Case studies

The photography of Stephen Pegler

Bassetlaw Museum is a small, local authority museum based in Amcott House, a Georgian Town House in the centre of Retford, north Nottinghamshire. Its collection includes social history, archaeology, fine and decorative art and particularly fine collections of costume and photography. The photography collection includes images from Stephen Pegler who lived in the house that the museum now occupies between 1904 and 1937.


As part of a Heritage Lottery Funded museum extension and development, the Pegler collection has been reviewed and his photographs will form one of the major displays in the house he lived in for so long. The refurbishment work gave staff the chance to look again at the collection and find hidden gems, including 30 autochromes concealed in the wooden viewer that had previously displayed one image in the museum. 

Stephen Pegler was born in 1852, the eldest son of Alfred Pegler, the founder of Retford’s Northern Rubber Works. One of Stephen’s interests was amateur photography and from the early 1890s he began taking black and white photographs of local people and events, later including images from his travels around Britain and Europe. The museum has 1,000 of his small photographs which have an informal, ‘snapshot’ quality to them, very different from the more formal portraits of the period and also some of his stereoscopic (three dimensional) prints.

From 1910 Stephen began to experiment with colour photography, producing colour prints and colour stereoscopic slides, known as autochromes. In 1914 his photographic work was recognised by his election to Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society and his work was exhibited in London.Stephen Pegler’s colour autochrome photography forms a fascinating glimpse into the past. He returns to the themes of his black and white photographs, local people, events and travel and includes people from all walks of life. Seen through a stereoscopic viewer they are not only colour, but three dimensional.

Stephen Pegler died in 1937 at the age of 85, leaving his photographic collection to his housekeeper, Rose Foster, who lived in Retford. When Amcott House became a museum in 1983, Rose Foster’s niece donated the Pegler photographs and the collection ‘came home’.

Several of the local people he photographed have descendants still living in Retford, and these relatives have been startled with colour, 3D pictures of their great great grandparents. The images are also a fantastic source of social and costume history, with colour images of Edwardian ladies in all their finery contrasting with people going about their everyday business.

The images are also being digitised. Scanning them at a high enough quality proved problematical with the existing imaging equipment we have. The nature of the autochrome process means they are grainy, but this combined with the delicate colours to gives an almost impressionistic effect. The collection’s national importance was also been noted when Colin Harding, Curator of Photographic Technology at the National Media Museum, became involved. The collection is one of the largest autochrome collections in Britain with the widest range of subjects. Bassetlaw Museum staff also spoke at ‘Autochrome Day’ at the Media Museum linked to an exhibition of autochromes taken by Lionel de Rothschild, a contemporary of Pegler.

It is appropriate that this important collection will now be displayed in the house where it began its life.

Examples of successful digital projects

Below are presentations made to the digital access to collections specialist panel meeting (January 2008) which outline some successful digital projects both in the East Midlands and in London.

Kathy Harman is from Leicestershire Museums Service and is head of IT. Mick Cooper was based at Nottingham City Museums and Galleries (Brewhouse Yard) and oversaw Nottingham museums' digitisation plans and projects. The presentation exploring 20th century London was made by Claire Sussuns and Alex Bromley from the Museum of London.

Kathy Harman Collections on Line Presentation hand out (26 kb)
Mick Cooper Nottingham Digitisation Presentation (42 kb)
Exploring 20th Century London Museum of London Presentation (2098 kb)