Race to Save the Horner Collection

What is the Horner Collection?

The Horner Collection is a group of over 1000 photographs which were taken by the Horner family. The Horners ran a photography studio in Settle for three generations from 1864 to 1960. Their photographs capture the changing faces and places of Settle and the surrounding areas for nearly a hundred years.

Many of the portrait photographs include the names of the people pictured. This means that we can match many names to faces which are known through the Settle Graveyard Project and other research. 

The collection includes many original glass plate negatives which will need careful conservation and storage.

Obverse of Walter Morrison photo reproduced by kind permission of Giggleswick School, The Brayshaw Archive. 

Who is pictured in the Horner Collection?

We know a large number of the photos are of Settle inhabitants between 1860-1964 and that many of them have names attached.

Miss Margaret Bolland

Miss Margaret Bolland was a well-known local lady in the 1800s. She was a little eccentric: a Dalesman article describes how she "collected peacock feathers diligently. She stitched them in rows on a long cloak she wore down to her heels and as she trotted around in the summer sunshine she was quite a gorgeous spectacle." The Horner photograph is the only known picture of Margaret, but we can't guarantee she was wearing the cloak at the time!

The Walker Children, 1855

William Walker was a chemist who moved to Settle from Sussex and married Emily Towler. Emily had been raised in the West Indies, as her father was a missionary. They had three children. This must have been a tough year for the family: all three of Emily's sisters died in the same week. The family carried on, though, having a portrait of their children captured for posterity. 

Are your ancestors in the Horner Collection? You can find out on our website.

Why should the Horner Collection come to the Museum of North Craven Life? 

This collection is part of North Craven's unique heritage and we believe that it should stay in the area! We feel strongly that the collection must stay together as a record of change in the 19th and 20th centuries and that the Museum is the best place to make it publicly accessible. At the moment, many of the images are only available as glass plate negatives. We want to create a digital catalogue of the images for everyone to enjoy.

Above: Alfred Neave Brayshaw, a prominent Quaker from Manchester, who is pictured in the collection. He spoke frequently at Settle's Meeting House.

What will we do with the Horner Collection?

If we are able to raise the funds we need to purchase the collection, we will start a project to conserve, catalogue and digitise all the photographs. Our ultimate goal is to create a permanent exhibition of the collection in the Museum of North Craven Life and a searchable digital catalogue of every image. This catalogue will be freely available for researchers, local historians and family historians, helping put faces to names from the past.

What funding do we need?

The V&A Purchase Grant Fund  have generously awarded us a grant, which will cover half the cost of purchasing the collection. We need to raise the remaining funds before the end of March, so that we don't lose the grant.

£1500 of this crowdfunder will go towards the purchase of the Horner Collection. 

£200 will go towards the costs of packaging and transporting the collections to The Folly.

The remaining £50 will cover crowdfunder's transaction fees (1.9% +£0.23 +VAT per transaction, estimated at £52.50, assuming an average donation amount of £20 per transaction). 

If we do not meet our target, all monies raised will go towards the care of our existing collections.