Mentor: Kimberly Hamlin, Ph.D.

From September 1940 to May 1941, London saw 57 consecutive nights of bombing. Approximately 30,000 Londoners were killed, and at least 1 million homes were destroyed. The German Air Force consistently bombed British cities, especially London, in an attempt to destroy resources around the city and destroy British morale.

London City Police officers Arthur Cross and Frederick Tibbs were assigned as official police photographers and tasked with creating a photographic record of the city's damage. They documented the destruction in a collection of 371 photographs now held in the London Archives. These photos were never released to the public because of strict policies on news censorship. The British Ministry of Information created a permitting system for anyone documenting bomb damage. The British press was also required to submit their photos for approval before release. They were evaluated to make sure they did not leak any information that could be useful to an enemy, like locations or the degree of damage. Because of this, images released in the news were more focused on human activity and people's interaction with the city. The specific rules laid out in the Ministry of Information's permits and censorship policies led to a stark contrast in the photos used for documentation and internal use and images released to the public through the news.

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