1960s Archives - Ghosts of Time

Material from a file belonging to Cynthia Williams about her entry into the Miss Secretary of Great Britain 1965 competition. I don’t know how many years this competition ran for as I can find nothing about it on the internet.

This is Cynthia arriving for the competition.

And this is Cynthia photographed for the competition.

In contrast this is clearly an amateur photo of Cynthia and her cat. Much more charming I think.

Another photo presumably from a family album.

And a candid snap which was also in the file.

As well as the photos there are pages of correspondence about the competition, good luck cards, accommodation details and so on.

This newspaper clipping confirms Cynthia was a runner-up in the competition and won a £50 prize, well worth having in the mid 60s. Note her street address was given – not something we’d expect to see today.

How many other files exist in attics documenting the ordinary and extraordinary exploits of everyday people? When they surface they are much more interesting than the lives of modern “celebrities.”

Ruth 1960s Model

Ruth Wells was evidently a 1960s model and most of the photographs I have of her were clearly taken by a professional, although there are some amateur ones too. One photo has on the back “Height 5’5” Bust 34” Waist 24” Hips 35” Hair Dark Brown Brown Eyes.” Some of the photos are stamped ”Newnes and Pearsons” on the reverse who I believe published many popular magazines. There’s not much else on the back of the photos but one has handwritten “Taken for Women’s Own about 3 years ago.” I have 70+ photos of her including clippings from magazines.

I’ve taken a good number of photos from contact prints and done some minimal restoration. Above is one of the sheets plus I’ve enlarged a couple of cells which have been marked up for cropping and removing blemishes which someone would have had to do old school style, long before computer retouching. There’s nothing new about retouching, just faster and easier ways to do it.

She looks the part for someone who would appear in popular magazines of the time and would appeal to the general audience rather than just the swinging 60s crowd.

She looks wholesome even in the swimsuit shots!

Once again I am astonished at how collections like this just get thrown out or end up in house clearances. These photos are a lovely glimpse into a piece of social history as well as coming from someone’s private collection. There’s more personal information including wedding photographs which I haven’t included here or on my Flickr feed. We worry about privacy in the digital age but the information in some of the newspaper clippings I have on Ruth even give the address of where the married couple were going to live.