exceptionally interesting post from the Gentle Author about the archive of late-Victorian glass plate photos of young men at the Working Lads Institute in Whitechapel, including three young Londoners of African ancestry and a similar group of recruits in 1914:
http://spitalfieldslife.com/2014/05/03/whitechapel-lads/#comments
interestingly, several of the non-African sitters were photographed on the roof, standing in front of sheets strung up by chimney stacks and a drying shed; they are shown full-length, whereas the black boys are half-length close-ups, apparently indoors. It would be interesting to know if these pictures were ever published, if any prints survive, and what their original purpose was.
This group portrait is currently on view until the end of August 2014 at an exhibition organised by Tower Hamlets Community Housing, 285 Commercial Rd, E1 2PS, together with many other portraits of World War I combatants from East London, including Walter Tull.
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