Kitty Vega is the new project officer working on the Isca Photographic Collection project. In a series of blogs Kitty will share the story of the preservation and digitisation of the photographic collection which represents a unique visual record of twentieth-century Exeter. In her blogs Kitty will go behind the scenes and tell how the expert team at Devon Archives are working to rescue and preserve the collection. It is thanks to National Lottery players that the South West Heritage Trust will be able to undertake this rescue operation, and make the Isca Collection a treasured resource for the people of Exeter.
How Was the Isca Collection Created?
The Isca Collection was the foundational work of historian and photographer, Peter Thomas (1948-2020), who initially created it to protect the negative stock of the Henry Wykes Studio of Exeter which closed in 1974. Henry Wykes (1874-1964) opened his first photographic studio in Exeter in 1914 and quickly established himself as the city’s foremost photographer for both studio and fieldwork.
Wykes documented Exeter through some of the city’s most important events, including the growth of the 1920s and ‘30s and the wartime carnage wrought by the devasting ‘Baedeker’ raids and subsequent demolition and rebuilding of the city. Due to Wykes’ prolific career, Peter Thomas saved some 42,000 negatives from being disposed of which tell the story of twentieth century Exeter.
For the last thirty years of his life, Thomas dedicated himself to the preservation of Exeter’s history by saving thousands of other important photographic records and documents and adding to the collection. Peter Thomas passed away in 2020 and his collection of negatives, prints and other ephemera was acquired by the South West Heritage Trust.
The Preservation Project Begins
The project aims to preserve and digitise the Isca Collection, making it accessible for all of Exeter’s inhabitants. In the short term, we will digitise 24,000 acetate negatives suffering from vinegar syndrome – an irreversible chemical process that destroys the negative. We also have thousands of glass-plate negatives to clean, repackage and digitise.
Acknowledgment
Thanks to National Lottery players
The Isca Photographic Collection project is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to preserve an irreplaceable record of twentieth-century Exeter.
The project builds on the foundational work of historian and photographer Peter Thomas who created the Isca collection. It is supported by the Friends of Devon’s Archives.