Major exhibition at Wisbech & Fenland Museum on way we were in the Fens from the lens of pioneering female photographer

A major exhibition is currently taking place at a town museum.

Wisbech & Fenland Museum is holding an exhibition called Lilian Ream: Faces and Places, from now until July 13.

The Lilian Ream Trust staging the Museum’s major summer exhibition hopes visitors will be enthused to join its members in safeguarding these remarkable photographs for future generations.

A crane at work for the Empire Theatre – once the grandest cinema in town

The 200,000 surviving images – many without captions - form a priceless archive of life in the Fens from the 1910s to the Fifties, and you are invited to share what you know about their subjects whenever you visit.

The Trustees will be at the exhibition for two Saturday morning events – on May 18 and June 15 – to meet anyone who would like to share ideas about the future of the collection and find out how they can help to preserve it through volunteering and even becoming trustees themselves.

Rolling images on a wall-mounted carousel are being changed at intervals, chosen for their quirkiness and particularity to the local area.

Recognise any faces/the event?

The exhibition is staged at the Museum by the Lilian Ream Trust thanks to a grant from Fenland District Council’s Culture Fund and many of the images have not been seen in public before.

Robert Bell, chairman of the Trust, said: “We are extremely grateful to the Fenland Culture Fund for providing funding to enable to us to mount this exhibition here at the Museum.

“It highlights the career of a businesswoman who came to dominate professional photography in Wisbech for nearly half a century.”

Lilian Ream and her staff in 1929

The exhibition is open and free during museum hours, Wednesday to Saturday, 10am – 4pm.

Museum admission charges of £5 for an annual free pass apply to all but under-16s and students.