Selsey Archive Photo Project
January 2018 – Ongoing
The Selsey Photo Archive Project was created to continue the legacy of the now dissolved Selsey Society, which collected local historical photographs. The collection is catalogued by volunteers and uploaded to an online public gallery.
AIMS
To ensure the collected photographic record of Selsey’s history is preserved for future generations and made accessible for everyone to see.
BACKGROUND
From 1987, the Selsey Society, a local history group, actively collected photographs, postcards, and other local media, which depicted people, events and places in Selsey parish. Some of the images date back over 100 years and more than 4000 items were amassed. When the Society dissolved in 2015, the committee wanted to ensure the special collection would be preserved and shared with the wider community.
The Selsey Photo Archive Project was established in 2018 by the Manhood Wildlife and Heritage Group (MWHG), former members of the Selsey Society, Selsey Town Council (STC) and the West Sussex Record Office, to catalogue the images and prepare them for display. The National Lottery Heritage Fund provided funding for the first year of work, which included the building of a searchable website to make the photo archive accessible to locals, visitors, students, historians and other researchers.
METHODS
The project is led by Joe Savill, on behalf of MWHG, and has a team of volunteers which are supported by former members of the Selsey Society, STC, and staff from the West Sussex Record Office. The team work weekly to process the collection.
Research is conducted both individually by volunteers and through group discussion, using a range of sources. Each image is catalogued, including their copyright, date, title, category, description and other key information, and these details are entered into a spreadsheet provided by the West Sussex Record Office.
Once scanned and processed, the photos are transferred to the West Sussex Record Office for preservation. Volunteers update the website’s gallery on a regular basis and ensure the images are searchable by their known dates and categories.
RESULTS
In 2019, the Selsey Photo Archive website went live, with a gallery of over 600 photographs initially on display. To date, nearly all of the items in the existing collection have been catalogued, and 2000 of these images have been scanned, a selection of which will be added to the website’s online gallery.
All images on this web page courtesy of Selsey Photo Archive
PARTNERSHIPS & FUNDING
FUNDING
Manhood Wildlife and Heritage Group (MWHG)
Funded by your donations, distributed through MWHG.
National Lottery Heritage Fund
Funded the first year of work, including the building of the website.
Selsey Society
When the Society dissolved, remaining funds were donated to the project.
Tanner Trust
A one-off donation was kindly received to support the project.
SUPPORTERS
Selsey Town Council (STC)
STC assists the project and provides meeting spaces for the volunteers.
West Sussex Record Office
Expert staff help with the cataloguing and scanning process.
DONATE
GET INVOLVED
The Selsey Photo Archive project is entirely run by volunteers, so additional help is always appreciated for the following tasks:
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Researching, cataloguing, and scanning photos
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Data entry
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Running of the website
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Promoting the website and project
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Donating or loaning photographs for scanning or providing additional information about the collection
If you're interested in getting involved, please get in touch with us.
To be notified of upcoming activities from this project, become a volunteer and subscribe to our volunteeering opportunities.