@catalystarchives
Museum of the Chemical Industry in Widnes, Cheshire and home of the Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) archives - well, some of them at least ... and much more From Judith Wilde @heyjudewilde.bsky.social and Charlie Linton @charlie-linton.bsky.social
If you wish to know in detail the hairstyles of the 1929 girl about town then this is the article for you! More petrol nonsense and a recipe for orange cake - par for the course :)
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'The Big Photo Sort'. All photo negatives from our recent rescue of the Weston Point Studios. Since then 50k have already been processed and 18k are scanned (and they weren't even part of this)!
Thank you to Becka, Erin, Hannah, Heather, Megan, Pam, Pat, Sandra and Tiffany who all worked so hard.
Love every mention of the #transporterbridge
'VERA' has been at it again. And her identity is being teased in this Christmas edition. More on the beauty contest next week when we find out who won the holiday to Switzerland! Exciting stuff!
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This time a mention of actress Gladys Cooper that I just happened to have a postcard of! I wondered if she might be behind the mysterious 'Vera'. However looking at her career she'd have been too busy treading the boards :)
Latest from Cheshire Archives
www.cheshirestoryshared.org/home/the-lea...
Amazing. [searches own archives for MS Gretna] :)
Vera strikes again! Advice column from 1928 for the modern woman #iciarchives
'VERA' is up to Sep 1928 ... First and Second prizes in the beauty competition are a weeks holiday in Switzerland. ICI don't mess about!
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We've started 2026 on an excellent note with these two lovely donations!
Long Service Medal with watch and chain belonging to H Forster and Illuminated Long Service Certificate for 49 years' service awarded to William Allman
We look forward to finding out more about them!
Obviously these things fall in and out of favour, there was the Second World War etc. But it's still nicely completed for the following years: 1905-09; 1957-68; 1972-84; 1990-95 photo of the Weston Point team in 1949 as they seemed to win the most!
Football shield mystery!
The Weston Point & District Schoolboys Competition Shield with 32 inscriptions was presented by Sir John Brunner in 1906 and the latest inscription is 1995-6. All 32 are inscribed but how did the maths work out so well given there are 90 years between first and last?!
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More from Vera - like and subscribe :)
Congratulations to Jonathan Davies on his CBE in the New Years Honours 2025.
Obviously best known for appearing in one of the 'Two Wonders of Widnes' advertising campaign at our Museum in 1989. Am pleased to say the large, framed poster still adorns our museum walls!
Take me back to 1990. I'm not sure when people think of a chemical industry museum that photos of #vladivarvodka would immediately spring to mind. ICI registered the product #perspex (seen here impersonating an ice mountain) in the 1930s following it's discovery by two of its chemists. Cheers!
Our archives are a window on the past …
#ThrowbackThursday Photograph of West Bank Dock in about 1965. The boat entering the dock is the 'Donau', all vessels entering the dock on flood tide had to enter stern first.
Great to see some of the original features in the theatre (this part of the building dates back to the early 1900s), which are still visible and we must be one of the greenest organisations as we still have those tables in the last photo!
Here are some photos taken by ICI Weston Point Studios but they are of an Open Day at the Catalyst in 1993.
When worlds collide! One of the joys of rescuing several hundred thousand negatives is not knowing what will turn up next. Not for the first time do we see the long association that chemical firms have had with our museum since its inception.
Hot off the press - the latest on ICI Weston Point Studios rescue :)
You never know what will appear in our #iciwestonpointstudios photographic negatives. This charming photo of a room in a Swedish designed #lundbydollshouse from 1980. The photo was taken due to the #vivelle (fabric) being manufactured by ICI #iciarchives #dollshouses
⭐It's Today!⭐
Join us at the Catalyst Museum for Heritage Weekend between 10 and 5.
Meet our friends from Halton Heritage Partnership
Explore 3 floors of ICI Weston Point Studios photographs on temporary display plus our permanent galleries and current art exhibition.
Free entry.
Very sad to see that HRH Duchess of Kent has passed away. Katharine had a long association with ICI and Brunner Mond and was the great granddaughter of Sir John Brunner.
Pictured here on one of the many visits she made to the region in 1973 for the centenary of Brunner Mond
Unexpected find on a strip of 1976 negatives today of ICI Weaver Power Station. The other 29 images are showing the wear to the turbine blades and this little gem is a moment in time where the photographer had taken a snap of the workers. They look happy in their work :)
Motor racing gets the ICI logo ... in 1992
A short, wide staircase in some slightly overgrown parkland, relict from a former country house, now demolished.
An aerial view (black and white) of Marbury Hall. From: https://foam.merseyforest.uk/?cat=20
One of the staircases leading from the front lawns up to Marbury Hall, #Cheshire (pic my own), & an aerial image from before the hall was demolished in 1969 (pic via the Friends of Anderton & Marbury). The site has been a country park since the late 1970s - a local treasure. #StaircaseSaturday
The trouble they went to for a First Aid Comp - look at the detail of the car!
In 1982 you can be sure an ICI First Aider could take the right steps if you came off your motorbike #iciwestonpointstudios #photographicarchives #iciarchives #winningtonworks
