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Durham History Department
Student walking outside the Department of History

Images and Empire in British Military Collections: The Photographic Archive of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI)

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A black and white image of soldiers from the Durham Light Infantry in a tank in a wooded area

Images and Empire in British Military Collections uses the photographic archive of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI, active 1881-1968) to address a significant gap in historical research. Military collections in the UK hold vast photographic archives, yet no study has considered the nature of these archives in the round or the part photography played in a range of military activities, from sports and social events to combat. By interrogating the role of photography in the history of a single regiment, this project examines how the camera was embedded in military life over an almost 90-year period. It explores the motivations, practicalities, and impacts of photography in the regiment; what restrictions, opportunities, and absences the camera created in military contexts; and how the circulation, archiving, and digitization of photographs influences their use today. By engaging with decolonial approaches to photographic archives, the project also contributes to an expanding awareness in UK-based military museums, about the need to use their collections to tell more complex histories of empire.

Working in partnership with The Story, the new home of Durham’s county archives, the project centres photography as a site of identity formation for the DLI regiment, the local community, and empire itself. With roots in two earlier regiments and the county’s voluntary militias, the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) was founded as the British Empire approached its maximum extent. The 50,000 photographs in its archive relate not only to its overseas engagements, but also – and as importantly – to life at its headquarters in Northeast England and commemorative events held there, for instance at Durham’s Cathedral and Town Hall. Empire was a photographic phenomenon both at home and abroad.

This project is run as a collaboration between Durham University’s History Department and The Story, with input from the Trustees of the DLI Collection as well. The supervisors for the project are Prof. Christina Riggs and Prof. Jonathan Saha at Durham University and Carolyn Ball and Gillian Kirkbride at The Story.