Edith Howard Slide Catalogue

Background

The Andover History and Archaeology Society owns around 3,000 glass negative plates which were rescued from what had been Edith Howard’s shop and studio at 74 High Street, Andover. We suspect many of the best slides, or the more identifiable were taken; what we have left are the slides no one wanted. Between April 2016 and March 2017 volunteers from the Society digitised the slides. The originals are stored in the cellar of Andover Museum.

The Catalogue

The collection was initially catalogued by Greg Gregory, based on Master Boxes, which each held between 2 to 13 smaller boxes or envelopes, depending on the size of the plates. This catalogue owes a lot to Greg’s work and is based on his numbering system, supplemented by further information discovered during the course of the project.

Download the full catalogue (PDF file 1.4mb) (c) Andover History and Archaeology Society here.

Notes to the catalogue

Name / Place: these descriptions come from a number of sources; sometimes the smaller box has a note of the location or, quite rarely, the date. Surnames generally are those written on the slide envelope, though the spelling has been corrected when necessary. For a few slides from which the envelope has been lost, the name is that scribbled in pencil on the slide itself. Abbreviation: u/k = unknown.

Catalogue number: the number is made up of three elements, the first is the Master Box (01-28), the second is each smaller box inside the Master Box, the third is the slide serial number within that box. Each of the digital images uses this specific three element number for identification.

Description [condition]: a description of the scene, with notes on any damage.

‘A’ number envelope: where there is a four figure number, e.g. 7954, in every case this was written originally A7954; where there is a number with a suffix, A or B, that indicates the same subject is photographed. Some slide numbers were prefixed with a B and these are listed as B4553, etc. Five and three digit numbers were also used, the five not prefixed by A; some references are letters only, indication a series of, for instance, the same wedding or play. In this column, a number in red indicates that the envelope is lost but the number was written on the slide. If there is no identifying information at all ‘x’ is used.

‘A’ number slide: these numbers come from the pencil scribble on a slide and mostly confirm the envelope number, with occasional minor divergence because of misfiling within a series. Sometimes they are only reference to place a slide in Edith Howard’s work series. They also include reference letters for a series, or ‘X’ indicating that the customer rejected that particular view for the print.

Update to notes: first the full envelope ‘A’ number, followed by the pencil note on the slide in quotation marks, thus A8194 ‘8914 Smith’ gives the full information from the slide envelope and the slide itself. Then follow notes about the identification of a slide subject, either from personal local knowledge, or specialist knowledge, for instance about military medals, or from family history websites, FmP = FindmyPast, TGen = The Genealogist. Abbreviations: v = very, bn = born, m = married, D or Dist = Registration District, mmn = mother’s maiden name, mgr = manager.

Year (if known): very few of the slide envelopes or boxes give the date of the picture, the major exception being the Enham Village Centre collection. So the few other years noted come from the family history information or local knowledge, for instance of mayoral years. Some of the dates recorded are reasonable estimates from such information, ±1 year.

PLEASE NOTE: We do not offer on-line access to the digitized pictures because of both copyright and technical issues. If you want a copy of a slide please get in touch through the ‘Contact Us’ section. Please bear with us, as it is only a volunteer at this end who will be trying to help you.