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35 mm Positive Print Transparencies (Slides), 1955 - 1989

 Sub-Series
Reference Code: GBR/3437/WDTR/3/2

Scope and Contents

From 1955 until the end of his life in 1989, Lord Taylour's love of photography inspired him to build a 35mm transparency collection of everything he did and saw in all his travels across Europe. From an image of a dancing bear on the road to Prizren in 1962, to a scenic evening view of the Otranto coastline and ceramic pottery sherds excavated in Scalo di Fondo, Italy, in 1950, to his dogs Memo and Nestor playing tug of war, this is a many and varied collection, but most of all the accumulative sum of every aspect of his life, and the lives of everyone he encountered: a series that is nothing short of a biography in pictures. Lord Taylour was an anthropologist: his first degree was in archaeology and anthropology at Trinity College, Cambridge. And in this collection his acute fascination in every aspect of human life and the natural world, from the smallest duck in a stream to the most monumental ancient ruins and grandest of cathedrals, shows itself in spades. Everything from the ordinary - images of streets, people in cities, towns and villages across the length and breadth of Europe, houses, churches, cathedrals and baptistries, landscapes, picnics, beaches, animals, gardens, streams and fountains - to the historic - Roman and Greek art and architecture, medieval Christian artworks, historic houses and castles - to the weird and wonderful - a pelican posing for a photo in a Mykonos street, a boy laughing and riding down a chute - is here in abundance: a time capsule of life in 1950s-1980s Europe (and America), in all its marvels and mundanities, a series of snapshots, by a man who revelled in the ordinary and the extraordinary in equal measure.

Dates

  • Creation: 1955 - 1989

Creator

General

In the General field for this sub-series the numbers refer to the negative number reference code assigned by Lord Taylour.

Repository Details

Part of the University of Cambridge: Faculty of Classics Archives Repository

Contact:
Faculty of Classics
Sidgwick Avenue
Cambridge CB3 9DA United Kingdom
+441223 335193