Library Image Collection

Guernsey Gossip portraits 1907 and 1908

1st April 2015
A list of photographs in the magazine Guernsey Gossip and Visitors' List, which ran weekly during 1907/8; it was based at 42, the Pollet, and was printed by Frederick Watts of the Manor Printing Works. Please contact the Library for further information. The staff photographer seems to have been A Laurens, of 19 the Pollet, and of Jersey, where the magazine (known there as Jersey Week by Week) had its main offices.  The 'Weekly Portrait' of an island worthy was accompanied by a biography.

My little brothers: Christmas with Victor Hugo, 1862

Hugo and the children from Delalande, Priaulx Library Collection
From the Gazette de Guernesey, Saturday 27 December, a report on Hugo's Christmas party for deprived children; a letter from Hugo to his wife, whose idea it all was in the first place; and another to the French publisher Castel, in which he plans to donate the proceeds of a new book of drawings to his poor Guernsey protégés. The editor of the Gazette at this time was Hugo's friend and disciple, Guernseyman Henri Marquand. The photograph accompanying this article is dated 1868. It was taken in March by Arsène Garnier. (Another very similar set of photographs was taken by a Jerseyman with a studio in London, named Henry Frankland, in February 1868; the Library has a photographic plate of one of these iconic images.) This particular photograph was popular with the public at the time; they could buy it in the local shops.Article by Dinah Bott.

Lost things: Laine's store, 1951

Laine's store by Carel Toms from the Priaulx Library Collection
'Demolition and rebuilding of one of the oldest houses in St Peter Port is to take place shortly. The house is one belonging to the Guernsey Savings Bank and stands opposite the Berthelot Street Restaurant.' An article by (probably) Carel Toms published in the Guernsey Press November 15 1950; photographs of the demolition and rebuilding are in the Toms collection at the Library.

The Harvey Family

Newlands, the Harvey house, from the Priaulx Library Collection
Throughout the occupation of Guernsey (1940-45) Winifred Harvey (1888-1976) kept a diary, which has been edited and published under the title The Battle of Newlands, and which is still in print. In keeping her diary, she followed a family tradition; the Harveys have left behind them comprehensive records from the middle of the 19th century, so detailed that their lives could virtually be reconstructed from them, and much of that material is here at the Library. Their house, Newlands, is illustrated in the photograph above, from the Library Collection.

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