A couple of days I was looking again at History of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 6th Battalion, 93rd Anti-Tank Regiment (1949) and noticed that there are actually two photos in it of regimental M10s in the Marecchia area, giving good views of the hills. They are labeled "crown copyright". But I cannot find these on either the IWM website or NAM. Is there anywhere else they could now be? I can't imagine that if the regimental museum had possession of these photos that they would still be labelled as crown copyright - anything they had would probably be photos taken by individual soldiers, right?
Not every photo in their possession has been digitised/placed online by IWM. And a lot of their descriptions/keywords are generic.
I finally made contact with a member of staff who cared about helping me with image enquiries (I fear she has since left). From looking at a small number of sample images, I have found that: a) As you say, some are catalogued but not digitised. b) Some are catalogued, but the details do not appear on the website--the lady I mentioned came back with a number of images with catalogue numbers near the ones I was looking for--showing associated subjects--but not listed on their site. c) Some are digitised but have never been uploaded, for instance the one I paid a heavy 'digitisation fee' for. d) Some are described using the edited 'censored' captions on the rear: Gurkhas of the 4th Ind Div becomes, 'Gurkhas'; 1/4 Essex becomes 'a territorial battalion'--you can see the penciled amendments to the originals. The problem is that it is not consistent--many appear in full. Conclusion: you have to go there, make an appointmemt and eyeball everything (or get a researcher to do it), which is some way less than ideal.
For instance, NA-2630 is listed online and correctly described, but this, the next in the series if completely absent--and censored.
Spotted this today, On this day, 1st July 1912. The British Copyright Act came into force, protecting an author's works fo 50 years after their death. Graham.
You may find the Regimental museum does have hard copies. I found a number of prints from the IWM collection in their files relating to the 7th Argylls. Could be worth dropping them a line.
Do you think it's worth doing even if I don't have a reference # for the photo? What did you have to go on?
I went to the archives in person and had a dig through their files. They had folders on various battalions which included some photos. I wasn’t there specially to look for photos so this was just a bonus find. If you aren’t able to visit Stirling Castle anytime soon the archives staff could probably have a look. They usually ask for a donation to the museum fund for helping. You could send a scan or snapshot of the photos from the book to help them with what you’re looking for.
Thanks It seems the museum and archives are closed for renovations so I'll have to put it off for now. It would be incredible to visit Scotland!