William Boyne folios

Ten volumes of lithographs, engravings, photographs and original drawings of the exteriors and interiors of buildings and of views in the Yorkshire Ridings. The volumes were compiled by William Boyne who collected images of the places he visited and had them bound into albums. The volumes are arranged in alphabetical order of parish.

Each volume is prefaced with a holograph list of the contents. The leaves have been numbered by hand. Some of the leaves are missing. With Boyne's bookplate on pastedown on the inside of the front cover.

Of particular importance are the photographs by Roger Fenton (1819-1869). Fenton was one of the first war photographers. He travelled to Balaklava in 1855 during the Crimean War to record images of the conflict.

Fenton journeyed widely round Britain photographing landscapes. Trained as a painter, he was a founder member of the Photographic Society in 1853. In his photography he reinterpreted established genres of art, using light in his photographs in particularly dramatic ways. Fenton gave up photography in 1862, when it became more commercialised.

There are item level records for the photographs by Fenton in each volume. Some photographs are attributed to Fenton and item level records have also been created for these. The catalogue records include digital images of the photographs.

William Boyne was a numismatist, traveller and collector born in 1814 in Leeds. Boyne attended Leeds Grammar School for 3 years, but was otherwise home schooled. Thomas Boyne, his father, was a tobacco importer, manufacturer and vendor. In 1830 Boyne entered his father's business, which he later inherited. Ill health impelled him to sell the business in 1853. After this Boyne moved to London where he spent his time enriching his coin and engraving collection. Today he is particularly known as a numismatist. His extensive collection comprised over 30,000 coins and tokens. A great traveller, Boyne also collected engravings and lithographs of places he visited. These he had bound with holograph lists of the contents. In 1870 Boyne went to live in Italy. He died in 1893 in Florence.

This collection is fully accessible and not subject to restrictions under the Data Protection Act