The Bill Douglas Cinema museum has one of the largest collections of material relating to the moving image in Britain. It is both a public museum and an academic research centre, housing one of Britain's largest public collections of books, prints, artefacts and ephemera relating to the long history of screen practice. There are over 80,000 items in the collection.
The museum chronicles the development of optical entertainment from shadow-puppets and 17th century manuscripts to the most recent Hollywood blockbusters, including artefacts such as Magic Lanterns, rare books, prints, and an extensive variety of publicity materials. The diversity of this collection provides an insight into the changing dynamics of the moving image and the history of our relationship with it.
1,000 items from the collections are on display in the Galleries in the Old Library, while other items can be consulted on request in the Ronald Duncan Reading Room. You can find out more about the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum collections and search the catalogue via the website.
Pamela Davies’ collection of over 200 photographs were donated to the Museum in 2017 by her sister. Pamela worked as one of the top Continuity and Script Supervisors in British cinema from the 1940s-1980s. The official stills were taken on set and given to Pamela for use in her work to check continuity. Other images show her at work on set or on location, making and typing up notes on costume, props, movement and dialogue for each take. Continuity Supervisors were known as ‘Continuity girls’ as the job was one of the only roles in film production commonly occupied by women. It is an essential job in film-making but as a feminised role often lacked status in a traditionally masculine industry. For some women it opened a door to production or writing but for many it was as high as they could expect to go. The collection includes images of film stars Sophia Loren and Judy Garland among others. Pamela worked on films including ‘Oliver!’, 'I Could Go on Singing' and ‘Judith’.
Search 'Pamela Davies' on the Museum website to view her collection.
