Topographical views by botanist and amateur photographer, Arthur Harry Church

Key Facts

• Size: 1,300 images
• Coverage: Oxford and surrounding area
• Date range: largely 1890—1932
• 80 images are glass lantern slides of Oxford, taken in 1890—1900

POX0161499 - Church of St Oswald, Widford, 1929

Background

• Dr Arthur Harry Church (1865-1937) was born in Plymouth and, after completing an external London degree at Aberystwyth, he came up to Jesus College as a mature student in 1891.
• ‘Fortunately I learnt my botany before I came to Oxford,’ he later commented but he got a First in 1894! He spent the rest of his life in Oxford, teaching botany at the University until he retired in 1930.
• He married Emma Pratt, whom he’d met at Aberystwyth, in 1898 and the couple settled down in East Oxford.
• Arthur’s earliest surviving photographs were taken just before he got married and show daily life in Cowley Road as well as city centre scenes.
• Later negatives, dating from about 1921 to 1932, record both the botanist’s explorations in the Oxford area and days out with his daughter, Grace.

POX0066478 - Meadow Building, Christ Church College, Oxford, 1894