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Visitor Information: The RPS Gallery and coffee shop will be closed on Saturday 7 December

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Award origins

First records of the origins of individual Awards

For your reference, various extracts from the RPS Journal have been added below and cropped with their page number. Please zoom in to a reading distance that is comfortable for you (CTRL and + held together on a PC keyboard or Command and + on a Mac. Replace the + with a - to zoom back out). You can browse the RPS Journal at https://archive.rps.org/. This searchable digital archive contains around 30,000 pages. They cover the first issue in March 1853 up to 2018.

Please note that work on this page is on-going and further Awards will be added.

 

Progress Medal - 1878 

A silver medal "...to be given to the individual who, it was deemed, had made the greatest advance in the Science or Art of Photography." (The Photographic Journal, 1878. Volume 18, p. 46).

First recipient: Captain Abney

 

Hood Medal - 1933 

"...to present annually a medal as an award for meritorious performance in some branch of photography, or for such other purpose as Council may decide." (The Photographic Journal, 1933. Volume 73, p. 477).

First recipient: G Aubourne Clarke

Image above from Volume 74, p. 378 of The Photographic Journal.