Funeral of Queen Victoria (1901)
- Hyde Park
- 1901
Birmingham University Procession on Degree Day (1901)
Female graduates and gents sporting spectacular Edwardian whiskers take part in Birmingham's first Degree Day ceremony.
The University of Birmingham was the first of the new redbrick universities established in the 1900s. The city's Victoria Square, renamed 12 days before Queen Victoria's death, played host to its first Degree Day ceremony in July 1901. Alongside male and female graduates, dignitaries include University Chancellor Joseph Chamberlain. Medical graduates can be seen waving bones at the camera.
The film was shot by Arthur Duncan Thomas, a larger-than life showman given to passing himself off as the American inventor Thomas Edison (for his cheek Thomas was described by British filmmaker Cecil Hepworth as a "loveable rogue"). Thomas used four whole rolls of film, to show in sequence at Birmingham's Curzon Hall. The negatives were retained by Mitchell and Kenyon, who would have been paid to process and print the film.
The Great and the Good
Royals, military heroes and sportsmen compete in the Edwardian fame game.
Mitchell and Kenyon's films suggest a company that was most at ease filming ordinary people at work and play. But the Edwardian era, just as today, had its public figures who could draw an audience - and audiences were M&K's business.
Edwardian celebrity culture was narrower than today's: headed by the King and other royals, followed by military heroes of the Boer War, politicians and a host of mayors and other local dignitaries. But an increasingly professionalised world of sport was already making its own stars: early signs of the new celebrity order of the later 20th century.
37 videos in this collection
Funeral of Queen Victoria (1901)
Joseph Chamberlain at Home (1902)
Return of Kitchener (1902)
The King's Ride in the Isle of Man (1902)
Princess Louise at Liverpool (1906)
Arthur Mold Bowling to A.N.Hornby (1901)
Prince of Siam in Liverpool (1901)
Lord Mayor of Cork Arriving For Official Opening of Cork Exhibition (1902)
Wigan Coronation Celebrations and Street Scenes (1902)
Wigan Mayoral Coronation Procession (1902)
Chorley Coronation Processions (1911)
Royal Proclamation of Death of Queen Victoria, Blackburn (1901)
Police Annual Inspection at Birchfields Park (1901)
Coronation Festivities at Accrington (1902)
Visit of H.R.H. Princess Louise to Blackburn (1905)
St George's Day Procession in Liverpool (1901)
Clitheroe Coronation Procession (1911)
Royal Visit to Manchester, Owens College (1902)
Great Harwood Coronation Celebrations (1911)
His Worship the Mayor Leaving Lancaster Town Hall (1902)
Arrival of VIP For Official Opening of Cork Exhibition (1902)
Lord Roberts Presenting Medals to Boer War Volunteers in Liverpool (1901)
Visit of the Duke of Connaught C.I.C. Forces in Ireland and Prince Henry of Prussia to Cork Exhibition (1902)
Funeral of the Late Captain of the Mexborough Fire Brigade (1902)
Leeds Mayoral Procession For the Coronation Celebrations (1902)
Trade Procession at Opening of Cork Exhibition (1902)
Funeral Procession in Edinburgh (1901)
Oddfellows Procession in St Helens (c.1901)
Royal Visit to Bangor (1902)
Procession of Firemen, Nelson (c.1902)
Hollow Drift Children's Procession, Durham (1902)
Birmingham University Procession on Degree Day (1901)
Wainwright Conservative Club, Blackpool (c.1906)
Royal Visit to Rhyl (1902)
Visit of Sir George Cotton at Accrington (1902)
Funeral of Canon Morrissey in Burnley (1903)
