Record grant creates world-class photography archive

The importance of photography to Britain's cultural heritage has been recognised by a record £3.75m grant to help create the most important photographic collection in the world.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has made the award to support plans for the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford to acquire the historical collection of the Royal Photographic Society in Bath.

The Bradford museum already has a collection of three million items, including the world's earliest surviving negative. And its archive will now be augmented by a partnership agreement with the Royal Photographic Society to take its collection, which represents some of the most significant photographic achievements of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Combining the two collections will make the museum a world-class centre. Amanda Nevill, its head, said: "Bradford will be the most important place for photography on the planet."

Liz Forgan, chairwoman of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said the grant was its largest yet, and added: "Photos are an incredibly important part of all our lives and whether professional or amateur, they capture moments in our lives for posterity."

The Royal Photographic Society is a private organisation which celebrates its 150th anniversary next year. It has collected examples of photography which require care and attention way beyond what has been possible at its headquarters in Bath.

Conservation costs of about £300,000 a year came close to bankrupting the society, which then began talks with bodies capable of saving the collection and making it accessible to the public.

The collection includes early forms of photographic plates made by Niépce in 1826, the earliest surviving photographic portrait on paper by Talbot from 1840, and works by most of the earliest protagonists of the art, including Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, or Lewis Carroll.

It was agreed that although the Royal Photographic Society would not receive the market value of the collection, estimated at £80m to £100m, it would be paid £4.5m as part of a partnership agreement. Another £500,000 was needed for the costs of transferring the works and setting up education and exhibition programmes connected with them.

The National Art Collections Fund gave an initial £342,000 to kickstart the process and further funds came from the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward. After the Lottery award, £800,000 remains to be raised.

John Page, president of the society, said it was fantastic that most of the funding was in place and that exhibitions could begin in January.

The film maker Lord Puttnam, an honorary fellow of the society, said: "It can only be beneficial that two unique centres of excellence can work together and this historic concordat must reinforce the message of the importance of photography and Britain as its birthplace."