Reference
Z1075
Title
Henman Collection of glass plate negatives and lantern slides
Date free text
c 1885-1936
Production date
From: 1885 To: 1956
Admin/biog history
Walter Nichols Henman (1867-1956) was born on the 25th May 1867 in Bedford to James and Elizabeth Henman. In 1871 James was a joiner and Elizabeth was a milliner and they lived in Cemetery Road (later called Foster Hill Road). They also had sons: Charles, Harry and George by the 1871 census.
Walter was apprenticed to Jakins & Co of Ram Yard in 1882 and became a bookbinder. However according to the obituary in the Bedfordshire Times he was determined to become a printer and set up a press at home and printed many publications. After 1901 he added printer and maker of lantern slides to his occupations.
In 1891 he married Eliza Jane Cooper. In 1901 they lived in Costin Street but by 1911 had moved to 38 Western Street. Walter and Eliza had no children. Eliza was the daughter of a lace maker and inherited the skill from her mother producing many examples of Bedfordshire lace. Eliza died in 1944.
Walter was a mainstay of the Bedford Band of Hope Union and a pioneer and producer of Bedford May Festivals. He was a Methodist. He served as treasurer of the Good Templars for several years.
Walter became a well-known local antiquary and was recognized as one of Bedford's foremost authorities on local history and archaeology. He joined the Bedford Natural History Society in 1892 and was secretary of the Natural History and Archaeological Society from 1912 to 1954, which due to him formed its own library. He was secretary of the Bedford General Library from May 1920.
Walter amassed a collection of prints and documents as well as producing many photographs with which to illustrate his lectures. His obituary notes that he was a better lecturer than a writer.
Walter died on the 4th March 1956 in a nursing home in Kempston. Probate was granted to Harold George Henman, garage proprietor, Florence May Guest married woman and Joan Mary Anderson, spinster. His funeral was held at Newnham Avenue Methodist church and he was buried at Foster Hill Cemetery.
Scope and Content
Most plates are lantern slides or 6.5 x 4.75 inch glass plate negatives with some plates of other sizes. There are plates of views local to Bedford, some material relating to Bedford School, and a few group photographs. In addition there were a number of plates that related to boat trips and holidays; not all of these plates were kept as they were of little research value. Some plates of places outside Bedfordshire were kept as a means of showing more of Henman's activities - notably boating on the Great Ouse and the Nene - and where they showed particular activities, which may be of future interest. The collection arrived in a a range of wooden plate boxes and a number of cardboard plate boxes. The lantern slides and the 7.5 x 5 inch plates have been retained in their original boxes all other cartoons have been disposed of as they were in poor condition and although contemporary were not original to the plates within them. Some notes and photographs of particular boxes are attached to the catalogue.
The date range is difficult to say but appears to be between c. 1885 and 1936.
Some of the plates had identifications written on them in either pencil or white ink, but these appear to have been applied retrospectively and in some cases have proved to be inaccurate. Most plates had no identification other than the label on the box they came in, which again sometimes proved inaccurate.
Archival history
Almost certainly all produced by Walter Nichols Henman, lanternist and Lantern Slide Maker of 38 Western Street, Bedford.
Purchased at Douglas Ross, autioneers and valuers, November 2000 as Lot: 111 'A large quantity of glass negatives, Bedford, Dunstable, Cardington, Biddenham etc., with a small quantity of magic lantern slides, Turvey, Odell, Felmersham, Bletsoe etc.'
System of arrangement
By size and then by subject.
Many other plates and slides made by Henman are to be found in the collections of Bedford Central Library and The Higgins museum.
Reference
Level of description
fonds
