We’d like to share with you the fascinating story of Stephen Raffield, an avid Titanic historian and collector, who came to us last year with a very special photo album. Stephen and his wife had acquired a personal photograph album of John Kempster’s containing unique, never before seen, historic photographs of both Olympic and Titanic ships. The album was headed for being completely dismantled before they stepped in.

Stephen explains, ‘John Kempster joined Harland and Wolff Belfast in 1900, and was appointed as managing director in 1906 in charge of the electrical plant. Kempster became involved in the construction and launch of both Olympic and Titanic. He was also a very keen photographer and, in 2012, an album of photographs taken and developed by him came to light. A lady walked into a Wiltshire auction house and asked if the album she was holding was worth anything. As well as a number of photographs of the Kempster’s family holiday in America in 1911, the album contained stunning, never seen before, photos of Olympic leaving Belfast for her maiden voyage and also the launch of Titanic and her own departure from Belfast for the first and last time. The photographs are of exquisite quality and finely detailed. The initial plan of the auctioneers was to break up the album and sell off the photographs singly or in small batches. Steve and Jane Raffield, collectors of Titanic memorabilia, were able to negotiate the purchase of the whole album so that this unique record of both Olympic and Titanic at Belfast would be preserved for the future.’

Stephen came to us with the Kempster album.  We scanned the photos in high definition so that each photograph could be safely stored on Stephen’s computer and was also able to appreciate the greater detail of the enlarged images for the first time!

We went on to digitally enhance, and bring out of the photos even more definition by using modern technology, and removing any imperfections from the photos which Kempster himself had developed and printed. We also re-created the album so Stephen could give replica copies to his children.

“The restored photos are simply stunning. The originals are amazing and I didn’t think you could improve much from what are the most detailed photos in the world of the launch of Titanic. Absolutely amazing!”

The original album, photographs and the rest of the Raffield Titanic Collection are currently on display in Brisbane, Australia.

Going, Going, Gone! 

Here is one of the frames we provided showing photographs of the Titanic actually being launched.

It’s very easy to start the process of saving your own precious photos. All you have to do is send us a message!

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