An incredible collection of Salford history photos from 1870 onwards are making their way around the city’s libraries as part of a £69,000 Heritage Lottery Fund project.
Today at Eccles Library on Church Street, volunteers from the Digital Salford scheme started to ask the public which key images from Salford’s rich history should be digitised.
Read: £69k project launched to digitise 70,000 Salford history photos
Naomi Lewis, Collections Access Officer, told us: “We are travelling around the City’s Libraries showing people the vast selection of photographs that are available to view both online and in the Salford Local History Library on the Crescent.
“We have brought with us a filing cabinet of photographs of Eccles including Monton, Winton, Barton through the ages, roughly about 1,000 in total depicting buildings, schools, streets, shops, factories, transport, families, basically annthing about the local area.
“We are only to happy to speak to people about this event, and the feedback from the people who have called in has been really positive.
The exibition at Eccles Library will run until Friday 31, July from 10am – 3pm, until Saturday 1 August however the filing cabinet of photographs will be available for you to look through after these hours by asking a librarian to open it for you, so that you can see these marvellous photographs from the past.
Practical advice is also on offer on how to restore your own historic photographs and preserve them for posterity.
“We are giving away free of charge polyester pockets to keep photographs safe, along with offering advice on preserving clothes such as baby’s christening dresses by wrapping them in acid-proof tissue paper.
Multimedia Artist Mark Haig is in the process of creating an exciting piece of multimedia animation using photographs from the collection and is invited everyone to get involved.
“It’s great fun and an opportunity for families and friends to work together and learn about storytelling, editing and animation as you bring Salford’s past to life,” said Naomi.
The exhibition will move on to Walkden Library from Monday 10 August to Saturday 15 August, then Swinton Library from Monday 24 August – Saturday 29th August.
All the Multimedia Animation workshops are free but must be booked in advance at the Salford Photos website as spaces are limited.
