The Barnes Brothers Collection

The Barnes Collection is a collection of film apparatus and ephemera relating to pioneering Victorian filmmakers from Brighton and Hove. It was purchased by Hove Museum & Art Gallery in 1997 with money from the Headley Trust and the Friends of Hove Museum.

The collection was bought from collectors John and William Barnes and was previously housed at their museum in St. Ives.

Contents of the Collection 

The Barnes Collection includes a variety of equipment and ephemera relating to Victorian film pioneers local to Brighton and Hove. These filmmakers were known as the Brighton School and includes James Williamson, George Albert Smith, Alfred Darling, Charles Urban and William Friese-Greene. Equipment on display includes Williamson’s Aerial camera, which was used for reconnaissance during the first half of the twentieth-century, and Alfred Darling’s Biokam.

Along with film equipment, the Barnes Collection incorporates a large variety of ephemera including cabinet photographs, carte-de-visite photographs, theatre programmes, catalogues, articles, books, episcope cards and Victorian postcards.

Significance of the Collection 

The Brighton School significantly influenced film history, both nationally and internationally, and the importance of the Barnes Collection reflects this significance. Indeed, many of the film techniques developed by the Brighton School are still used in modern cinema. For instance, George Albert Smith is credited with the invention of the close-up shot and using double exposure to create special effects.

Smith also developed Kinemacolor which was the first commercially successful colour film technique. James Williamson was one of the first filmmakers to cut between different shots in order to aid narrative technique.

Charles Urban, although of American decent, is often heralded as the most significant figure in early British cinema. Urban was the driving force behind the Warwick Trading Company and helped develop the Bioscope film projector. The Warwick Trading Company focussed on documentary and news film and worked closely with two of the first war correspondents, John Benett-Stanford and Joe Rosenthal.