Wellcome Photographic Diaries

Three printed Wellcome Photographic Year Books used by Fred Rich as early photographic exposure diaries between 1948 and 1951. The volumes contain tabular entries recording dates, locations, photographic subjects, film stock and exposure details, documenting Rich's efforts to record and organise his railway photography in a systematic manner.

The diaries document an early photographic recording system developed by Rich alongside the photographic workflow later incorporated into the Railway Logbooks and provide evidence of his efforts to organise and manage photographic information in a systematic manner. Entries focus on the technical and administrative aspects of photography, principally recording locomotive subjects, locations, film stock and exposure details. One volume contains retrospective annotations added by Rich in later years, including references to photographic negative numbering and indexing systems.

The volumes are used inconsistently. One diary records exposures made between January and March 1948; a second, originally issued for 1948, was reused for entries relating to photographs taken in April 1949; and a third volume, issued for 1950, contains a single entry dated 10 July 1951.

Taken together, the diaries provide an early record of Rich's photographic activities and illustrate the development of the systematic record-keeping practices that formed an important part of his wider railway documentation systems.