Developing ‘an eye for country’: the photographic in the production and transmission of geographical knowledge in the University of Oxford, 1906–1939

Thesis

The proposition of thinking geographically and, thus, how to observe a landscape can be encapsulated in the phrase “an eye for country”. This thesis investigates how such a fundamental praxis of the discipline was transmitted both within a university and a secondary school context in the early twentieth century. Here, I concentrate on the specific relationship between photographic imagery and its role in the dissemination of geographical knowledge, an area that, hitherto, has not been foregrounded. However, photographic imagery was available in a variety of genres, including both lantern slides and pictorial view postcards. This research examines the content, audience(s) and intention of imagery within two university collections.

The construction of two detailed catalogues of archival material from the Oxford School of Geography, presented in Appendices One and Two, revealed the wide ranging and eclectic sourcing of available imagery with which to construct and disseminate geographical knowledge. This archival material is composed, firstly, of glass lantern slides compiled and used by the School’s academics in their lectures from the inception of the Oxford School in 1899. The second archive emerges from the students’ regional descriptions of areas within the British Isles which derived from their personal interaction with the landscape and was a compulsory component of their diploma examinations from 1906 until 1939. By abstracting data from the catalogues, the impact of developments in photographic technology on the university student body, both as recipients of illustrated university lectures and as producers of their own geographical knowledge, is examined in this research. By engaging with the student body this research enlarges the institutional biography of a university department beyond the well-rehearsed canonical.

By constructing mini-biographies of the Oxford student body, presented in Appendix Three, it became possible to investigate the careers of those students. That over two thirds of the cohort pursued teaching careers enables further understanding of the connections between the visual experiences of the university student and the onward transmission of geographical knowledge to a broader secondary school public.

This thesis, thus, provides insights into a broader understanding of the everyday history of geography by investigating the spaces of both production and transmission of geographical knowledge with particular regard to the use of the photographic and the encouragement to observe geographically with an ‘eye for the country’.

Authors: Squibb, SC

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-qxrme0o6j
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: lantern slides; postcards; history of geography; geographical education; photographic imagery; geographical knowledge production
• Subjects: Geography teachers; Geography libraries