Collections: Kelham Island Museum

What Do We Collect - General Collections

Firth Brown Photographic Collection

The Firth Brown Photographic collection is worthy of particular mention. The collection consists of approximately 21,000 images from the archives of the famous steel manufacturers and innovators Firth-Brown. The museum holds a unique and complete archive of the company's history, which looks at all, aspects of its work. Dating from the 1940s to the 1970s the images show a wide range of subject matter connected to the steel industry. For example, people at work, industrial processes, steel manufacture, laboratory scenes, products produced plus scientific and technological microscopic investigations of metals. The material consists of glass plate and film negatives as well as prints.

The Significance of the Firth Brown Photographic Collection

The firms of John Brown and Thomas Firth plus the collaborative Brown-Firth Research Laboratories and the amalgamated Firth Brown Company were not only of major importance to Sheffield but also on a national and international scale. John Brown's began operation in 1837 and in 1842 Thomas Firth opened Norfolk works. Between them they were responsible for many major breakthroughs and landmarks in the steel industry and in metallurgical research and development. For example, in 1860 the introduction of the Bessemer process to Sheffield which revolutionised the way steel was produced. This saw the production of armoured plate for the Admiralty in 1861, the building of 100 ton guns in 1876, the turbine castings for the famous Parsons' Turbinia 1894, the first vessel in the world to be powered by steam turbine, the development of high speed tools, the invention of stainless steel in 1913. Ships built include RMS Aquitania 1913, Queen Mary 1935 and HMS Hood 1920. In 1982 Firth Brown combined with British Steel Corporation to form Sheffield Forgemasters who are still operating today.