Whitehead Studios - The Whitehead Collection

Many photographers have worked in Ipswich, from travelling photographers in the 1850s, to our first studio photographers in the 1860s, our photo journalists, to today's smartphone-using amateur photographers.  However, only one photography studio remains in the collective memory of Ipswich: F.A. Whitehead & Sons.

At the age of 19, Francis Arnold Whitehead purchased the Frisco Photo Company in March 1883.  Several generations of the Whitehead family would continue the photographic business - sons Arthur Henry and Edward Wilson, grandsons Kenneth and John, and great-grandchildren Gregory and Andra.  

When the family finally sold the business to employees Gordon Reeves and Paul Fenn in 2004, the 'Whitehead' name remained, until the studio finally closed in 2017.

To ensure the Whitehead legacy continued, in 2010 the Whitehead family donated nearly 7,000 negative and prints (including glass plate negatives) to Picture Ipswich.  The images have been carefully digitised and meticulously researched by Picture Ipswich staff and volunteers and are now available through the website, alongside hundreds of other Whitehead photos from the private collections of families, businesses, clubs, and schools.

On this page, you will find the photographs donated by the Whitehead family.  To view images from the community, go to the Whitehead Studio - Community Collection page on Picture Ipswich.  For more information about the business and photos of the studio itself, visit the F.A. Whitehead & Sons page.