'Oldest photo studio' shows rediscovered images
Newly-restored photographs from 165 years of British history are going on display to mark a restoration project.
WW Winter in Derby had been organising its 150th anniversary when staff found images dating back to 1852.
The firm has been in the same building since 1867, but it appears it began 15 years earlier in a shed metres away.
Photographer Louisa Fuller said: "We are fairly confident this makes us the the oldest photography firm still in business."
She added: "New evidence points to Frenchman Emmanuel Nicolas Charles opening a studio in 1852, which Walter William Winter joined in 1862.
A Heritage Lottery Fund-backed project has restored hundreds of glass plate negatives found in the basement of WW Winter's Midland Road building.
"We have a wonderful archive - starting all the way to literally Box 1.
"Looking at the earliest portraits they seem a little crude and stiff but of course it took so long to take a picture people could not keep a smile up."
A selection of images taken by the firm is to go on display as part of the Format festival of photography and related media.
These include photographs of life in Derby and Derbyshire including royal visits, sports teams, shops, industry and beauty spots.