Gibby Lantern Slides

Glass lantern slides, taken or collected by Gibby to record the changing appearance of Durham city, and to provide illustrations for his lectures on local history and a wide range of other historical topics. See under Arrangement for quantity and nature of content.

Dr. Clifton William ('Jack') Gibby FSA lectured in chemistry at the University of Durham 1926-1967, but was best known for his wide knowledge of local history and other matters of antiquarian interest, on which he lectured widely.

Gibby's lantern slide collection was based on a nucleus given to him by William Arthur Bramwell, a keen Durham amateur photographer who made a hobby from about 1900 of photographing parts of the city which he realised were under threat. To this nucleus, supplemented by gifts from Canon Thomas Romans, Gibby added slides he himself took in advance of the large scale demolitions of run-down areas in the early 1960's, to record what was about to disappear.

Also included are the slides he accumulated to illustrate his popular lectures on local history and other historical topics.

Dr Gibby arranged the collection in the following groups (the number of slides each contains is given in brackets):

• AB Abroad. (22)
• AC Architecture. (63)
• BC Bishops of Durham seals; City of Durham corporation and guilds. (79)
• BE Thomas Bewick (6)
• CD Co. Durham. (320)
• DA Durham Cathedral. (320)
• DC Durham City. (547)
• DM Durham county and city maps. (55)
• DU Durham University. (12)
• FF Firefighting and insurance. (10)
• FR American Institute for foreign study, Introd. to France. (21)
• GB Great Britain. (173)
• GH General history, mainly medieval French. (15)
• GS Grave slabs. (61)
• JU Justice (mainly ceremonial relating to the Durham assize judges). (22)
• LC 19th century fashions, furnishings and transport. (60)
• MC Misericords. (126)
• ME Medical illustration. (55)
• MG Durham miners' gala. (11)
• MN Mining technology. (53)
• MO Monasticism. (13)
• MS Manuscripts. (9)
• MY Myths and customs. (11)
• NC Northumberland. (82)
• PO Portraits. (82)
• RA Railways and transport. (54)
• RW Roman Wall, mainly diagrams, not topographical. (10)
• UC Durham Castle. (99)
• YO Yorkshire. (68)

Open for consultation.

Presented by Dr. Gibby, 1987.

Unpublished typescript list.

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Sub-Librarian, Special Collections (e-mail PG.Library@durham.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

The collection overlaps with two others given to the University library by Dr. Gibby: the Gibby Negatives Collection, and the Gibby Photographic Prints Collection. See also the Gibby Papers.