THE Herald and its sister papers today open an online shop window into one of Britain's largest archives of news and sports pictures, with readers able to buy prints, framed or mounted on demand.
The Herald Picture Store, the contents of which stretch back many decades, went live this morning. More than 200 of the best pictures are now available, covering such themes as celebrities, holidays, work, people, transport and places, with a huge number to follow.
The celebrity photographs include Cary Grant, Sonny Liston and Mae West, as well as one of a group of Clyde shipyard workers in 1971, joined by one of their former colleagues, a certain Billy Connolly. The ‘people’ category includes comedian Dave Allen with some Glasgow firemen at his book-signing in 1974, and a line-up of young women in a Bathing Beauties contest at Prestwick open air swimming pool in 1952.
The football photographs range from Celtic manager Jock Stein clutching the 1967 European Cup, to an aerial 1959 shot of Ibrox Stadium and a 1972 shot of elated Rangers fans returning home from Barcelona, where their team had won the European Cup Winners' Cup.
The Herald Picture Store showcases the finest images from Newsquest Scotland, the prominent Scottish media groups whose flagship brands are The Herald, the world’s oldest continuously-published English-language newspaper, and the heraldscotland.com website.
Double-mounted, high-quality prints are being made available for posting within the UK at launch prices from £14.99 per photograph. Framed versions can also be ordered and can be collected in person at the Herald offices at 200 Renfield Street, Glasgow.
Herald Editor Graeme Smith said: “The Herald Picture Store is starting with a range of topics from football and people to Glasgow street scenes but it will grow steadily week by week. We aim to include other areas of Scotland, and other subjects, in the weeks and months ahead.
“The photograph archive is truly astonishing in its depth and range. It goes back to the earliest days of news photography in this country. Not one big news or sports story in this country did not have a Herald photographer in attendance. It is in many ways a peerless archive in the context of Scotland, and we are confident that readers of The Herald, of whatever age, will find the Picture Store fascinating and irresistible."
The photographs have been selected and captioned by Norry Wilson, a former Herald journalist who now runs the increasingly popular Lost Glasgow page on Facebook, which has 140,000 global followers. Describing itself as an “online, interactive archive”, it encourages its followers “to share, discuss and learn from archive images of the city's colourful past.”
“It has been an astonishing experience to be able to roam through the picture archive, which is held at the Mitchell Library,"said Mr Wilson.
"I think the success of the Lost Glasgow project shows there is a huge appetite for old photographs, and the hidden histories they can reveal. Over the summer we staged an exhibition featuring 40 archive images and their associated stories at the Glasgow City Heritage Trust in Bell Street, and we had 5,500 people through the doors, which stunned me. So successful was the show, we’re planning to re-stage it for two months at Maryhill Burgh Halls from this month."
He added: “Memory is in itself a physical act. For an ageing population like ours, old photographs are an enduring fascination. Many people now don’t have their own old family photographs – they either threw them out or gave them away because no-one thought they were of much interest.
"It's only with the passage of time - 30, 40 years sometimes - that these pictures become fascinating, capturing vanished glimpses of Glasgow, Scotland and its people.
“And, of course, in large parts of Glasgow and elsewhere, many families just could not afford a camera. Now, when people see pictures of old parts of the city, they will be instantly taken back down memory lane. They will remember much-loved shops or street corners or fashions from the photographs. The pictures in the Herald Store will rekindle memories for many thousands of people.”
To head to the store, click here.
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