THE BINGLEY ARCHIVE

Podcast

The Bingley archive is a collection of almost 10,000 glass plate photographs held at the University of Leeds. It was created at the end of the nineteenth century by Godfrey Bingley of Western Yorkshire. A prominent industrialist, Bingley was also a self-taught photographer, amateur geologist, local historian, globe-trotter, dreamer, and romantic. In 1913, Bingley would donate his collection to the newly-established University. There, it was passed between the departments of geology, archaeology, history, and Special Collections. The contents of the archive, and its legacy, tell fascinating tales about Edwardian Leeds, the birth of travel photography, the beginnings of the oil industry, the global history of the University, and its present outlook.

​

In 2018, I made a podcast about the archive. You can listen here. 

​