Topical Press Agency 1903 - 1957

1903: Founded by J.B. Helsby, a photographer, and Walter J. Edward, a photographic salesman.

Expanded rapidly to cope with the increasing demand for press photography in the early twentieth century. By the 1930's the company had a team of photographers in London and over a thousand agents world wide.

Staff at the London headquarters at 10 & 11 Red Lion Court would produce prints from glass plate negatives and write captions to accompany the images for the picture desks of newspapers and commercial clients in shipping, rail and transport industries.

The company began to struggle when changes in photographic journalism, and the advent of television, diminished the demand for their services. 1957: The company closed.