Since 1897, Country Life has been one of the UK’s most recognisable chroniclers of countryside culture, architecture, gardens, antiques, rural events and country living. Its photographic archive captures more than a century of British heritage, from country houses and landscapes to agricultural work, Highland gatherings and everyday rural life.
With more than 200,000 glass-plate and acetate negatives, alongside thousands of prints and transparencies, the archive represents an exceptional visual record. Preserving it required a digitisation partner with the technical expertise, specialist handling processes and heritage-sector understanding to protect fragile originals while improving long-term access.
The Brief
During Country Life’s 125th anniversary year, Genus was selected to support an ambitious project to digitise the magazine’s extensive photographic archive. The goal was to preserve delicate source material, reduce the need for physical handling and make the collection easier to access, search and reuse. As John Goodall, Editor-in-Chief of Country Life, described it, the project would “make its riches properly accessible to everyone for the first time”.
- Scope: Over 250,000 images, ranging from the earliest glass plate negatives (the oldest format in the collection) right up to 35mm colour negatives.
- Formats handled: Glass plate negatives, large and medium format films, 35mm colour negatives, including black & white.
- Existing systems: Country Life already had a robust file-naming system and basic cataloguing in place. As a result, the project did not require extensive indexing or rehousing, allowing the work to focus primarily on image capture and editing.
Digitisation standards & workflow:
- Genus used high-resolution capture to preserve fine detail. The digitisation of glass-plate negatives required careful handling, non-contact capture methods, such as camera and lightbox set-ups rather than flatbed scanning, and the highest practical resolution for archival preservation.
- The workflow included colour correction, white balance, careful handling of fragile emulsions and format conversion from negatives to positives.
- Output formats: stable master files (TIFF or equivalent lossless), plus derivatives (JPEG or web-optimised formats).
The Challenge
The scale and variety of the archive demanded a careful, consistent and technically robust workflow. Materials ranged from early glass-plate negatives to 35mm colour film, each requiring appropriate capture methods, handling standards and quality control. A further challenge emerged with the discovery of a set of 1936 glass-plate CMYK negatives. Two of the four plates needed to create a complete colour image were damaged, leaving the original image incomplete.
The Solution
Genus developed a specialist digitisation workflow designed to protect fragile originals while producing high-quality digital assets suitable for long-term preservation and practical use.
- Captured surviving plates using careful handling, controlled lighting and non-contact methods to protect fragile material from further damage.
- Applied advanced image editing to reconstruct missing colour channels, remove halftone patterns, restore colour balance and retouch damaged areas.
- Delivered before-and-after restoration comparisons, giving Country Life a clear demonstration of the recovered image quality and the wider value of the project.
The restoration showcased how technical expertise and sensitive conservation practice can work together to recover material that may otherwise have remained inaccessible.
The Results
- A complete digital archive: approximately 250,000 items were digitised, creating a high-resolution digital resource for long-term access and reuse.
- Improved preservation: fragile originals, including glass plates, can be protected from unnecessary handling while digital surrogates support day-to-day access.
- Greater accessibility: Country Life teams, researchers and licensing stakeholders can work with a more searchable, usable and shareable digital collection.
- A powerful proof of concept: the restored 1936 negative demonstrated Genus’s ability to combine preservation, digitisation and image restoration expertise in a single project.
Looking Ahead
The project has created a strong foundation for future access, discovery and engagement. Genus and Country Life can continue to build on this work through:
- Continuing digitisation of any remaining un-digitised media (e.g. rare glass plate formats or unprocessed negatives).
- Deepening metadata enrichment, including photographer names, locations, publication dates and subject tags, to improve searchability and long-term usability.
- Expanding public and commercial access through picture libraries, licensing platforms and other digital channels, helping the archive reach researchers, historians, designers and wider audiences.
