The Dyche Collection

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): N/A

Title: The Dyche Collection

Date(s): c.1920 - 1980

Level of description: Fonds

Extent and medium of the unit of description: c. 20 boxes of glass and acetate negatives; c.12 boxes of prints; c.10 boxes of ephemera and business records; miscellaneous artefacts, cameras, props

CONTEXT AREA

Name of creator(s): Ernest Dyche, Malcolm Dyche

Administrative/Biographical history: The Dyche Collection, acquired by Birmingham Central Library in 1990, relates to two professional portrait studios established and run by Ernest Dyche (1887-1973). A self-taught photographer, Dyche opened his first premises, The Palace Studio, at 32 Coventry Road, Bordesley Green around 1910. The studio was situated close to the Bordesley Palace Theatre, and Dyche developed a specialised trade in theatrical portraiture, producing photographs of the music hall and variety turns who performed on the Birmingham stage. He also produced individual, group, family and wedding portraits for those attending his studio.

Dyche opened a second studio on the Moseley Road, Balsall Heath a few years later. For a short while he took sittings at both sites, before concentrating on his newer premises, which had previously been used as a photographic studio in the early 1890s. Dyche trained his son, Malcolm (1921-1990), in the art of photographic portraiture, and for many years he worked alongside his father. In an effort to increase their trade, Malcolm photographed guests at dinners and social events in Birmingham, and together father and son promoted themselves as ‘Clubland and Theatrical Photographers.’

They continued taking ‘Clubland and Theatrical’ portraits up until the mid 1950s, when the rise of cinema and television led to a decline in theatre attendance, and music halls and variety theatres began to close. The influx of cameras from Europe after the war also encouraged more people to take their own pictures, and together these two factors led to a decline in Dyche’s business.

This change occurred around the same time that the first wave of migrants arrived in Birmingham from Africa, the Caribbean and Indian sub-continent, many of whom visited Dyche’s studio to have portraits made for their friends and relatives back home. Over the next twenty-five years, the bulk of the studio’s clientele was drawn from Birmingham and Balsall Heath’s Asian and African-Caribbean communities. By the time it ceased operating in the mid 1980s, the studio had inadvertently documented the development of both the first and second generations of this initial wave of immigration, and helped to record an important phase in Birmingham’s history.

Archival history: The collection was retrieved from the Dyche studios by the Library’s Head of Photography, Pete James. The intermediate souce of acquisition:The Dyche studios, Moseley Road

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: c. 20 boxes of glass and acetate negatives; c.12 boxes of prints; c.10 boxes of ephemera and business records; miscellaneous artefacts, cameras, props.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals: No further accruals are expected

System of arrangement: The collection is currently uncatalogued

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA

Conditions governing access: Open to public access by prior appointment

Conditions governing reproduction:

Language/scripts of material: English

Physical characteristics: Photographs

Finding aids: None

ALLIED MATERIALS AREA

Existence and location of originals: Local Studies and History Department, Birmingham Central Library, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham B3 3HQ

Existence and location of copies: None known

Related units of description:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA

Recorder's note: Compiled by David Bishop

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: February 2002

Interest: Black, Asian

Specific group: African-Caribbean peoples

Subjects

Asian peoples

African-Caribbean peoples

Photographs

Personal/Corporate names

Dyche, Ernest, 1887-1973

Dyche, Malcolm, 1921-1990

Places

Birmingham, United Kingdom