EuropeanaPhotography and family tales: an amazing story from the past
2013-05-03
“Somewhere in the audience ought to be able seaman Angus Graham, my granddad”. This is the last sentence of an email received sent at TopFoto by Angus Graham, descendant of his namesake able seaman, who discovered a EuropeanaPhotography scanned picture on the TopFoto archive that had the generic caption "somewhere in the north". This expression was applied in 1916 to observe the Official Secrets Act protection of state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security. 100 years later the subject of the picture is not a secret anymore, but the reminiscence of what it represents may be lost.
Luckily family memory is persistent and can help to interpret the past: Angus Graham explained that the picture shows the Finals of the Grand Fleet boxing competitions held on the island of Flotta, by Scapa Flow, where the Grand Fleet was then stationed in 1916. The boxing ring was jury-built from spars, ropes, canvas and planking scavenged from various ships by a couple of enterprising Chief Petty Officers, names now not known, while the name of a able seaman lost in the crowd was perpetuated by his descendent.
EuropeanaPhotography is making available over 430,000 historical pictures not only to preserve them but also to offer the Europeana end users the opportunity to rediscover their past and give them an active role in contributing to the European knowledge.