THE leather-bound volume had certainly seen better days. One touch would surely cause the whole thing to fall apart, writes Alan Roberts of Barnoldswick History Society in this, the second part of his feature on a photograph album from the late 19th century.

IT was a photograph album illustrated with scenes of derring-do as the British army sought to impose its will across our once mighty empire and beyond. The musical box at the back played ‘Home Sweet Home’ every time you opened it, but this fearsome tome was for the folks already back home and not for the lads sweltering in the tropics in their bright red uniforms.

Inside the album the spaces where the photographs had fitted so snugly had become ripped and torn. The name of just one family appeared on a photograph of a gravestone carved by a local craftsman. The album had been donated to Barnoldswick History Society by an anonymous donor. Crucially the family on the gravestone could be traced using family history websites and the album began to be viewed in a much more positive light.

The people who appear in these photographs may remain forever unknown, but if you do know anything please contact the Craven Herald. The album was dated 1890. Some photographs were older and transferred to the new album for safe keeping. Others were slotted into the new album as they were taken. It must have been valued to have survived for so long.

We can work out where and when the photographs were taken and this is as much science as it is art. There are the obvious clues like the clothes the sitters were wearing and their hairstyles. Fashion was as important then as it is today.

The vast majority of photographs were taken in studios indoors. Early photographs required long exposure times. As a studio photographer you did not want your client to move and blur the photograph. To help the subjects remain still they were normally seated, or resting on furniture to keep them steady. Then there was the choice of backdrop and here again there were fashions to be followed.

Surprisingly the card on which the photograph was mounted is also dateable. Photographers liked to advertise the services they offered: we know in which towns they worked and even their exact addresses. The customers wanted a high-quality product. Some of the cards were mounted on the most tasteful dark-green cards with the photographer’s name in exquisite gold lettering.

Others were a sumptuous ruby colour on the reverse side. You could have your photograph taken in Barnoldswick, as many did, or you could go further afield. Colne, Nelson and Burnley were popular choices. You could have your picture taken on holiday. Just one person from nearly 40 photographs was really smiling and she was wearing a broad-rimmed Edwardian hat in a studio in Southport. And the photographers could be traced by entries in local trade directories and adverts in newspapers, and yes, there was one photograph taken in Skipton by George Inskip.

A woman is seated in a chair against a plain backdrop. Her clothes are practical and not elaborate: it is probably one of our earliest photographs. Unfortunately her eyes have been clumsily touched up during the last 150 years which gives her a somewhat unworldly appearance.

A smartly-dressed young girl in a white blouse, a calf length skirt and a new-fangled wrist watch stands alongside a pot plant resting on a finely-proportioned table. The photograph is perfectly sharp. The photographer’s name, Harrison of Nelson, is in silver lettering on a delicate khaki background. A fine piece of work and early 20th century.

Closer to home there is a rare outdoor photograph of a group of young men by Waterworth of Dam Head in Barnoldswick. It marks the transition of the photograph from an expensive item crafted in the studio to an everyday object. Thanks to George Eastman and his Kodak cameras everyone could become an artist. Taken in the early twentieth century this was no idle snapshot. The men are dressed in their best clothes. Bowler hats must have been very fashionable, as indeed was smoking. The photograph is no mere record: you can start to read the men’s characters. Everything has been stage-managed to get the best result: who stands where, which side faces the camera. Another minor masterpiece.

A photograph of a young family again breathes confidence. Father stands at the back with his daughter to his side. The finely-attired mother sits close by with their son on her knee. The signs are clear. We are important and we are going places!

A & G Taylor of Manningham Lane in Bradford styled themselves as photographers to the Queen, and the Prince and Princess of Wales. Doubtless you would receive the same service for a suitably princely sum!

Barnoldswick picture framer and photographer J.M. Chew was based in Rainhall Road. His name was rubber stamped onto the back of some of the cards. Closer examination showed that on two of these cards a new photograph had been stuck on top of another. Why we will never know, and we will never see them, but it adds another two secret photographs to this already valuable collection.