Whitby Harbour, by W.J. Harrison, 1897.

BGS image ID: P243580

Whitby Harbour, by W.J. Harrison, 1897.

The image is from the British Association for the Advancement of Science photograph collection. This collection of over 7,000 photographs is held in the British Geological Survey Archive.

The BAAS collection has had an interesting history. In 1888, O.J. Jeffs proposed to the BAAS that they should address the need for systematic photographic coverage of the geology of the United Kingdom. His proposal was accepted and the BAAS set up a committee under the chairmanship of James Geikie, for the ‘collection, preservation and systematic registration of photographs of geological interest in the United Kingdom’. This was how the collection began.

The collection was first housed in the Geological Survey Museum and Library in Jermyn Street, London and then moved to the new new premises in Exhibition Road. During the Second World War the glass plates were moved 'for safety' to Bristol where unfortunately they were totally destroyed during an air raid, the prints still housed in Exhibition Road remained undamaged.

Bob McIntosh