Adlib Internet Server 5

Title
Private White VC digital collection of photographs
Reference
2022-273
Production date
2020 - 2020

Creator

Private White VC Limited Biography Biography
Private White VC Limited was registered as a public limited company in 2010, but has a long history as a waterproof clothing manufacturer in Salford. The original factory was opened in 1853, on the banks of the River Irwell, under a different company name. Throughout its history, it has manufactured high end waterproof clothing, including gaberdine trench coats during the First World War and waterproof parkas for the RAF during the Second World War, alongside supplying outfitters in Saville Row, London. The current company name derives from Private Jack White, VC, who joined the existing manufacturer as an apprentice pattern cutter after the First World War. By 1934, he was the general manager of the company, and in 1937 bought the company outright. Following Jack White's death in 1949, the company ownership changed hands. His descendants brought the company back into family ownership in 2007, and changed the company name in 2010. In 2020, the company volunteered to convert its factory in Glossop to the production of medical gowns and face masks for the Department of Health & Social Care.

Scope and Content
Collection of digital photographs in .jpg file format. The photographs show the process of making medical-grade face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Private White VC repurposed a former automobile garage in Glossop to house a modular ISO-grade clean room. 150,000 masks a day could be produced. Medical grade masks must be produced in a controlled environment free from contamination from dust and airborne microbes. The photographs show the modular clean room inserted inside the original building. Workers are seen wearing personal protective equipment (PPE). Measures to reduce contamination include using personal laboratory style coats, gloves, and shoe and hair coverings. The photographs show the entire production line, starting with rolls of fabrics to the completed face masks being checked, boxed, and warehoused. They show how the fabrics are layered, manipulated, attached, and finished. They include details of workers doing manual processes alongside highly mechanised systems. Private White VC’s diversification from traditional British clothing to PPE made financial sense to the company and provided an extra 50 full-time jobs to local people during the pandemic. They became one of the largest UK suppliers of masks to the NHS. They exclusively supplied the NHS. When the contracts were fulfilled, the company stopped production of PPE.
Extent
121 digital image files
Archival history
Created by the donor company as a record of their contribution to the production of medical gowns and face masks during the Coronavirus pandemic. Some images were used in media around the company's changed operation. JPEG copy images were acquired by the Science Museum Group as part of its Covid contemporary collecting project.
Level of description
TOP
Repository name
Science and Industry Museum
Conditions governing access
Open access. Access to born-digital files via the SIM Research Centre study area is in development. Remote access is not currently possible.
Conditions governing Reproduction
Copies may be supplied in accordance with current copyright legislation and Science Museum Group terms and conditions. Copyright ownership has been retained by the photographer.