Photographs from the Glyndebourne Opera archive, 1934–1939

These photographs were discovered by Val Williams and Brigitte Lardinois in the archive of the Glyndebourne Opera in Sussex in 2008, during research for a book which would explore the Archive as part of the celebrations for Glyndebourne’s seventy-fifth anniversary. They are taken from a collection of snapshots given to the Archive by Angela Willan, who worked in Glyndebourne’s wardrobe department from 1951 to 1952 and by Mary Lewis, who sang in the Glyndebourne chorus from 1935 to 1937.

Researching in the Glyndebourne Archive proves that the history of photography is to be found not only in the monumental museum photography collections, but also in these parallel collections which would not, normally, be the photo historian’s first port of call. Unmined archives such as that at Glyndebourne, meticulously organized by archivist Julia Aries, provide yet another resource for those who aim to piece together the fragmented pieces of a complex photo historical jigsaw.