Collection: George Bernard Wood Collection

Description

The collection contains c.5844 black and white negatives taken by professional photographer George Bernard Wood (b.1900-d.1973). He was first employed by the National Buildings Record (NBR) in 1941 to document architecture in areas of England that were at risk of bombing during the air raids of WWII. He worked for the NBR post-war and corresponded with the organisation into the early 1970's.

The negatives document at-risk architecture across England, with a particular focus on the north of England in the first few years. Wood photographed parish churches, cathedrals, schools and local buildings in areas such as Yorkshire and County Durham.

There is a hand-written handlist of the collection, which contains negative numbers, an original number for each image and a brief location description.

c.1700 negatives from 1941 and 1942 have been catalogued, with c.500 scanned. The scanned images have been selected to represent the collection as a whole and put forward images of lost or damaged buildings. The majority of the images show architecture in the north-east of England, which is also an under-represented area.

Archival History

Provenance : G B Wood was a professional photographer and author who contributed extensively to the NBR This collection is a residue of Wood's negatives not previously accessioned, possibly transferred in 1976 after his death

Content

Rights

© Historic England Archive

© Crown Copyright. Historic England Archive