Within the archive of family albums, the emphasis is necessarily on people rather than places. A street or a building might be present in a photograph, but often only as a backdrop. As a result, this archive contains fewer pictures of places than might be found in photographic archives held by other record offices and libraries.
However, the archive does contain material in which the place is the subject. Very often, these photographs are copies of postcards of city and town
centres, or of particularly well-known streets or buildings such as churches, town halls and monuments. Because of this, the information about these photographs is usually less detailed than for those involving family members. Sometimes, a date can be guessed at using external evidence, but even this can be problematical.
Many people remain fascinated by photographs which show how familiar streets and buildings have changed over the course of a number of years. This selection deals with
six of the ten metropolitan districts within the County of Greater Manchester. We are hoping to add selections relating to the other five districts soon.
