Barnardo’s teams up with TopFoto to digitize historic childrens photo archive
Barnardo’s a childrens charity in the UK founded by Thomas Barnardo in the early 1870’s has teamed up with TopFoto, a stock photo agency specializing in archiving and marketing historic imagery, to digitize Barnardo’s unique historical image archive. The Barnardo’s archive includes half a million photos making it a unique document of British social history from the dirty, destitute boys dressed in rags that were taken in to the first home in Stepney Causeway to the shiny faced babies at Babies Castle in Kent. ‘Thomas Barnardo was a man ahead of his time. He realised the power of images for fundraising – and it would only be through effective fundraising that he could continue his work rescuing children from the gutters and doorsteps of London,’ says Barnardo’s UK Director of Marketing & Communications, Andrew Nebel.
‘The photographs are quite remarkable – page after page of bewildered children’s faces, some defiant, some sad, but all totally compelling. The archive is a massive resource of imagery, of children, teenagers and families. As a photographic library, it’s great to be involved with the history of this influential charity,’ says Alan Smith, Managing Partner of TopFoto.co.uk
TopFoto has stated plans to initially scan 150,000 images and create a digital archive of selected material. Every child entering Barnardo’s was photographed and currently, 140 boxes of the original Victorian albums are being digitised. TopFoto.co.uk will be licensing a selection of Barnardo’s images which are suitable for publishing to earn income for the charity and further promote its continuing existence as one of the UK’s largest children’s charities.
Web: TopFoto.co.uk - Barnardos.org.uk
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