Z1432/1

Albums

Tom Lawson compiled many photograph albums relating to Leighton Buzzard and the surrounding area. Many were given titles, but these did not always accurately reflect the contents – an album titled “Leighton Buzzard in the 1920s” may have contained items from the late 19th century to the late 20th, for example. The albums contained an eclectic mix of photographs, photographic copies of photographs (often with multiple small images on a single photograph), photocopies, and notes. Much of the content was duplicated across a number of albums and some of the copies were very poor. Many were simply A4 ring binders, from which the contents were removed at accession and placed in bundles. The majority of the albums in the collection have been taken apart and separated into individual photographs and other material. The individual photographs have been arranged by place and subject matter and catalogued as a separate series [Z1432/2]; the other material largely consisted of tours, historical notes and poetry written by Tom Lawson [Z1432/4] with some photocopies of historical documents [Z1432/5/2]. Notebooks containing indexes to the collection were not a reliable guide to the contents as some items had already been removed from albums before they reached us, and in some cases album numbers had been changed. Many duplicate and poor quality images have been weeded out. A small number of albums which form a coherent whole without significant duplication have been left intact and have been catalogued in this the albums series [Z1432/1].

series