Between the Covers

Unbound. A substantial archive of 835 snapshot stereoview photographs taken by the avid cyclist and noteworthy photographer Thomas Henry Pettipher during his many cycling tours throughout Western Europe mostly between 1905 and 1915, with some later. The stereographic photographs, most annotated, some on the verso, are housed in 30 green stereoview boxes, which are numbered. Also included is a cabinet card photograph of Pettipher on his bicycle in front of a churchyard, circa 1905. Slight age-toning on boxes and foxing on some of the photographs, overall very good or better.

Pettipher’s journeys took him through Europe in the decade before the World War I broke out. His images depict pre-war Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, and Italy, among others. Pettipher photographs local people, customs, landscapes, historic buildings, and relics, most with captions. Some of the captions describe the photo process used to produce the image. One reads, “this is a double exposure, first on ‘La Fajolle the dirty’ then on a doorway and woman at Tarascon next day. The latter being under-exposed hardly shows till viewed in the ‘scope, when it looks like a mirage or ghost.”

Thomas Henry Pettipher (1872-1954) was a grocer from Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, who owned the town's principal grocery store, which was opened by his father. He was an avid cyclist and stereo photography enthusiast. Pettipher was a member of the United Stereoscopic Society, which was founded in 1904. Labels dated in manuscript and pasted to verso of some of the photographs, reveal that several of these were entered in a competition. He was also Secretary of the Chipping Norton Golf Club. One of his touring companions was Francis Dalby (1869-1918), a timber and slate merchant from the Banbury region. Pettipher died at his home, "The Bungalow" on 27 August 1954.

A superb group of turn of the century stereoscopic works documenting pre-World War I Europe.

Item #409868