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HERITAGE AND HISTORY
IN PRACTICE
Enhancing Research Culture through Co-production and Public Participation
In 2026, UK Research and Innovation is funding a new project at the University of Lancashire that will bring members of the public together to co-produce an exhibition using their own family history stories and heritage materials, with academic expertise and support from Project Lead Dr Brandon Taylorian.
The project aims to develop a model of 'participatory heritage' that prioritises the community–university relationship in historical research and to foster local community identity.
Please join us for the Exhibition Launch Event starting at 6pm on Wednesday 24th June at the University of Lancashire's Student Centre in Preston.
Some images from the Dating Antique Photographs Workshops in East Lancashire libraries, August 2025.
Keeping East Lancashire
in the Picture
Dr Taylorian was thrilled to be asked by Lancashire Archives to host four 'Dating Antique Photographs' workshops as part of the National Lottery Heritage Fund project Keeping East Lancashire in the Picture (2023–2025).
Throughout August 2025, Dr Taylorian hosted a series of workshops in Accrington, Burnley, Nelson and Colne libraries, with excellent feedback and public engagement.
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Carte de visite dated circa 1877.
Project Extension: Making Family History Matter
We are thrilled to announce that extra funding has been secured through the University of Lancashire's Institute of Creativity, Communities and Culture to extend the Dating Antique Photographs Project.
With the new funding, project lead, Dr Brandon Taylorian, is able to offer a new set of workshops due to be hosted in Preston in June and July 2025 and the publication of the Handbook of Family History Methods. With a broader remit, the project extension will focus on best practice in family history research and develop the skill among family historians of how to give their research historical relevance to convey family history as a serious mode of academic, historical inquiry.
New Handbook Published in 2025
The Handbook of Family History Methods is a short publication created by University of Lancashire Research Associate Dr Brandon Reece Taylorian. It follows The Handbook of Antique Photographs, published in 2024, by broadening its remit to address best practices in family history research based on Taylorian's personal research journey.
The handbook features tips and tricks on all aspects of the family history research process, including how to acquire resources like birth, marriage and death certificates, the importance of newspapers and other secondary sources to family history research, the role of religion in family history and other key topics of interest to family historians.
Click here or the cover to download the handbook for free.
Workshop Outreach Programme (2025)
First Making Family History Matter Workshop at Livesey House, University of Lancashire, Preston, 19 June 2025.
Second Family History Matter Workshop at Livesey House, University of Lancashire, Preston, 10 July 2025.
Antique photographs are our portal to the past
Welcome to the official website of the Dating Antique Photographs Project. This project is funded by the Institute of Creativity, Communities and Culture at the University of Lancashire.
It is the aim of the project to provide knowledge of nineteenth and early twentieth century photographs to help people analyse and date these fascinating items. Antique photographs are portals to an interesting social history that needs to be uncovered.
Workshop Outreach Programme
(2024–2026)
First Dating Antique Photographs Workshop at Livesey House, University of Lancashire, Preston, 19 June 2024.
Specialist Dating Antique Photographs Workshop at Lancashire Archives, Preston, 20 December 2024.
Second Dating Antique Photographs Workshop at Livesey House, University of Lancashire, Preston, 10 July 2024.
Dating Antique Photographs Workshop at The Harris, Preston, 12 March 2026.
Defining "antique"
For any item, including photographs, to be officially classified as "antique", it must have origins from at least 100 years ago (i.e. 1924 or before). If an item is between 50 and 100 years ago, then it may be referred to as "vintage."
Volume 54 No. 3, August 2024.
Academic Publication
Dr Brandon Taylorian's peer-reviewed article 'Family Portraits in Victorian Lancashire' published in The Local Historian in 2024 retraces the different types of photographs that appeared during the Victorian period using examples from his own family collection.
The front page of that issue of The Local Historian features an ambrotype dated 1858 of Dr Taylorian's 4th great-grandparents Ralph and Agnes Moon.
Contact
CONTACT
Send copies of your antique photographs by email to
brtaylorian@lancashire.ac.uk and Brandon will analyse them for you.
Dr Brandon Taylorian
Research Fellow at the University of Lancashire and Project Lead for the Co-producing Local History Project.
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