Sheffield photographic collection goes under the hammer

Last month, Tim Hale sold his vast collection of Sheffield postcards at auction.  Over a 50-year period, he amassed 10,000 unique and unusual images depicting all areas and aspects of Sheffield’s history.  We were keen to buy as many of these as possible so, with the help of generous public donations, we headed off to the auction…

Archivist, Benjamin picked up the 

postcards from Sheffield Auction 

Gallery last week

Thousands of rare images went 

up for auction

Bidding at an auction is a nerve-wracking prospect at the best of times, and ever more so when you know it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire - on behalf of the city - items of huge historical importance.  The Tim Hale Photographic Collection was a remarkable assemblage of rare images of Sheffield covering not only the city centre but suburban postcodes too.  Many of the images are one-of-a-kind and are of great historical value.


Once the auction catalogue was published, we had to move fast to identify the images we wanted to buy and, more importantly, raise funds to purchase the lots.  A public appeal was made for donations and we were overwhelmed by people’s generosity.  Within days £2,500 was donated, supplemented by a grant from the J.G. Graves Charitable Trust of £5,000.  

Thanks to these kind offers of support, we were able to purchase over 2,000 postcards which have now been added to the City Libraries’ photographic archive. 






We secured a fantastic array of subjects and places including: street scenes, sporting activities, hospitals, pubs, transport, temperance, industry, local greetings cards, advertising, early aviation, World War One, local elections, schools, theatres and many more.  We picked the lots up last week and we’ve already started to sort through the photographs and add them to www.picturesheffield.com  

Archives and Heritage Manager, Pete and Picture 

Sheffield volunteer, Andrew have been surveying 

the collection at Sheffield Central Library 

ready for scanning

Over the next few weeks and months we’ll let you know as soon as new material is uploaded.  We will also be arranging an exhibition of images in the Central Library early next year.

We would like to thank everyone who donated to our fundraiser; every £1 made a difference and, without you, we would not have been able to save such a significant part of Sheffield’s pictorial history for future generations.
  
We are also indebted to Tim Hale himself; without his passion for Sheffield’s history over the past 50 years, many of these images would not survive today.

For more information on this story, including an interview with Tim, see The Yorkshire Post’s recent article online: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/people/sheffield-s-story-in-pictures-as-remarkable-hoard-of-10-000-cards-amassed-by-a-single-collector-goes-on-sale-1-9975252