Photos from MO archive

The photographs shown here are part of a collection of over 900 pictures taken by Humphrey Spender between 1937 and 1938. They are all taken in Bolton at the request of Tom Harrisson, one of the founders of the Mass-Observation project. Humphrey Spender's photographs offer a fascinating insight into the lives of ordinary people living and working in a British pre-war industrial town.

See all of Humphrey Spender’s Worktown photographs on the Bolton Museum website.  

Click on the images to view larger versions.

Queen's Park
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

Back street near Burnden Park football ground
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

85 Davenport Street, Tom Harrisson - this was MO Headquarters
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

Blackpool's crowded sands
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

Bolton Bethal Sunbeams (Four Square Evangelists) at choral workshop
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

Bolton outskirts
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

Children in electioneering hats
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

Industrial scene - textile mills
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

Inside 85 Davenport Street, planning day's activities with resident Mass observers
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

Interior - bar, Swiss Hotel - Walter Hood, ex-miner, mass observer waits to observe customers
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

Park mill seen behind back to back houses
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

Parliamentary bye-election - house to house canvassing
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

Pub interior
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

Reading room
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

Street life - children playing
Credit: Copyright Bolton Council from the Bolton Museum and Archive collection

All historical, and current, Mass Observation material on this website is available to use according to the Terms and Condition, with the exception of the Humphrey Spender Bolton photographs, which may not be used at all.

See MOCO photos