Meet the Collections: Charles Woolf

‘Hints for New Students... 18. Don’t forget an umbrella’

-          1927 Camborne School of Mines Magazine

After my first few weeks here, I am now settling into life in Cornwall. I have been to an Oyster Festival, eaten a Rhubarb and Custard Pasty and have been blown around all over the place by the windy weather.

I definitely think this tip from the 1927 CSM magazine for new students is still a very wise one!

In the office there is a running joke about how there should be a Trainee Anorak that is passed down to the new recruit each year!

With the weather included however, I am realising just how beautiful Cornwall is and this is really well captured in our Charles Woolf Slide Collection. 

Acer Japonicum (Japanese Maple)

 

Charles Woolf was a photographer whose love affair with all things Cornish began when he first visited the County in 1933. After making Newquay his permanent home in 1935, Woolf opened his own photographic business at Chester Road. In addition to the everyday business, he and his assistant Joyce Greenham would utilise their skills to capture many aspects of Cornish life and environment.

Frozen lake, Trenance Gardens, 1954 Feb 6

Many of these slides have been digitalised and are spanning the period 1953 – 1981, and as I sit here on this autumnal afternoon, I am instantly drawn to these pictures of Cornwall through the seasons.

 

Gathering daffodils in St. Dominic, 1960



Charles Woolf's father and his dog, circa 1953