“Europe presents a live picture of a warming world and reminds us that even well prepared societies are not safe from impacts of extreme weather events.”
Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization,
2016–present
One thing that 2022 is likely to be remembered for is being the year in which climate change became a materially conscious reality for the world’s wealthier nations. Up until the 1970s, most people were unaware of environmental concerns, and it was not until the 21st century that claims of global warming finally passed through all three stages of truth: firstly they were ridiculed, secondly they were violently opposed, and now they are accepted as self-evident fact. It is sobering to think that, in the UK, 2022 was the hottest year on record, marginally beating 2014!
From this perspective, these photos, and many others in The Family Museum archive compiled through the 20th century, prompt me to think about how attitudes have changed over time. Viewed through the neo-puritan lens of the 21st century, these images begin to take on a different mood. They start to tell a story not simply of holiday gaiety and abandon, but also a story now seen through a veil of lost innocence – environmental catastrophe-anxiety was unknown to people of the last century; nuclear-annihilation anxiety, perhaps, but the sun meant only good times. Now we need to be wary of the heat, cold and wet as possible harbingers of calamity. The photos featuring summer holidays in our archive illustrate an attitude towards our environment that is no longer as easy to muster – each is a time-weathered snapshot of a certain carefree past.
Nigel Martin Shephard
THE FAMILY MUSEUM 