Database Information

This database contains over 45,000 photographs, and is still being updated.

Each photograph has been studied by a SWOP volunteer, who recorded as much information as possible into a standard format. The database contains this accumulated information, and allows it to be searched in a number of ways.

As well providing a textual description of the photograph, the volunteer assigned keywords in the following categories:

• Location - the place depicted in the image, e.g. High Street, Marlow
• Activity - significant things which are happening, e.g. procession
• Subject - the general description of the image, e.g. streetscape
• Object - significant physical things, e.g. motor vehicle.

These keywords were not intended to list everything in a photograph, but to record its significant features.
The volunteer also recorded any names visible in the image, or otherwise known, and the date or period when the original image was taken. Often this was not known, so an estimate was made, for example from the registration numbers of any vehicles present in the image, or the clothing worn by the people shown therein.