Looking Backwards While Moving Forwards

Promotional flyer for the event ‘Bringing the past into the present to shape the future: A Symposium‘

In this fast-paced world, we sometimes forget to look back and reflect on the things that we have achieved – instead we are constantly looking ahead to the next project that can ensure the archives reach the wider communities in Birmingham and remain relevant.

When we do reflect, it can be very enriching, as was the case on Saturday 13th May, when we hosted a symposium to celebrate the achievements of the From City of Empire to City of Diversity: A Visual Journey project.

Organised by Sampad in collaboration with Archives & Collections, we had a very inspirational speech by Ranjit Sondhi CBE, Chair of the Board of Sampad South Asian Arts & Heritage, to open proceedings. Ranjit talked about the importance of heritage, with particular regards to the communities we live in.

‘From City of Empire to City of Diversity: A Visual Journey’ – Dyche photography and cultural diversity

Part of the exhibition ‘City of Empire to City of Diversity: a visual journey‘ opening in the Library of Birmingham later this week

Later this week, a new exhibition opens at the Library of Birmingham which will highlight, for the first time, images from the newly catalogued Dyche Collection which is held here in Birmingham Archives & Collections.

The exhibition, running from 18^th March 2022 until 18^th June 2022, will give visitors an opportunity to discover Birmingham’s rich cultural diversity through the form of portrait photography. These photographs from Ernest Dyche span the decades from the early 1920s right up until the business closed down in the 1980s. Therefore, this is a unique experience with a collection that portrays the changing landscape of Birmingham in the post Second World War period.

During this project, named the City of Empire to City of Diversity, an archivist has created a new catalogue making the collection of approximately 10,000 photos, props and records more accessible than it had been previously. Alongside this, work has been completed by our Conservator to ensure the long-term preservation of the collection and the photographs will soon be rehoused in custom-sized acid free archival boxes.

Fashion Backwards; retrospective dating of archival photographs based upon fashion history

Understanding and looking for clues as to the date of undated archival materials can be tough, however, in the case of the Dyche photographic collection, of which I am fully immersed in cataloguing for the next year, there are a few signs that can point towards an approximate date of a photograph. The first of these clues to look for is the type of photograph you are looking at; photo development types and methods changed dramatically over time from the early methods of the 1830s to the fast development colour prints we have now. The types of prints are indictive of their time and will help identify the period in which the photo was taken.

For more modern photographs, black and white or colour photography will also help narrow down the time period in which the photo was taken. While colour photography was discovered in the mid-1800s, it only gained popularity in the 1960s as before this it was considered much too expensive for most people to buy and even too expensive for the average photographer at the time. Using this information, we can deduce that most colour developed images were taken in the 1960s or later, however a lot of photos are still seen in black and white or sepia colours even into the 1970s.

Ernest Dyche – Musings on a collection

Funding was recently awarded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to curate two photographic exhibitions and a Birmingham based community engagement programme to coincide with the 2022 Commonwealth Games taking place in the city.

From City of Empire to City of Diversity : A Visual Journey will utilise materials from the Dyche Collection along with other photographic collections held in the archive. The Dyche Collection, acquired by our predecessor – Birmingham Central Library in 1990, is thankfully now gaining attention as a photographic repository capturing a visual representation of migration to the city after 1945 from Africa, the Caribbean, Indian Sub-Continent and Ireland. 

Whilst an important contribution to chronicling the changing ethnic composition of Birmingham, there’s of course more to the collection. Before the outbreak of World War Two, Dyche’s studios like many other commercial photographic studios in the city produced individual and group portraits along with wedding photos. Dyche also had an interesting sideline in photographing stars of musical theatre and social gatherings at dance halls. 

Andy Hamilton and his band, c. 1950s [MS 2912 Dyche Collection]