If you're looking for a photograph, try the Daily Herald Archive

Blogger: Caroline Dempsey, Collections Assistant

Ever wondered what your sister or father looked like on the day they emigrated to Australia? Looking for photographs of how your town looked 50 years ago, or searching for images of David Attenborough in his youth. There's a good chance that the image you're searching for is in the Daily Herald Archive.

The Daily Herald archive comprises over 3 million photographs covering a period from 1911 through to the 1960s. The archive is broadly split into three sections: places, events and people.

Requests are many and varied, and although the photograph you are searching for may not be in the archive, a search is always conducted and often we find just what you were after.

Here are some of the photographs we found for members of the public last year:

Caroline Williamson emailed from Australia, her grandfather was the Welsh politician Siegfried Owen Davies who accompanied the then King Edward around the Dowlais Steel Works in 1936. Her grandfather's file of photographs, taken over the many years he spent as a Member of Parliament, included one of him at Dowlais taken by the Herald photographer Edward Malindine.





Another Australian Stephen Mole contacted us, he was looking for a photograph of his father, Patrick, on the day he emigrated to Australia in 1949. His dad was 14 at the time and kept a diary recording his trip down under. We managed to find a photograph of the whole family as they set sail for Tasmania in time for a family celebration.



Barry Flynn remembered a Daily Herald photographer coming to his house in Liverpool in 1959. The paper was writing an article about the training of police dogs and Barry, aged 8 at the time, was photographed with his father's police dog "Jet" at their Allerton home.



So whether you have a relation who was a Past Miss Ireland, an artist, pilot, sports star, boxing referee or model we may have a photograph of them in the archive. Did your relative play host to Mahatma Gandhi when he toured England in 1931? A Mrs J P Davies did and her photograph is here in the archive.

Did your parents emigrate to New Zealand on board the "Rangitata" in 1947? Were you one of the 14 members of the Jones family of Chatham, Kent who moved to New Zealand in 1960 or one of the many Over-Seas League Child Migrants?

Perhaps you are a member of the Reading based Torpedoes Football Club who emigrated to Australia on masse in 1969. Or one of the Finnegan's from Dublin who in 1966 were bound for Ontario. Or a Templeton from Kingston, Jamaica on their way to the UK. If you think we might have the image you're after contact us and we'll conduct a search for you.