We don't know for sure how they came to be in our collection because we receive archive material from countless different sources, ranging from the archives kept by architectural practices to generous public donations.

Sometimes we take in large amounts of material at once, and often documentation for historical deposits does not exist.

Over time all this new material will be inspected and catalogued as part of our collection - undergoing conservation work where necessary - and then made available to the public.

It's fantastic that a small shoe box contained such a treasure-trove of photographic imagery, but in some ways it's not unusual.

Our experience as an archive has shown us that some of the most interesting discoveries can be made in the most unlikely of places.