The Pictorial Record of Essex at 
the Museum. 
As Curator of the “ material ” of the Record I would like to suggest 
a few by-paths of work which might lead our amateur photographers to 
produce results of lasting value. 
We shall doubtless receive for the collection pictures of Churches and 
Church-porches galore, but these are very persistent things, and will be in 
evidence, it is to be hoped, for many centuries yet to come. It is the 
changeful and fleeting, rather than the permanent, that first claims our care. 
Personally I should welcome photographs of work-a-day and 
holiday costumes, methods of making things in village industries, modes 
of fishing, agricultural scenes, street scenes, and pictures of markets and 
fairs. In remote parts of the county smock frocks are still worn, sturdy 
teams of oxen draw the plough ; by keen searching we may find some of 
the old-time waggons and tumbrils ; the flail is still being swung even in 
transforming Essex and the gleaners still claim largess from the wayfarer ; 
the piquant sun-bonnet shades the pretty faces of the children as they 
trudge through the lanes to school, and the graceful shawl drawn over the 
head has not been everywhere flung aside to make room for shabby copies 
of French millinery. I hope even to secure a photograph of a chimney¬ 
pot hat in situ , before that strange and wonderful thing vanishes into the 
limbo of the past ! 
And beside such records of fleeting fashions, let us not forget interiors 
of humble homes afid “ Liberty ’’-furnished “ drawing rooms,” rose- 
covered thatched cottages and stuccoed “ villas,” vistas of village life and 
photographs of mean streets, Constable bridges and modern railway 
arches ; Burket Foster-like groups of rosy-cheeked urchins in the lanes, 
swarms of pale-faced slum-children dabbling in the gutters—beauty and 
health, ugliness and misery. In short, truthful sun-pictures of our social 
life and its strange contrasts, that men to come in happier times may 
wonder and pity. 
William Cole. 
N.B.—Many of the above-named “ subjects ” may be secured by 
means of the interesting and really valuable modern “ cult ” of the 
Picture Post-Card. These very truthful records will form an important 
part of our collection, and cards from the county and its border-lands will 
be most welcome. 
