Mercie Keer Lack ARPS (1894-1985) was a British teacher and photographer particularly known for her photography of the discoveries at the site of

Sutton Hoo Sutton Hoo is the site of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. Archaeology, Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when an undisturbed ship burial containing a wea ...

in 1939, (with her friend and teaching colleague Barbara Wagstaff), and for her photographs of London street scenes.

Life

Mercie Keer Lack was born in south London on 9 November 1894. She is widely reported as a teacher in press coverage of her photography at

. Lack and Barbara Wagstaff (1895-1974) both joined the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is the world's oldest photographic society having been in continuous existence since 1853. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as th ...

in 1944 and gained their Associate the same year. They are reported as amongst the teaching staff of

Putney High School Putney High School, GDST is an independent girls' day school in Putney, London. Often referred to as simply Putney, the school admits students from the ages 4–18. Founded in 1893 it is a member of the Girls' Day School Trust, a union of 26 ...

1935-6, which would fit with Lack's London photography series of the 1930s. She became a life member of the RPS in 1949. She died on 23 April 1985 in Stevenage.

London photography

Lack captured life on the night-time streets of 1930s London on glass lantern slides, which are now held by the

Museum of London London Museum (known from 1976 to 2024 as the Museum of London) is a museum in London, covering the history of the city from prehistoric to modern times, with a particular focus on social history. The Museum of London was formed in 1976 by ama ...

. Several of these slides featured in the Museum's temporary exhibition 'London Nights', May - November 2018.

Sutton Hoo

Lack and Wagstaff were on holiday in Suffolk in 1939 when the

ship burial was discovered. They arrived after the treasures had been removed and photographed the excavation of the ship itself. There are speculations that they had contacts at the British Museum who informed them of the discovery. There had been a call in 1936 for amateur photographers to help in documenting archaeological sites, and appeals were carried in the journal ''

Antiquity Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to: Historical objects or periods Artifacts *Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures Eras Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...

'' in March 1936 as well as in photographers' magazines. Lack and Wagstaff appear to have been part of the response of the time but their photographs were of better quality than many of the other amateurs. Working from 9-24 August 1939, they used

Leica Leica may refer to: Companies * Ernst Leitz GmbH, later divided into: ** Leica Biosystems GmbH, a cancer diagnostics company ** Leica Camera AG, a German camera and optics manufacturer ** Leica Geosystems AG, a Swiss manufacturer of surveying and ...

cameras. They also each had a single roll of German 35mm

Agfa Agfa-Gevaert N.V. (Agfa) is a Belgian-German multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes Analog photography, analogue and digital imaging products, software, and systems. The company began as a dye manufacturer in 1867 ...

colour slide film, and so Sutton Hoo was one of the first excavations in Britain captured in colour. Lack took 297 black and white photographs of the site, and Wagstaff took 150. They also took thirty six colour transparencies each. Lack also had a cine-camera and took a short 16mm film of the archaeologist

Basil Brown Basil John Wait Brown (22 January 1888 – 12 March 1977) was an English archaeologist and astronomer. Self-taught, he discovered and excavated a 6th-century Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in 1939, which has come to be called "one of t ...

excavating the midships section. Another photographer, from the science museum, took a picture which shows Lack and Wagstaff either side of the ship. In 2010, a collection of around 400 prints of the pair's photographs of

were found to have been donated to the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

a few years before by Lack's great-nephew. Until then there had been only the 29 official

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

photographs of the excavations, and as records of measurements taken by staff from the

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, Industry (manufacturing), industry and Outline of industrial ...

had been lost during World War II, Lack's photographs allowed for a more detailed re-construction of the dig than had been previously possible, particularly because many were annotated. They were digitised, and placed online in 2021. A large number of Lack's photographs and slides are also in the

collection. Lack was given a collection of ship rivets by Charles Phillips on the last day of the 1939 excavation. She bequeathed them to the

. Lack and Wagstaff provided much of the visual material - still and moving image - for a BBC documentary ''The Million Pound Grave'' broadcast on 17 August 1965.

Exhibitions

* ''Captured on Camera: The Summer of 1939''

Sutton Hoo 23 November 2010 – 20 March 2011. * ''We Few People''

Sutton Hoo. Exhibition on the people behind the 1939 discovery and excavations. * ''London Nights''

11 May-11 November 2018.

References

External links

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

documentary, 1965
YouTube, ''Sutton Hoo: The Million Pound Grave'' (3 minutes 18 seconds)

YouTube, ''Sutton Hoo'', 1985 (1 hour 39 minutes)
Incorporates the 1965 BBC documentary ''The Million Pound Grave'' about the 1939 excavation and follow-up 1984/5 documentary about subsequent research. Miss Mercie Lack is listed in the final credits. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lack, Mercie English women photographers Photographers from London Schoolteachers from London Sutton Hoo 1894 births 1985 deaths