{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1792526"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1792526/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1792526","accessionNumber":"RPS.3879:8-2024","objectType":"photograph","titles":[{"title":"Boer War","type":"assigned by artist"},{"title":"Hepworth Studio Photograph Album","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"After a short period working in the burgeoning British film industry, Cecil Hepworth and his cousin Monty Wicks established their own company, ‘Hepworth and Co’ or ‘Hepwix’, with a studio in Walton-on-Thames. This album features several photographs of the studio, which was one of the earliest in British history. The studio averaged three films a week, ranging from documentary films – including the funeral of Queen Victoria – to slapstick comedy and melodramas. In 1903, the studio produced the first film adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>, co-directed by Hepworth and Percy Stow. At the time, it was the longest film ever produced in Britian, running for about 12 minutes. The film is notable for its early use of special effects, including double exposures, dissolves, as well as oversize and undersize sets. As in many of Hepworth’s early films, <i>Alice in Wonderland</i> stars non-professional actors, including his wife Margaret Hepworth as the White Rabbit and the Queen, and a family pet as the Cheshire Cat. Alice was played by May Clark, a cinematographer and producer at Hepworth and Co. The album contains around 70 small albumen stills from Hepworth films, including many from <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>. Only one copy of the film still exists, currently held in the BFI archives.\r\n\r\nThis album may have been created and owned by Mabel ‘May’ Clark, also known as May Whitten. Alongside the film stills are press cuttings from Hepworth films and family photographs of May’s family, both as a child and with her husband Norman Whitton. May was born in Sunbury, Middlesex in 1885. Her father was a boatman in Walton-on-Thames. Hepworth hired May, along with her father and brother, to work at the newly established studio. May was interviewed in 1968 about her role at Hepworth and Co. In the mornings, May would make sets, props and costumes, as well as film. These tasks occasionally coincided with her also playing a role. In the evenings, she would develop and print the film, which she would run through a projector to check for errors. In 1907, May married Norman Whitten, who played the Mad Hatter in <i>Alice in Wonderland</i> four years earlier. On their marriage certificate, they both call themselves cinematographers. May left Hepworth and Co. in 1908 with the birth of her son Vernon Whitten. May went on to run two further studios with Norman, including the General Film Agency and Vanity Fair Pictures.\r\n\r\nThe album also includes a newspaper clipping which relates to the marriage of Prince Lo Bengula, also known as Peter Kushana Lobengula, to Kitty Jewell. Lobengula met Jewell – the daughter of a Cornish mining engineer – in Bloemfontein, South Africa. In 1899, Lobengula arrived in the UK in search of employment and Jewell was living near Earl’s Court. Lobengula found work as a performer in the ‘human exhibition’ <i>Savage South Africa</i>, run by circus owner Frank Fillis at the Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre. The exhibition included dramatic re-enactments of the  Anglo-Ndebele War (1893–1894) along with a mock village, all carefully orchestrated by Fillis to play on and reinforce colonial stereotypes. Lobengula asserted that he was the son of the Ndebele King Lobengula Khumalo (1845–1894), defeated in the real life Anglo-Ndebele War. Jewell and Lobengula moved in together in 1899 and planned to get married that August. However, news of their relationship reached the press, attracting considerable hostility, laden with explicit racism. After being refused at a London church, the couple were married at the Holborn Register Office on 28 February 1900.","physicalDescription":"Photograph of two figures standing by a war memorial. One of two  photographs on page 3.","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"photographic paper","id":"AAT14190"}],"techniques":[{"text":"photography","id":"AAT54225"},{"text":"albumen process","id":"AAT133274"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"albumen print","categories":[{"text":"The Royal Photographic Society","id":"THES281081"},{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"},{"text":"film and cinema","id":"THES264410"},{"text":"memorials","id":"THES292678"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"DOP","id":"THES291628"},"images":[],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES344602"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}],[{"text":"album","id":"AAT26690"}],[{"text":"albumen print","id":"AAT127121"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1902","earliest":"1902-01-01","latest":"1902-12-31"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the V&A, acquired with the generous assistance of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Art Fund","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"11","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"object","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"15.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"object","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"HEPWIX STUDIO 1902 BOER WAR HEPWORTH & MAY","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"ink, above photograph"}],"objectHistory":"The provenance of this album is unknown.  It includes family photographs featuring members of the Clark, Hepworth, Whitten, Stent and other families. This album also represents an important photographic record from an early British cinema perspective, and includes photographs taken at the Hepworth Studios, as well as film frames.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph, unknown photographer, 'Boer War', 1 of 259 photographs, prints, newspaper clippings and drawings contained in the bound album, 'Hepworth Studio Photograph Album', albumen print, 1902","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"memorials","id":"AAT6956"},{"text":"photograph albums","id":"AAT26695"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["RPS.3879:8-2024"],"accessionNumberNum":"3879","accessionNumberPrefix":"RPS","accessionYear":2024,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-07-01","recordCreationDate":"2024-12-09","availableToBook":false}}