experiments

The time when a camera shop was a camera shop......Really pleased that you are posting these dry plates as Im expermenting in the process myself and finding that the results are looking a good match www.flickr.com/photos/johnkeys/9683927927/in/photostream/ ...Thanks

I'd be interested to know the date of this photograph as my grandfather managed the fine art department until shortly before his death in 1952. He was a director of the company from about 1905 and I believe he ran these shops from about that time. The address was originally 7, 9 and 11, Grainger Street West, but later became 58, 60 and 62 Grainger Street. There's a later picture taken in 1935 at; www.flickr.com/photos/39821974@N06/4081040765 The company minute books of board meetings are in the Tyne & Wear Archives and make fascinating reading. Of Joseph Swan there is little mention as he was a sleeping partner.

This photograph isn't dated but we think it's from the early 1900s

That sounds about right. Electric trams were introduced in 1901, so that's the earliest date as the poles for the wiring are in the centre of the road. They were certainly keen to get a lot of stock displayed in the windows! In those days most houses had pictures hanging on every wall, from country mansions to working class terraces. Until the Great War this was a highly profitable department of the business. Things changed after 1914. Pictures were still popular until the Second World War, but the gallery and fine art department were in decline. This picture must have been taken when it was at its peak. At this time the company had created a separate department to market prints in colour or black and white of a painting "Despised and Rejected of Men!" by Sigismund Goetze, 1904. It travelled around Britain with a lecturer giving talks about the picture. I have a large black and white copy and the pamphlet that went with it. Prints were still being sold to churches in the USA in the 1960's! See; jloughnan.tripod.com/despised.htm It's interesting to note that the company had given up one shop unit by 1935, but the whole appearance had been greatly modernised, see; www.flickr.com/photos/newcastlelibraries/4081040765

Qld State Archives has this man listed as Dr. Val McDowall not Thomas Elliott.

And on another site this exact photo is captioned as Dr. Val McDowall. thand.wordpress.com/ples/

We have Val McDowall listed as the photographer. Dr. McDowall owned the radio station but all the newspaper reports list Thomas Elliott as primarily responsible for the television experiments. This man is also identified as Thomas Elliott in this newspaper article. nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49687701

Is that a nest of funnel web spiders in her cleavage? 😄