Edward W Mellor glass slide collection

Glass slides containing images captured by Edward Mellor and occasionally his travelling companions. Photographs record his travels though Britain and Europe as well as trips to Egypt and the Sudan, India and Ceylon [Sri Lanka].

Edward Mellor of Lytham was born in Birtle, Bury in 1852. His father Jonathan, was a manufacturer, and Edward seems to have followed him into the family's Oldham cotton-spinning business. By the early 1890s he had moved to Lytham, where he resided at Fairlawn.

Edward Mellor was a leading member and sometime President of The Manchester Geographical Society. Many of the slides were shown to its members (he achieved audiences in excess of 900) and some reproduced in the society's journal along with accounts of the travels to which they related. Mellor was also a member of the Royal Photographic Society and published accounts of his travels in its journal.

He was also an active member of Lytham society. He became a magistrate in the town and was involved in charitable works, especially later in promoting and contributing to the new Cottage Hospital which opened in 1930. The opening was very shortly after its benefactor's death - Edward Mellor died in London on 18 March 1930. He left a fortune of £198,000. His widow, Emma continued her late husband's associations with the hospital. The scale of their charitable giving may be gauged by the fact that when she died in 1944 her estate was valued at £33,000.

Open for consultation, on production of a valid CARN reader's ticket. Please see our website at http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/archives for more information

The full archive catalogue with digitised images can be searched online