Our Archives

W. W. Winter photographers started life in 1852 as E. N. Charles, a photo studio on Midland Road, Derby. Walter William Winter had been working with Charles from 1860 and on Charles’ death in 1863 (and with the agreement of Charles’ widow, Sarah) Winter began trading from the same studio, as ‘W. W. Winter (late E N Charles)’.

In 1867 Winter opened his purpose built daylight photography studio just across the road from the original premises; which still trades today as W. W. Winter photographers.

W W Winter photographers shop fronts
The original shop front at 2 Midland Road; Winter’s purpose built studio at 45 Midland Road; and the studio today ©W W Winter

The current proprietors have long known and cherished the collection of glass plate and film negatives from the company’s 150+ years history, and published two books in the 1990’s of images from the business’s archives which included landscapes, portraits and commercial photography.

Book Covers The Winters Collection of Derby
The Winter’s Collection of Derby Volumes 1 and 2 ©W W Winter

We celebrated 150 years of the building in 2017 with an exhibition in conjunction with Derby Museums and Format Festival 2017.

photographs from the 2017 exhibition People, Places, Things
Photographs from the 2017 FORMAT Festival / Derby Museums exhibition. ‘People, Places, Things’ ©W W Winter

Whilst some of our thousands of images are archived and added to a database, many more remain still to be rediscovered and part of the W. W. Winter Heritage Trust’s remit is to scan and record these old glass plate and film negatives which we continue to add, both with the invaluable assistance of volunteers, and as part of funded initiatives such as our World War 1 prisoner of war project.

Three photographs from the Behind the Barbed Wire HLF funded project. Two men in military uniform and a landscape photograph
Images from the HLF funded project ‘Behind the Barbed Wire’, printed from original glass plate negatives ©W W Winter

We still have thousands of images which need recording but as we progress we have an increasing number of searchable images available for licensing including portraits from as early the late 18th century through to the mid 19th century. As well as portraits we have images covering transport, industry, products and buildings and landscapes and are invested in researching these images as well as the history of the business. We are also able to loan out artefacts including cameras from our collection. Do get in touch on friends@wwwinter.co.uk if you have any queries related to our work.