Catalogue description PHOTOGRAPHS RELATED TO THE FAMILY AND FIRM OF THOMAS ILLINGWORTH AND CO

Items 1 - 41 are copied from an album. The album, bound in green cloth with leather spine and corners, carries the following inscription written in red biro on the inside cover: Thomas Illingworth & Co Limited Photographic Manufacturers New Factory at Park Royal NW 10. Foundation stone laid 4 Sept 1912 by Mrs Amelia Illingworth, mother of Thomas Illingworth, Managing Director. Factory occupied 1913.

The album carries no original identification though some details have subsequently been added in the same red biro. These details are given below in brackets ().

The photographs document both the exterior and interior of the new factory including the various departments - office administration, enlarging, printing, finishing, mounting, framing, despatch etc. All the photographs are sepia coloured and glossy. Some feature numbers which have either been written on the negative and so appear in the print, or on the plain border of about 1/4 inch which surrounds the majority of prints. These numbers are given below in brackets [rcub] [lcub].

Bland, Patricia, fl 1994, of Swindon

• Thomas Illingsworth and Co. Ltd Photographic Manufacturers, Halifax

Thomas Illingworth & Co. Ltd. The eponymous founder of the firm was himself the son of a photographer of the same name whose business was based in Halifax. Thomas Illingworth senior, born in Oldham in 1838, was apprenticed to learn his trade in the studio of his maternal grandfather John Eastham in St Ann's Square, Manchester. In 1859 Thomas Illingworth married Amelia Oates. They had seven children, six girls and a boy, Thomas, born in 1867.

At the age of 19 Thomas Illingworth junior went to London and set up in business as a photographic printer and dealer at 38 Sherriff Road, West Hampstead. His business prospered and after two years he took over larger premises at Ruckledge Avenue, Willesden and in 1896 opened a showroom at 5 Soho Square in central London. At Ruckledge Avenue he continued photographic printing including the making of prints by the carbon process and considerably extended the production of photographic papers. Continued success led to the building of a new factory in Cumberland Avenue, Park Royal, an area of factory development about a mile and a half from the Ruckledge Avenue works. The foundation stone was laid on 4 September 1912 and within a year the factory was in full working order. Between 1911 and 1914 the manufacturing department trebled in size.

In 1891 Thomas Illingworth married Marta Ann Midgely. They had six children, three girls and three boys. Their eldest son Thomas Midgely Illingworth took over the business when his father resigned as Managing Director in 1922. (He died the following year.) Thomas Midgely Illingworth pursued a policy of cooperation with the larger firm of Ilford and became a Director of Ilford when the two companies amalgamated. The donor, Mrs Bland, is the daughter of Thomas Midgely Illingworth.

The curator was introduced to Mrs Bland via Michael Bull who had married into the Illingworth family and was undertaking genealogical research. Mr Bull initially contacted the D.P.A. for information regarding John Eastham.

Mrs Bland was visited by Audrey Linkman on 26 September 1994.