AFTER 137 years of photographing Brighton and Hove’s history The Argus has teamed up with archivists to launch a special collection of images.

When The Argus moved to its new home in Manchester Street, its enormous collection of historical pictures was archived by Andy Garth and his team at Brighton and Hove Stuff.

The Argus, in collaboration with The Keep and Brighton and Hove Stuff, will be hosting the launch of The Argus Photo Archive 1929-1992 Sale and Exhibition at The Grand, in King’s Road, Brighton, on Friday.

The Keep archive and resource centre in Woollards Way, off Lewes Road, Moulsecoomb, has been working on more than 30,000 images on thin glass slides measuring about 8x11cm, which was a format commonly used by professional photographers during that period.

Andrew Bennett, Brighton and Hove archivist at The Keep, said: “The photographs we are working on were all published in The Argus between 1927 and 1960 and as we have all but one of the original negative registers we can usually identify where and when the photograph was taken and in some cases the people in the photos.

“They are a remarkable record of life in the area and show everything from weddings, sporting events and celebrities to some that simply defy description.

“The glass negatives are very fragile and most were dirty so after they had been moved to The Keep they were cleaned and re-boxed by a team of dedicated volunteers. Once this process had been completed the negatives were passed on to other volunteers for scanning and another team who are transcribing the negative registers.

“These tasks are very labour intensive and work will be ongoing for some time yet.”

New descriptions are being added to The Keep’s catalogue all the time and they hope that all of the descriptions for their photographs will soon be searchable in an online catalogue on their website.

The Keep is based off Lewes Road close to Coldean Lane, and is free to visit from Tuesday to Saturday.

The Grand has donated a room for the launch and the hotel’s chosen charity Rockinghorse will be there, along with The Argus Appeal, to receive donations from visitors.

Doors will be open to the general public at the launch event from 2.30pm to 5pm.

Images will also be available to view or buy online.