Collection: George Fowler Jones photograph album

Description

The collection comprises one album of topographical photographs compiled by George Fowler Jones (1819-1905] or his son Gascoigne Hastings Fowler Jones in 1885.

The photographs show buildings in England, Scotland and the rest of Europe. Many of them show cathedrals including Rouen, Beauvais, Senlis and Chartres in France; Beverley, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Worcester and Peterborough in England, and Trondheim in Norway. The remaining views are of buildings in Ajaccio, Milan, Venice, Bologna, Verona, Adel, Old Malton, York, Felixkirk, Achareidh, Skelton, Tewkesbury, Gloucester, Worcester, Gloucester and Bramham cum Oglethorpe as well as images of Kirkham Priory, Guisborough Priory, Fountains Abbey and Rievaulx Abbey.

Most of the images are exterior views but there are some interiors, particularly of the cathedrals. There are several unidentified views mainly showing Norman porches which may be possible to locate in or near Yorkshire.

A handlist is available.

Archival History

The album was purchased by the NMR in 2008.

George Fowler Jones (1819-1905) was born in Aberdeen, trained as an architect with William Wilkins and Sydney Smirke, and set up his own practice in York His practice was taken over by his son, Gascoigne Hastings Fowler Jones. Jones was a pioneering architectural photographer and a number of the photographs in the album have his initials on or near them. It is also likely that some of the images around work relate to architectural projects that he undertook. Over 2100 of Jones' photographs are known at the National Media Museum, Bradford taken into the 1890s. The NMR holds at least 15 other early views of York by Fowler Jones taken in the 1850s so this album complements this: most images are assumed to date from the 1870s-1880s but some could be earlier.

The album contains a bookplate of City of York Public Library.

Content

Rights

Source: Historic England Archive