back; certainly he was living with them at Severn Grange by 1901; an engineer no longer he describes his profession in the census as 'organ builder'. His mother was to die this same year. 1903 saw a dramatic changes to Arthur's life: he married rather late in life at the age of forty to Laura Jane Curtler. They had no children and neither did his two clergymen siblings. His father, Edward Wrey Whinfield, who had died the year before, was said to be a collector of books and pictures and moved in Worcester’s artistic and musical circles. Because of this Arthur knew composer Elgar who visited the church yard at Claines and ‘played his violin at musical soirees at Severn Grange’. Arthur and his wife Laura took over the family house with it’s boating lake and stone relics dotted around the garden and immersed themselves in the social life of Worcester. Severn Grange itself was later demolished to make way for modern flats and little remains of it now except the stable buildngs and some laid out grounds that lead down towards the river. 4
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Claines Connections by Geoff Sansome
The name Whinfield is familiar to Claines residents owing to the presence of Whinfield Road. But few people have been aware of the contribution of the Whinfield family to the life and history of Claines until now. My own family connection goes back to the 1880’s when my great grandfather sold hay to Mr E.W Whinfield senior, when he was farming the fields adjoining the Whinfield home at Severn Grange. My grandfather joined Claines Church choir in 1900 which was under the leadership of A.H Whinfield. We have several stereoview photographs of those times which we now know were taken by A.H W, demonstrating his combined passion for church music and photography. It was through that connection that my grandfather was apprenticed to Nicholson’s as an Organ Builder, until he was called up for the Great War. One of my treasured possessions is a photograph of the family home, Oak Farm, sent by A.H W to my grandfather in 1915 “whilst serving on the front”. It survived the battlefields of Gallipoli and returned home with my grandfather, shortly before A.H.W died. The full extent of A.H.W’s work and his family’s philanthropy became clearer to me as I researched the history of Claines and began to gather some of his known photographs. A.H W’s marriage into the Curtler family, the owners of the farms we tenanted for over 100 years; their friendship with Elgar, reinforcing the Elgar connections with Claines church we have uncovered; the numerous memorials to the Whinfield and Curtler families in the fabric of our church and the lasting memorial from Mrs Whinfield’s funding of the Church Institute, still an important part of our parish today. I am so pleased that this project has vividly captured the life and times of A.H.W, for the benefit of everyone, but also as it brings to life a chapter in my own family. I congratulate all those involved.
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Conserving the Magic by Geoff Kington Volunteering at the Hive keeps the little grey cells ticking over. One meets very interesting people, both professionals and other volunteers. They come in all types and backgrounds and together make the effort and sometimes it is all worthwhile! When the news came through that a Heritage Lottery bid had been successful to digitise the magic lantern collection I was invited to attend a meeting with Rhonda Niven, the Conservator, who was to oversee my side of the operation. It was hoped that I could conclude cleaning, recording and conserving the slides by the end of March, in less than three months time! The Photography part of the process would follow when I had finished my part. When the order of acid free paper and archival envelopes arrived it was time for me to start working through the slides, cleaning all of them in the process. This was my first look at the collection in its entirety. They were housed in drawers, each with twenty-seven sections, in an especially made wooden cupboard. I began to wonder exactly what I had let myself in for when I saw the magnitude of the task ahead. The slides, the complete ones anyway, consist of an image in emulsion imprinted on a piece of clear glass, the image then being covered with a second piece of glass, a picture sandwich. Each dusty slide was wiped clean with a soft cloth dampened with de-ionised water and then gently dried before being returned to its place. The need to complete the task as quickly as possible meant that, unless the contents of a slide were particularly noticeable, it was just one of many.
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Once I had finished cleaning all the slides I started to go through the drawers again, this time looking at them individually, recording the title if there was one, details of the content, the condition of the slide, whether it was black and white or tinted or occasionally a colour image and any special notes. I was struck by the number of slides which carried the words of Collects, Prayers or Canticles from both Morning and Evening Prayer (from BCP) and the words of Hymns. Here were Services that could be projected on to walls for all to follow. There were a great number of images of places from both Australia and New Zealand, some of which, due to natural disasters, are no longer to be seen. There were tours of Europe including many of parts of Germany devastated in the second world war and again, no longer there to see. Given Whinfields Church and Organ connections, it was not surprising to find Church interiors and organ consoles appearing regularly, from this country, from Europe and particularly in Australia.
There is also included a series of images of both the interior and exterior of Cathedrals around the British Isles. Images of ruins, especially monastic buildings and castles from all over mainland Britain feature, as do remains of older civilisations, Roman in particular. The collection is an eclectic mix, reflecting Winfield’s diverse interests.
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Whinfield was clearly a keen amateur photographer and many of the slides reflect this. However, it would seem that he had some difficulty with exposure times in countries where sunlight is bright and skies clear, as many seem under exposed. There are many “bought in” slides. There were slides from Missionary organisations showing the places where they were working in Africa and Asia as well as series of tinted, i.e. painted slides showing illustrated stories for Sunday Schools and series eulogising Temperance. Of particular note were a collection of slides depicting “London as Venice”, a reaction to a magazine article indicating that London was sinking and could, at some future time, become inundated. Famous landmarks are shown with streets turned into canals complete with Gondolas. An early example of Photoshopping!
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In many ways, with the images of people and places, the collection is a window into the social history of a bygone age, both in this country and abroad. A number of the images would not now be regarded as P.C. Winfield’s photographs of both buildings and ruins, capture their appearance at a particular moment in time. Given attitudes towards conservation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, some sites have now changed beyond recognition. The slides could be a useful tool for historians There were inevitably images that could not be identified. Given the time and resources I would like to go back through the collection and identify more of those 'unknown' images. As I mentioned at the start, the collection was being digitised. Keeping ahead of the photographic department, I felt rather akin to the whiting in the mock turtle’s song.
“Will you walk a little faster?” said a whiting to a snail. “There’s a porpoise close behind us, and he’s treading on my tail.
As a volunteer for three months or so, I was working five days a week, or as many as I could, given the commitments that retired people have. I feel privileged to work with some very talented and experienced professional people and I am grateful to them for them putting up with me! It was, all in all, a very interesting experience. 15
Whinfield’s Cabinet of Curiosities: REDUCED! Here you will see a sample of slides from each of the nine drawers. This is a reduced selection taken from an exhibition of 50 images, curated by Redhawk Logistics, that were on display at the Hive during the project. They give a taste of what the collection contains and aimed to cover a wide range of subjects, so people of all ages and interests could hopefully find something in amongst them that catches their eye. It was also important to re-assert the cabinet’s clasifications from the draw fronts as they signify how Whinfield chose to arrange the slides into groupings and no doubt helped in organising his thoughts about how to make sense of his vast collection of images.
D1, #16, Scotland, Unnamed hill and Lake
D, #53, Germany, Print of the Crucifixion
D1, #117, Scotland, John Knox’s House
D2, #201, Australia, Indian’s at Cup Day 1890
D2, #198, Australia, Melbourne Cup Day 1890
D2, #286, Australia, Boys Guild Pyramid
D3, #402, England, Evesham Abbey, Relics in Manor Garden
D3, #421, England, Chaldon Church, 12c. Wall Painting
D3, #477, England, Exeter Street of St Mary Steps
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D4, #818, Egypt, Port Said, Camel and Driver
D4, #787, England, Roman Standard Bearer
D4, #833, Ceylon, Indian Ocean Monsoon at Columbo
D5, #962, Palestine, Bethlehem from Convent
D5, #880, Italy, Christian about to be Thrown to Lions
D25, #971, Unknown Woman, tied to stakes in rising tide
D6, #1057, Spain, Cordoba, Roman Aqueduct Garden
D6, #1058, Spain, Cordoba The Mosque (Cathedral)
D6, #1071, Germany, Heidelberg Castle, Arches in Quadrangle
AHW's drawer classifications Drawer 1 - Scotland, Ireland, Dodford, Way of the Cross, Severn Grange Drawer 2 - Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand Drawer 3 - England and Wales (not the Cathedrals) Drawer 4 - Egypt, India, Ceylon, Japan, America, Italian villages, Roman walls Drawer 5 - HEWs slides, Life of Christ, Holy Land 20
D7, #1260 Worcester, The Hare and Hounds, destroyed 1914
D7, #1249 Worcester, Church models found in a roof, 1915
D7, #1238 Bromsgrove, Tollbar on Road to Dodford, 1915
D8, #1528, Palestine, the Market Place, Jaffa
D8, #1431, 'Good child earns his masters confidence'
D8, #1588, 'Christie's first Time Playing the Organ'
D9, #1825, France, Rouen, Tour St Laurent (Museum)
D9, #1825, France, Rouen, Tour St Laurent (Museum)
D9 #1834 France Rouen, Carved Stone nr St Ouen Church
AHW's drawer classifications (continued) Drawer 6 - Continent of Europe Drawer 7 - Sundries, Passion Play, Man Who Would Like to Marry, All Round the World Drawer 8 - Astronomy, Greece and Syria, Eastern Customs, Tabernacle, The Bottle Drawer 9 - English and Welsh Cathedrals, Hymns, Rouen
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A short history of the magic lantern by Richard Crangle
The first evidence of the magic lantern comes from as long ago as 1659, when a small projector lit by a candle was described by the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens. The principle is simple – a light source inside a box shines through a transparent picture on a glass slide, with a lens focussing the image onto a screen or wall.
Two very early drawings of lantern, showing the basic layout.
The Phantasmagoria, a nineteenth-century lantern horror show.
The lantern rapidly became widely used in all parts of the world and for all kinds of activity. Any areas where we use projected images today (entertainment, education, advertising, propaganda and preaching – the list is endless) have used variants of the magic lantern throughout the past four centuries.
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The main period of magic lantern development was the nineteenth century, when stronger sources of light (oil lamps, gas-fired systems like the famous ‘limelight’, and finally electricity) and new ways of mass-producing slides (especially using photography) combined to vastly increase the numbers of images available and the numbers of people who could see them.
A family lantern show in the nineteenth century
The lantern has always depended on an audience – the hardware and slides are only part of the process, and the actual ‘lantern show’ is a performance art that relies on the skill of the person showing the images and the reactions of the audience watching them. It was also usual to combine the images with sound – either a spoken narration or accompanying music – and the images themselves could be quite elaborate, with moving and transforming ‘effects’ created by intricate mechanical slides.
Mass-produced story slide for children.
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The Chromatrope, a mechanical slide giving a ‘kaleidoscope’ effect.
Lantern slide images were taken from a huge range of sources – sometimes drawn, painted or photographed specially for the slides, more often ‘borrowed’ or adapted from another source. One example is the set of Round the World slides in the Whinfield collection, which were commercially photographed (by arrangement with the publisher) from a popular book by Lady Brassey, recounting a voyage she and her husband undertook in the 1870s. Perhaps this was one inspiration for A.H. Whinfield’s own travels round the world and the rich legacy of slides that came out of his journeys.
General chart showing Track of the Yacht Sunbeam 1876-77.
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Drawer label from Whinfield's cabinet showing Lady Brassey's name.
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ALL ROUND THE WORLD aka A Voyage in the Sunbeam Sunbeam, a British luxury yacht launched in 1874, became famous when Annie Brassey, the wife of its owner Thomas Brassey, published a book describing their adventures during a world cruise. The book, titled A Voyage in the Sunbeam, our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months, became a best seller and was translated into many languages. This slide set of colour illustrations is based on her story and came out in 1878 when Arthur Whinfield was 15 and may have inspired him to travel abroad.
The ‘Sunbeam’
A ship on fire
Amateur Navigation
Canary Islands
Crossing the Line
Rescued sailors
Bartering with Fuegians
Coral Islands
Aden -- Samouli Arab
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The Pink and White Terraces seen through Magic Lantern Slides by Brian Ricketts Lake Rotomahana, in the shadow of Tarawera volcano, looked peaceful enough. Its waters ruffled only by wind and the wakes of small boats. No hint of impending doom. No hint of the destructive explosions one day 132 years ago, when eruptions completely changed the local landscape, destroyed a village and its inhabitants, and obliterated a geological icon. The Pink and White Terraces, near Rotorua, New Zealand were destroyed by the eruption of Tarawera on June 10th 1886. New Zealanders look upon the Pink and White Terraces with a kind of fondness, even though no one alive has seen them. Mineral-rich waters spurting from geothermal springs and erupted from geysers above the former Lake Rotomahana, deposited silica in a cascade of rimmed terraces and pools; ever shrouded in steam. As their name indicates, there were two sets of terraces. The larger White Terraces descended 25m, stair-like, into the lake. Their pink counterparts were terraced through 22m. Mineralization was more pronounced in the pink variety, with precipitation of arsenic and antimony minerals and gold. The terraces disappeared on June 10th 1886. The eruption of Tarawera was focused along a 17 km rift that extended from the volcano summit, through the terraces and into Lake Rotomahana. Whether the terraces were obliterated, buried, or partly submerged in modern Lake Rotomahana is still debated.
Enter Arthur Henry Whinfield, a peripatetic photographer who in the 1880s captured and collected images showing the magic of cities and landscapes in the Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Part of his legacy resides in a large collection of magic lantern slides and included in the collection are 11 glass slides of the Pink and White Terraces, and the aftermath of the Tarawera eruption. Whinfield took many of the photographs in his slide collection, but also bought commercially available slides and made copies from them or from publications and this seems to have been the case for several Pink and White Terraces images. Te Papa Tongarewa (the New Zealand National Museum) has an extensive, publicly accessible collection of photographs, paintings and prints related to the Terraces where I was able to identify individual photographers of some of the slides. Whinfield's slides are delighting and informing audiences today, just as they must have done when he presented them to an eager 19th century public. These days we never think twice about the projection media at our fingertips. It seems almost to be part of our subconscious, but to Whinfield's audiences there must have been a sense of excitement, awe, and puzzlement, not just in the images they were seeing, but the fact they were seeing them at all. The havoc wreaked by distant volcanic eruptions, was delivered to their living rooms by a rapidly developing technology. 27
The Whinfield Terrace collection may not even contain photographs of his own taking, but that is not important. An iconic landscape was taking shape in people's minds, a narrative in images. Folk who may never have left their own village became informed; witnessing the real world shaped by unimaginably ferocious forces - a kind of 19th century Scicomm. The classic image of the Pink Terrace with Maori guides (or is this a family scene?) and a canoe in the foreground is shown below. This iconic photograph was taken by Burton Brothers Studio in 1885, and later used by Muir and Moodie Studio in a popular postcard (early 1900s; one penny postage required). Whinfield’s slide is a copy of this scene (acknowledging the photographer on the lower left corner).
Moodie and Muir also produced a postcard from the White Terraces image below (right); the colour would have been added by hand to the printed photo. The Whinfield slide (left) is an uncoloured version of this image (compare the shape of the steam clouds at the top). The terrace flights are nicely portrayed in this slide.
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One of the more panoramic views of the White Terraces shown by Whinfield (left) is similar to a photograph taken by Burton Brothers in January-May 1886 (in the Te Papa collection) but is viewed from a lower elevation and records a different steam profile; the original photographer may have taken more than one shot from this location. I have not been able to determine who the photographer was for this slide. Here the terraces clearly dip their toes in Lake Rotomahana. The terraces were a popular tourist attraction, in part because bathing was possible in the lower pools.
The two slides below show detail of White Terrace pools and the intricate patterns wrought by precipitation of silica. Dark stains daubed on the pool walls may have been algae. I have not been able to determine the attribution of either slide. The slide on the right is labelled ‘White Terrace Crater’ and may have been taken close to one of the active geysers near the top of the terraces.
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Whinfield’s slide (right) showing the aftermath of the eruption at McRae’s Hotel is slightly different to one taken by photographer George Valentine (1886, McRae's Hotel and Sophia's whare) - the man in Valentine’s image has his arms folded; in Whinfield’s slide they are not. The viewing angle is also slightly different in the Whinfield slide. The hotel probably collapsed under the weight of volcanic ash. Other photographs (not in the Whinfield collection) show the back of the hotel to be demolished completely. The trees were also stripped of foliage.
The title of this slide Rotomahana Looking to Site of Pink Terrace, indicates a view towards the former terrace, or perhaps close to it, in the aftermath of the eruption. If the location is correct, the image is important because it shows that destruction of the Pink Terraces was complete. The Mounds of volcanic ash cover almost everything. Characteristic erosional rills suggest rain soon after the eruption, where surface water run-off redistributed the ash (probably towards the lake). I could not determine who the photographer was.
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Some slides degrade and evolve over time as the dyes and chemicals continue to react and environmental conditions change. We observed the main types of degradation and replicated them, putting prints through several processes to create new images at Northwick Manor Primary School. 31
Using inks to hand-colour black and white prints with naturalistic colours at Northwick Manor Primary. 32
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PASTE-UP PROJECTIONS A set of 20 images extracted from the AHW collection and displayed around the environs of the Hive building, intended to be viewed from afar (as a projection is usually seen). This slightly curious image set invites narrative from passers by and encourages our associations to be projected onto them, as they have been displaced from their original context and inserted into contemporary life. The set of ten sequential photographs, on display in the first floor windows of the Images nightclub building, represents a highly compressed version of the collection into just 10 slides. Because of this extreme compresson they suffer from a kind of data loss, leaving us with the challenge of pieceing them together in a way that makes sense to us.
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Pont du Gard, side view showing lower bridge, Nimes
Photograph of Unknown Temple Area
Carved Stone Nr St Ouen Church, Rouen
Photograph of Castle D’Appia Ventimiglia
Natural Phenomenon in Ice
Snowflakes
Solar Flare, Tinted Photograph
Star clusters
Wannon Falls from the edge, Victoria
Moon at First Quarter 40
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A Shadowy Ship on a Glittering Sea
Bevere Bridge and Weir, Claines
Lake Tasmania
Way of the Cross, Ninth Litany
Religious Procession, Campo Rosso
Bronsil Castle, Ruins and Moat
Ely Cathedral, North Transept, Norman Arches
Avenue of Cypresses Bordighera
The Stone of the Pregnant Woman, Baalbeck
Moses Well, Egypt 42
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What is Missing by Rob Hewitt (from Redhawk Logistica) It seems natural to put Claines at the centre of this story, the place where Arthur Whinfield grew up and later left behind, where he returned after going 'round the world' and where he is now laid to rest, (under an unusually carved stone cross). He married later in life and didn't have children, his gift to us is a well kept wooden cabinet of magic lantern slides that represent a life-long interest in creating and collecting them. Some he acquired on his travels or were commercially available themed sets, some were copies from publications or 'postcard' type views of places, but many are the photos he took on his travels around the UK, across Europe and during his time in Australia. Not much is known about Arthur, but we can deduce a lot from the subjects of his slides and the lines of enquiry he is following across continents as he delves into generations of history and finds evidence of overwritten cultures and lost knowledge from ancient times. Hundreds of slides of church and cathedral interiors tell us something about the kinds of spaces he inhabited and the huge influence of religion in his life, hundreds more tell us about his lifelong commitment to travel and to exploring other cultures and civilisations. He also liked to record modest subjects of local interest, such as distinctive buildings and points of difference from place to place and had an almost obsessive interest in stone and old stonework of all descriptions, from natural formations to man-made remains. His desire to share what he found is evident by the long list of venues and dates, written in pencil on the back of an old piece of Nicholson's organ stationary, detailing all the places he gave slide talks with his magic lantern. It was this drive that led him to keep notebooks made out of stapled together pages, typed in lilac ink, containing the scripts for some of his lectures, including one called 'Tour Round The World in 80 Minutes' - which was the starting point for our two lecture evenings. He used the illumination of a lantern to give talks that enlightened people with knowledge, so the inscription on his gravestone seems entirely fitting: 'may perpetual light shine upon him'. Whinfield seemed to have a fascination for things that were in the process of being lost, for observable decay and the effects of catastrophic change and he points out quite a few examples in his Tour Round the World lecture. This may have once been part of a much larger collection and one can't help think about the slides that are no longer here and wonder that they depicted. It appears that all of the personal photos were removed when the collection was first donated and there is not a single known photo of AH Whinfield amongst those held in the archive. The family home, Severn Grange, a grand building in Claines, fell victim to demolition and was replaced by flats in the 1970's, so there are no cellars of lofts harbouring his notebooks or a master list of slides (as far as we know). Even some of the surviving slides are subject to degrading, cracking and fading, as the materials they are made from continue to perish. In some ways Arthur himself is missing from the picture, along with his elusive wife: we never get to see him, we only get to see what he saw. If you look closely you can even see his fingerprints in some of the slides he produced and that might be a close as we can get to him. Like the fleeting moments he captured in distant times, in other lands, we are ultimately left with impressions about what someone felt was worth trying to hold onto, while being constantly reminded that only stone can truly endure.
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Big Thanks to: Worcestershire Archive & Archaeology Service, Explore the Past and especially Justin Hughes (Community Project Officer) whose passion for the collection was the catalyst for this project. John France (Photography), Jonathan Brusby (Photography) and Rhonda Niven (Conservation) with dedicated help from Geoff Kington (volunteer). Robert Higham, (Diocesan Secretary) and the team at Worcester Diocesan Church Trust for committing to support the project and caring for the collection. Reverend Jo Musson, Ian and Rachel Cramp and all at St John Baptist Church, Claines, Jo Siddles at More Tea Less Hate, Geoff Sansome for sharing knowledge on local history. Staff and pupils at Claines Church of England Primary School and Northwick Manor Primary School. Ian Perks for help and support with displaying outdoor images. All the staff at Huntingdon Hall. Huge thanks to poet Paul Conneally for channelling AHW and creating an incredible new hybrid poem that magically links the past and the present. Joe Potts for outdoor projections and creating the videos that document the 'All Round the World' lecture evenings. Dominic Day for projections at the lecture evenings, technical support and additional video and photography. Hannah Gibson for live organ accompaniment at All Round the World and organist Trevor Tipple for additional support. Richard Crangle for unstinting enthusiasm, knowledge sharing and for being the magic lantern operator All Round the World. Si Walker (IBN) for graphic design skills in creating the Missing publication. All the contributors of articles to Missing: Heather Randall, Geoff Kington, Geoff Sansome, Brian Ricketts, Justin Hughes
LUCERNA is an excellent online resource that is produced in collaboration with lantern researchers from across Europe and will be the online host of the digitised AHW magic lantern slide collection and database. The website is hosted at Universität Trier, Germany: www.slides.uni-trier.de Another great resource is: www.magiclantern.org.uk For more information on how to access the AHW magic lantern slide collection please contact Justin Hughes:jhughes@worcestershire.gov.uk
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