UK Parliamentary Archives

• Held At: Parliamentary Archives: GB-061
• Catalogue Reference: PUD
• Accession Number: 4476
• Ref No: PUD
• Date: c1948-1983
• Level: Fonds
• Extent: 20 Series
• Creator Name: Gerald Pudsey (1915-2004)
• Administrative or Biographical History: Gerald Pudsey (1915-2004) ran a photographic studio called The Three Stars Press Agency in London between about 1948 and 1982. His studio was frequently commissioned to take photographs of MPs, peers and events on the Parliamentary estate.
• Acquisition: The collection was donated by Mrs K Grosart, Pudsey's sister, after his death. The Parliamentary Archives purchased the copyright from Mrs Grosart in 2008.
• Category: Photographs/Drawings/Images
• Description: This collection comprises Gerald Pudsey's working collection of photographic prints, negatives and glass plates. The images in this collection include substantial quantities of portraits of MPs, peers and their families; staff of both Houses; and visitors to Parliament including royalty, diplomats and comtemporary stars of stage and screen such as Maria Callas, Bebe Daniels, Sylvia Syms, Eartha Kitt, Tony Hancock, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Max Bygraves and Marlene Dietrich. Also included are interior shots of the Palace, as well as Parliamentary functions and events.
  
  The importance of the collection lies in the visual record it provides of politicians and the Palace in the three decades following the Second World War, which until its acquistion, was a period not well documented in visual sources in the Parliamentary Archives. Supporting the images is a comprehensive set of office appointment diaries, in which Pudsey meticulously recorded the names of sitters, the dates and cross-references to the photographs produced. Without this documentation it would have been impossible to identify many of the portraits in the collection; their survival has proved crucial to describing the collection in detail, and the collection would probably not have been acquired without them.
• Terms:
  • Photographs,
  • Palace of Westminster,
  • Politicians,
• Accruals: None expected.
• System of Arrangement: When it was a working collection, Pudsey arranged his negatives meticulously and carefully noted in his appointment diaries (now PUD/7), alongside the name of the sitter or event, the relevant reference number. They were originally classified as follows:
  
  'A' Series - Groups, etc
  'B' Series - Houses of Parliament
  'C' Series - Colour series: C00001-C01000 negatives; C01001-C99999 transparencies.
  'F' Series - Stock images
  'G' Series - Private Photographs
  'H' Series - Non Copyright (In 'A' File)
  'S' Series - Sports
  Glass negative series
  '1959' series
  
  On transfer to the Parliamentary Archives, Pudsey's original referencing for the surviving negative series *** CHECK (A, C, and F) were retained. The remaining prints and documents were arranged in a numerical sequence from PUD/3-PUD/19, as follows:
  
  PUD/A - 'A' Series negatives
  PUD/F - 'F' Series negative
  PUD/3 - Glass negatives series
  PUD/4 - Colour negatives and photographs
  PUD/5 - Negatives
  PUD/6 - Colour Slides of Houses of Parliament
  PUD/7 - Pudsey Diaries
  PUD/8 - 1959 Negatives
  PUD/9 - Colour Slides A-Z
  PUD/10 - Correspondence and other papers
  PUD/11 - Stock Portraits
  PUD/12 - 'F' Series Photographs
  PUD/13 - Oversize Photographs
  PUD/14 - Portraits
  PUD/15 - Photographs and Negatives of people and places in and around the Palace of Westminster
  PUD/16 - Photograph albums
  PUD/17 - Colour Negatives
  PUD/18 - 10 x 8 Prints
  PUD/19 - Photographs
  PUD/20 - Card index
• Access Status: Closed
• Access Conditions: The majority of this collection is open, however the following files are closed for 100 years due to Data Protection legislation: PUD/3/1-PUD/3/8, PUD/3/35, PUD/3/116-PUD/3/124, PUD/3/149, PUD/3/158-PUD/3/162, PUD/3/175-PUD/3/176, PUD/3/181-PUD/3/184, PUD/3/189-PUD/3/191, PUD/3/195-PUD/3/198, PUD/3/217-PUD/3/219, PUD/3/237-PUD/3/238, PUD/3/251-PUD/3/256, PUD/3/307-PUD/3/310, PUD/3/326-PUD/3/329, PUD/3/378-PUD/3/382, PUD/3/397, PUD/3/399-PUD/3/400, PUD/3/442-PUD/3/444, PUD/3/515-PUD/3/524, PUD/3/592-PUD/3/593, PUD/3/654-PUD/3/660; PUD/14/25, PUD/14/175-PUD/14/178, PUD/14/315, PUD/14/318-PUD/14/319, PUD/14/323, PUD/14/343, PUD/14/593, PUD/14/657, PUD/14/682-PUD/14/683, PUD/14/761; PUD/A/10487, PUD/A/10654, PUD/A/10774, PUD/A/10803-PUD/A/10804, PUD/A/10829, PUD/A/10847-PUD/A/10948, PUD/A/10990; PUD/C/10948; PUD/F/742-PUD/F/745, PUD/F/747-PUD/F/749, PUD/F/1373-PUD/F/1377, PUD/F/1379-PUD/F/1380. The following files are closed for 100 years under s.40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (ie personal data relating to family): PUD/17/1-PUD/17/3, PUD/17/5-PUD/17/10, PUD/17/12, PUD/17/17-PUD/17/18, PUD/17/20, PUD/17/24-PUD/17/25, PUD/17/30, PUD/17/33-PUD/17/34, PUD/17/36-PUD/17/37, PUD/17/42, PUD/17/50-PUD/17/51, PUD/17/62, PUD/17/80. PUD/3/700-PUD/3/714, PUD/8, PUD/13/61, and PUD/22 are all missing.
• Reproduction Conditions: Copyright in the photographs belongs to the House of Lords. Requests to publish should be addressed to the Clerk of the Parliamentary Archives.
• Physical Description: This collection was re-packaged and conserved by NADFAS volunteers, 2008-2009.

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