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Raiders of the lost archives
Wrapped up well and with his trilby firmly in place, he's busy selling fresh fruit and veg to the good people of Fareham back in the 1980s.
But who is this market trader?A museum is looking for help in identifying him along with many other subjects featured in a treasure trove of recently unearthed old photographs.
The 2,500 images form the basis of a new exhibition at Westbury Manor Museum in Fareham dubbed Raiders of the Lost Archive.
Staff and volunteers have spent the past five years painstakingly digitising the images from prints, negatives and contact sheets. Before they were stored simply in the order they were received by the museum and not accessible to the public.
The fascinating collection, showing images from the earliest photography in the late 19th century to the present day, was only drawn together under one roof when Westbury Manor became the borough's museum in the 1990s.
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Curator Tom De Wit says: 'Up to now, finding a specific image was like looking for a needle in a haystack. But now thousands of fantastic images have been digitised, categorised and sorted.
'Now they can all be seen easily together for the first time. These images present a picture of Fareham as the borough has changed through time.'
Now the collection has been properly sorted for the first time, they are keen to know the stories behind the pictures.
'This picture of the market trader is particularly evocative,' Tom adds.
'We know this picture was taken in the market, which is now the site of Market Quay, in the late 1980s, but who is he? Somebody must know him.
'We want to find the answer to this question, but we also want more information about the other 2,499 photographs in the archive.'
Tom pays tribute to the team that did the work. He says: 'What our tiny but dedicated team of volunteers have done over the last few years has been tremendous. They have created a resource for the people of Fareham for years to come.'
Museum assistant Julie Carter adds: 'A lot of the photographs we just don't know anything about. Some have been donated and some have come from the local history group. All the time spent scanning them and putting them on discs is about getting people to see them.'
Julie says the images have been sorted into areas and comprise people, street scenes, buildings, shops, transport and the quay.
The exhibition runs until April 25 and admission is free. After that the archive will be available to view in the museum's resources room on request.
On April 9, the museum will hold a Photograph History Day when staff will be recording photos brought in by the public, particularly those from before 1990, to be included in its collection.
Julie says: 'We want people to bring in their photographs so we can scan them and add them to what we already have.'
MUSEUM FACTS
Westbury Manor Museum was once a 17th century house and additions made in the 1860s turned it into one of the largest buildings in West Street.
In 1932, it was sold to Fareham Urban District Council who used it as the council offices. In 1974 Fareham Urban District Council became Fareham Borough Council and moved into the new Civic Offices. The future of the manor was uncertain.
Intensive lobbying and many individuals helped save the building.
A generous bequest of Winifred Cocks, a local resident, provided support for the funding partnership of Fareham Borough Council and Hampshire County Council to convert the manor into a museum for the borough.
It opened in 1990 and now tells the story of Fareham using archive material and photographs.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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