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Illustrations
Illustrations of local towns, street, buildings
and people dating back to the mid-18th century are widely available
wthin the Local Studies Collection, Central Library Halifax,
West Yorkshire. They enable the historian to construct in some
cases a very detailed picture of the physical appearance of the
past environment and of the people who lived and worked in the
local community, and it is by reference to these sources that
the picture of the past can be made more realistic, tangible
and concrete. Used in combination, they enable the local historian
to see more clearly the social and topographical change that
has taken place over the years.
History
During the 18th century the copper plate engraving
was used increasingly to illustrate many books on local topography.
During the 19th century a host of new processes emerged, dominated
in the early years by the lithograph and culminating in the modern
photograph.
Type
Illustrations fall into 3 main categories
locally:
- Illustrations in books: A certain amount
of illustrative material is to be found in local books within
the Local Studies Collection, Central Library Halifax, West
Yorkshire. As might be expected, many of the buildings included
in the older publications tend to be the ancient seats of the
local gentry, buildings the 19th century passed by.
- Illustration files: Many of the illustrations
in loose files are arranged in alphabetical order under the
person or place in question. They vary in size from diminutive
photographs to large lithographic prints, and include town
views, views of specific streets and buildings and photographs
of local worthies.
- Photographic survey: A Photographic
Survey has been in operation since the 1960s in and around
Halifax. It has been a joint project carried out by the Library
Service, the Planning authority and the Halifax Photographic
Society. It comprises several thousand photographs of individual
buildings, arranged in grid reference order, with an alphabetical
place index to facilitate the retrieval of photographs of specific
buildings. As much of the emphasis has been to record buildings
due for demolition, it has become an important source for historians
researching areas subjected to redevelopment over the past
half century.
Use
As with all other sources, illustrations need
to be treated with care. Photographic and especially non-photographic
illustrations should not always be taken as representations of
objective reality. For a variety of reasons they may enhance
or distort what they record. Nevertheless, without the many local
illustrations it would be a much more difficult task to build
up a picture of the local community over the last 2 centuries.
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