A digital treasure trove

A hugely ambitious initiative to digitise the contents of the COUNTRY LIFE photographic archive during the magazine’s 125th anniversary year promises to make its riches properly accessible to everyone for the first time. John Goodall reports

- John Goodall

FOR the first 3½ years of its existence, until June 29, 1901, this magazine was called COUNTRY LIFE ILLUSTRATED. The name underlined its most innovative feature: the inclusion of large-scale and high-quality photographs within the running text of the magazine. In achieving this remarkable combination, it was then at the vanguard of printing technology. Other magazines and newspapers were quick to catch up, but, of all the publications available today in a British newsagent, COUNTRY LIFE can claim to be the first to have undertaken this revolution in photographic illustration. It remains the only ‘glossy’ weekly in the world.

As a consequence of its high-quality illustration, the magazine has never ceased to commission its own photography. This has been delivered week after week for the past 125 years in a bewildering variety of formats, including glass plate negatives, large-format acetates, 35mm slides and, for the past 15 years or so, as digital files. The images cover every imaginable subject, from pictures of notable buildings, gardens and the countryside to social events and people. Many of these photographs have appeared in the pages of the magazine, but, equally, others have never seen the light of day since they were received and set aside by the art desk for some long-forgotten reason.

Organising the archive has always been— and remains—a major challenge, not least because there is a big demand for the re-use of images, both within the magazine and beyond. Finding images, however, has always required dedicated and specialist oversight.