Photographers Archives?

[Matt R]

Hello all,

I have recently come into the possession of some old Victorian photographs but unfortunately the subjects are all unidentified. However, on the reverse of a few of them are numbers (such as 792, 8024, etc), which I believe might correspond to the photographers keeping some kind of record of an order number the subjects may have quoted to obtain copies.

Does anyone know, or has anyone ever had experience, of sources that might list these numbers alongside the names of the subjects in the photos? I have a photo of a man taken in Frank Holmes Studios, Clifton, Bristol and on the reverse is the number 5241. I am hoping that I might find an archive for the company and be able to find some sort of list containing the number and match it up to the man's name. Is this possible?

I'm aware that this is a long shot but I thought I would ask as the more I look at them, the more tantalising their mystery becomes.

I'd appreciate any tips or pointers, or perhaps an injection of optimism if anyone on this forum has had success in chasing up photo sequence numbers in the past.

Looking forward to hearing from you all.

Kind regards,
Matt.

[Sandblown]

https://archives.bristol.gov.uk/search/any:records/0_50/all/score_desc/Frank%20Holmes%20Studios

The above Link might be worth contacting. With respect to various historical Photography Studios holding references to individual photographs, it depends on what has survived, and passed on to Public and Private Collections.

[Rena]

My suggestion is that if you have a local auction house, that you ask them what they thought of the album.  There may be one or more specific photos that  collectors would want to include in their own collections.