This series contains over 2100 individual photographic prints, contact prints, and contact print sheets. Over 1800 of these photographs were deposited in photo files, which were created as part of the Folk Life Survey.
Werner Kissling was a key figure in the development of the photo files, contributing over 1100 of the 2164 photographs in the LAVC photographic collections. Other members of staff at the Institute of Dialect and Folk Life Studies (IDFLS) contributed to the photo files, including Stewart Sanderson, Wille Brunk and Ingemar Liman. The photo files also includes photographs acquired through IDFLS students (including Stephen Caunce and Richard Langhorne); and from other folk-related institutions such as the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh, the Museum of English Rural Life at Reading University, the Ryedale Folk Museum at Hutton-le-Hole (North Yorkshire), and the West Yorkshire Folk Museum at Shibden Hall, Halifax.
The subject matter of the photographs in the photo files (based on the original subject classification arrangement applied to the photo files) includes landscape and land divisions; relics of the past; villages and towns; farm houses and buildings; pastures and enclosures; the dwelling house; the fireside; salmon fishing; trout and eel fishing, crabbing crayfish; lobster pots and creels; boats; care and management of livestock; sheep; hay creels; mining (principally lead mining); lime kilns; dry stone walls and dry stone walling; hedging; haymaking; agricultural implements; domestic furniture and utensils; hunting, shooting, trapping and forestry; fishing; bridges; farm carts; ropemaking; woodcrafts (brushes, baskets and walking sticks); mills; water mills and water wheels; knitting; lacemaking; chainmaking; papermaking, skin and leatherwork; candlemaking; buttermaking; cheesemaking; milking; oatcake making; communications by land; harvest customs and corn dollies; markets and auctions
(bargains), traditional customs, annual fairs and bonfires; the Cottingley fairies; Gypsy Traveller and Roma communities; lucky and unlucky objects; community life; music; games; folk art.
The unmounted photographs record similarly diverse subject areas, and include photographs taken by students during fieldwork for theses and dissertations; photographs taken at a coracle-fishing demonstration; and during fieldwork undertaken by Dr. Zvi Sofer amongst the older members of the Leeds Jewish community. A number of the images relate to the Survey of English Dialects (SED), and include Herbert Voitl's photographs of SED localities in the Southern and West Midland counties, photographs of Harold Orton and the SED editorial team, and photographs from the press conference for the launch of the first Basic Material volume in 1962. This series also contains a collection of enlarged card-backed photographs.
University of Leeds. Institute of Dialect and Folk Life Studies
Date
c.1962-c.1984
Size and Medium
13 boxes of photographs., 5.33 linear metres.
System of Arrangement
The mounted photo file prints were loosely arranged into files according to subject matter. The order and subject titles assigned did not strictly adhere to the Uppsala-based classification scheme used to arrange the Folk Life File ( LAVC/FLF) and student theses and dissertations ( LAVC/SRP), although each print in the Photo File was additionally assigned a classification number based on this scheme. This order has been retained.
The display photographs are catalogued at item level in this series, but are physically held with the collection of Archivists' Papers (see item level records for details).