FOR the first 3½ years of its existence, until June 29, 1901, this magazine was called COUNTRY LIFE ILLUSTRATED. The name underlined its most innovative feature: the inclusion of large-scale and high-quality photographs within the running text of the magazine. In achieving this remarkable combination, it was then at the vanguard of printing technology. Other magazines and newspapers were quick to catch up, but, of all the publications available today in a British newsagent, COUNTRY LIFE can claim to be the first to have undertaken this revolution in photographic illustration. It remains the only ‘glossy’ weekly in the world.
As a consequence of its high-quality illustration, the magazine has never ceased to commission its own photography. This has been delivered week after week for the past 125 years in a bewildering variety of formats, including glass plate negatives, large-format acetates, 35mm slides and, for the past 15 years or so, as digital files. The images cover every imaginable subject, from pictures of notable buildings, gardens and the countryside to social events and people. Many of these photographs have appeared in the pages of the magazine, but, equally, others have never seen the light of day since they were received and set aside by the art desk for some long-forgotten reason.
Organising the archive has always been— and remains—a major challenge, not least because there is a big demand for the re-use of images, both within the magazine and beyond. Finding images, however, has always required dedicated and specialist oversight.
Denne historien er fra January 05, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra January 05, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
