The Hills & Saunders
Exhibition
(This article by
Don Walter first appeared in The Harrow
Observer)
Anyone visiting the
Hills on the Hill exhibition,
currently (no longer) on view at Harrow School's Old Speech
Room Gallery, cannot help but be aware of both an
incomparable picture collection and a seemingly
insuperable problem. For, as the catalogue is quick to
point out, the pictures on display actually represent an
almost infinitesimal fraction of the total Hills and Saunders
Collection, which numbers at the very least 50,000 -
possibly even 80,000 - images of Harrow's past.
That nobody is
entirely sure of the number merely indicates the scale of
the problem; moreover, the majority of these treasures,
for such they are, have survived in the form of
ultra-vulnerable glass negatives or equally perishable
plates.
As many older
residents will recall, Hills and Saunders operated
for most of the 20th century (and, indeed, part of the
l9th) from premises at l04 High Street, Harrow Hill
. Throughout this immense period, they were obviously the
first choice to record every happening on the Hill
from the erection of new buildings to the newest family
"arrivals", not to mention the full range of Harrow
School's educational, sporting and social activities.
And so the stock of
old pictures continued to mount year by year . It had
already become a problem in the late l980s when the-then
owner of the company, Richard Shymansky, colloborated
with the noted Old Harrovian photographer, Patrick
Lichfield, and the School's Assistant Archivist and Head
of General Studies Jim Golland to produce the very
handsome Illustrated History Of Harrow
School.
At Golland's
instigation, the entire collection of glass negatives was
then transferred to School premises for some assessment
to be made of its condition and content . Begun as a
spare-time activity with occasional help from General
Studies classes, this mammoth task was eventually taken
over (again at Jim Golland's behest) by the Manpower
Services Commission who spent the next three years
sorting and cataloguing. Lack of funds, however,
prevented any attempt at that time to secure purpose-made
photographic boxes in place of the makeshift collection
of boxes, tins and crates in which the images were
housed.
Today, with Jim
Golland long since retired and Hills and Saunders
permanently closed, the Manpower Commission's (not wholly
complete) record is now in the keeping of the present
School Archivist, Mrs Rita Gibbs . So, too, is the
Collection itself,
still largely housed - as it is freely if sadly admitted
- in unsuitable boxes in the less than ideal setting of
the War Memorial Building
It is in part to
highlight this ongoing situation that the current
exhibition has been mounted by Mrs Gibbs with the ardent
assistance of Andrew Lea-Cox, the current schoolboy
chairman of the Old Speech Room Gallery Committee who is
no less concerned than his seniors about the Collection's
future.
In this context, it
must be very satisfying to them both to realise that,
although the greater part of the Gallery is currently
occupied with another (and very fin e) exhibition, the
much smaller Hills and Saunders show is attracting
at least equal attention . It was certainly much helped
at the preview evening in February when the guest of
honour was Lord Lichfield himself. Now one of the
country's premier photographers, he spoke affectionately
of his schooldays when, already passionate about
photography, he found he could produce the so-called
"leavers" (portraits of pupils about to leave Harrow)
for around nine old pence (about 3p) . This, he recalled,
compared favourably with the current Hills and Saunders
price of half-a-crown (roughly 30p).
Negative Book Entries
Enquiries about the
Collection are also coming from sometimes surprising
outside sources. For example, several historic pictures
of notable Asian Harrovians (among them Jawaharlal Nehru,
later Prime Minister of India) have recently been loaned
to the Sangat Centre for inclusion in the History Of
Asians In Harrow Exhibition at the Harrow
Leisure Centre.
So what happens
next? It would be agreeable to think that the Exhibition
might attract some wealthy donor but, more realistically,
any solutions are likely to lie in the realms of modern
technology. As the Head Master Barnaby Lenon
enthusiastically reminded the writer, there are
considerable advantages to be gained by digitising the
Collection - in other words, by transferring the images
from the plates to CD-Roms . This would not only make the
retrieval of images a lot easier but might ultimately
provide the opportunity to access the collection via the
Internet . And this kind of accessibility would be very
close to the hearts of the National Lottery Fund who may
yet prove a source of aid. At the same time, all parties
seem agreed that the digitised image could never be
seriously considered as a full replacement for the
originals.
In the meantime,
any readers who feel they could contribute to the
preservation of the Collection in any way at all are
asked to contact the Archivist Mrs Rita Gibbs on 0208 872
8370 . To anyone interested in retaining this truly
unique glimpse into all our yesterdays, there could
hardly be a better use of their time or money.