How you can help

How you can help

You can help in many different ways! Tasks can be easily learned, and training will be available. Patience, attention to detail and enthusiasm for the topic is all that is required! The tasks below show detailed micro tasks that we need to do in the coming months. As always, we will need to break the overall challenge into manageable chunks so that individuals or small teams can take them on. See the Project Workstreams for a higher level overview here: The project

Conserve & Catalogue

We need help to conserve and catalogue the MacAndrew Photographic Archive. Containing 5,000 fragile glass slides, we need to review each one to determine:

  1. Condition
  2. Subjects in the image
  3. Confirm title
  4. Determine colour development process used
  5. Link to existing low resolution digital image
  6. Enter into Museum archive system (PastPerfect Web Edtion)
  7. Rehouse in acid free envelope and Museum grade packaging

Historical verification

Vernon MacAndrew had a wide range of interests from sailing to shell collecting, to Dartmouth and all things maritime. The Archive contains images from at least 9 countries. We need to understand the context for his photography based on likely date when the images were taken. There are many image sets or Capsules that need reviewing to establish dates, locations, and any relevant context:

  1. Dartmouth 1922-40
  2. Yacht racing in different classes: West Solent One Design; J Class; 12 Metre
  3. Passenger liners of the 1930s e.g. Queen Mary, Empress of Briton
  4. Naval warships of the Spithead review, 1937
  5. Valencia and the Costa Brava, 1905-13
  6. Edwardian gardens and flower arranging, 1922-40
  7. The Dart One Design dinghy, racing and the DOD Dartmouth Club 1922-40
  8. The Red Sea ports 1922-25, Aqaba, Jeddah, Suakin
  9. Philipine stilt villages, 1928/29
  10. Campeador IV & V
  11. Reconnaisance trip to the Portuguese Micronesia Islands (Madeira, Azores) 1939
  12. The MacAndrew shipping line, 1880-191
  13. The River Nile and antique sites, 1904-06
  14. The Brixham Trawler 1920-40
  15. Shell collecting in tropical waters, 1920s

Each of these Capsules needs to have a statement explaining the context behind the subject, linked to the time the images were likely taken. It also needs a point of view on the signficance of the images taken by MacAndrew.

Some work will need to be done in the Dartmouth Museum Archive, in which case you will need to be a member of the Museum.

If you are interested in helping or would like to understand more, please contact us here: Contact us