| Description | Photographers comprising MS 2724/2/C are mounted on larger WPS mounts and generally date from the 1860s. Many are undated but would appear to mainly cover the three decades before the Survey was founded.
The prints were incorporated into the collection whilst the original Survey was operational, probably because the images covered areas of Birmingham that were demolished and rebuilt during the hitherto unprecedented redevelopment of what became the Corporation Street area of Birmingham following the passing of the Borough Improvement Scheme, 1875, which was largely completed by the time the Survey was formed in 1890.
The majority of the prints are attributed to the Archaeological Section of the Birmingham and Midland Institute and the photographer Harold Baker of New Street, who was involved with this organisation as well as contributing other work to the Survey as a member. The rest of the photographs can be attributed to Thomas Lewis and other unidentified photographers affiliated to the WPS. Lewis and Baker were professional photographers by trade as opposed to the largely amateur photographers that made up the core membership of the Survey during the period 1890 - 1914.
The prints in Series 'C' have a much more static, documentary subject matter relating to the archaeological and architectural history of Birmingham and a few Warwickshire parishes, and rarely show people. |