Protecting the E. Chambré Hardman photographic collection

We’re awarded £25,000 as part of the Archives Revealed programme, which is supported by the National Archives, the Wolfson Foundation and The Pilgrim Trust. This will help us to open up the Hardmans' largely-uncatalogued archive to both researchers and the public alike, meaning more people will be able to access our fascinating collection. The project has begun!

After hearing about the project individual National Trust supporters generously pledged over £10,000 to help support the costs of the project.

Our team of experts are recruited and they begin work on the Hardmans Unpacked project. Over the next month, archivist Lindsey and digitisation conservator Alex visit the Hardmans' House and the Liverpool Records Office and come to face-to-face with this significant collection, which they'll now be working very closely with.

The project team undertake the huge task of surveying the collection at the Liverpool Records Office to decide how to approach cataloguing and which items to prioritise. They also carry out important condition checks to shape their conservation and digitisation plans.

The archive is roughly reorganised to help the team to plan their work more effectively. Throughout this, the National Trust's curatorial and conservation experts are providing plenty of advice and guidance to the team.

With the country in lockdown due to the pandemic, restrictions mean the team can't access the collection. Instead, all they can do is work from home focusing on remotely cataloguing 1,300 records which had been photographed before lockdown.

Good news! The project team are able to access to the collection at the Liverpool Records Office again. They work hard to catalogue an additional 1,200 records and the final pieces of information are added to the 1,300 records catalogued during lockdown.

With much of the collection stored in an unsuitable way and in the same boxes used by Hardman himself, rehousing and repackaging of items begins. The team prioritise boxes where a vinegar odour is present or there are signs of blistering/distortion. The aim is to prevent further deterioration but also to improve access and enable digitisation of the damaged items.

Some conservation work requires PPE to be used due to chemicals involved, as some of the cellulose nitrate negatives are emitting toxic nitrogen dioxide fumes. We also begin rehousing the contents of a new set of boxes - Hardman's Vitalite margarine boxes - where less deterioration is present, but rehousing is necessary to preserve the items in the long-term and make them more accessible.

Despite the second lockdown in November, thousands of records have been uploaded to National Trust’s CMS system and priorities for phase 2 of cataloguing are being identified in the remaining prints and items. Work to rehouse many of the items continues, including dry cleaning negatives with soft brush, continues.

We'd initially hoped many volunteers would support the work at the Liverpool Record Office, but this sadly hasn't been possible due to Covid-19. Thankfully, we've found other ways for them to get involved with the project from home. This month, they have begun helping to transcribe lists of uncatalogued material so we can have them in a digital and searchable format. So that we can make more progress with the rehousing of the negatives, the volunteers are also preparing envelopes to be sent to our conservator ready to use.

The Hardmans’ Unpacked project is complete, despite the challenges of the pandemic, over 16,000 items were conserved, 5,000 items catalogued, and over 4,000 items digitised. The digitised images will be available to explore online soon. In the meantime, why not head over to National Trust Images, and take a look at the thousands already digitised.

Thanks to continued support we can continue the vital work of conserving and cataloguing the collection. A team of ten dedicated conservation volunteers join the project and begin treating and rehousing loose prints stored in old cardboard Vitalite Margarine boxes. Meanwhile our Conservator and Archivist turn their focus to 700 negatives, which had become fused together due to deterioration.

For World Photography Day, we shared a series of short films all about the Hardmans and the work of our project team, watch these over on The National Trust North YouTube channel to hear more about this fascinating collection.

Our first phase of remedial conservation work is complete. Our Conservator Alex developed new innovative methods to carefully separate over 700 negatives. The negatives, along with the associated prints have been catalogued by our Archivist Lindsey. Meanwhile our team of volunteers have cleaned and rehoused an impressive 11,500 prints, we have shared some of their fascinating finds over on our social media pages.

You may have spotted us recently in episode three of the BBC documentary Hidden Treasures of the National Trust. Catch up on BBC iPlayer to learn more as our Conservator works to repair some of the extremely delicate negatives in the Hardmans' collection. You'll also meet our Archivist and some of the volunteers whose invaluable contribution has seen the cleaning and repair of thousands of damaged photographs.

After a summer of hard work our volunteers cleaned and rehoused a further 9,000 prints, taking the total to a staggering 21,000! We’re so grateful for all their hard work to stabilise such an important part of the collection. With such a large and complex collection, the work doesn’t end there, keep an eye out for further updates.

The next phase of remedial conservation work is complete. Our Conservator Alex has been hard at work to treat and repair a series of damaged photographs, whilst our volunteers and Archivist Lindsey have been working on the cleaning, rehousing, and cataloguing of over 12,000 items including negatives, prints, and paper documents. Next up the project team will be focusing on some prints framed by Hardman himself.