Collection: William James Day Collection

Description

The collection comprises 709 high quality glass plate negatives documenting gardens and garden structures in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The subjects are primarily the gardens of country houses, and include images of formal gardens, landscape parks, temples, fountains, statues, terraces and gates. Many of the gardens have been lost or significantly altered since the photographs were taken. Geographically, the collection covers the south, west and north of England. A selection of the photographs was used to illustrate 'The Gardens of England: The Northern Counties' (1911) and 'The Gardens of England: Southern and Western' (1907), both edited by Charles Holme. A third volume in the series, 'The Gardens of Endland: The Midland and Eastern Counties' (1908) was primarily illustrated with photographs by Mr R Lincoln Cocks, although W J Day contributed five images to the volume. In addition to the images of gardens there is a small selection of photographs of public parks, and a group of photographs of Christchurch Priory.

William James Day (1854-1939) was a photographer and garden historian based in Bournemouth. Born in Brighton, his father, Robert Day (1822-1873) had worked as a groom and a farm bailiff before establishing himself as a photographic artist in Lansdowne Road, Bournemouth in 1862. William joined the business, which produced Cartes de Visites, portraits, vignettes and stereoscopic views of Bournemouth and the surrounding area.

The collection also includes W J Day's handwritten notes to his photographs in the 'Gardens of England' volumes, which he compiled for a lecture at the Winter Gardens on January 6th 1921.

Content

Rights

Source: Historic England Archive