Featured Item (03/04/2020)

We will regularly feature an item from the collection that we think may be of special interest to visitors (follow us on Twitter for updates).

This week’s item features a postcard of Phyllis Neilson-Terry, born on October 15, 1892 in London, England. She was an actress of both stage and screen, known for Tense Moments with Great Authors (1922), Trilby (1922), and Boadicea (1927). She married twice, first to Cecil King (b. 1877 – d. 1958) and later to Heron Carvic (b. 1913 – d. 1980), who were both also actors. She died on September 25, 1977 in London.

This item is one of a number of postcards within our collection, most of which originate from Picturegoer Magazine’s ‘Picturegoer Postcard Club’, a subscription service that provided readers with a regular supply of black and white, as well as hand-coloured, images of their favourite film stars of the period.

University of Sussex/The Keep

Richard, Annette, Sarah, and Jamie visited the University of Sussex on February 19th, 2020. Taking full advantage of their time, the team explored the Mass Observation archive at The Keep, with Jamie and Sarah taking the opportunity to read through a number 1930s and 40s letters written to Picturegoer Magazine. In the early afternoon, the team met members of The Keep’s archival staff to discuss digitisation and cataloguing processes, This proved to be very helpful, with the staff keen to stay in touch with us and happy to help with further queries.

Following a productive afternoon at The Keep, the team delivered a research seminar, which explored the aims and outputs of the CMDA project, to staff and students of the University’s School of Media, Film and Music. A number of interesting questions were asked by attendees, along with some useful suggestions that the team have taken on board as they move forward with the project.