This Thursday sees the start of The Open Championship, an event so sure of its status that its name makes no reference to what its openness might refer.

The oldest golf tournament in the world is being staged for the 151st time, on this occasion at the Royal Liverpool course at Hoylake.

As someone whose formative years were spent not far from Hoylake, it seems curious that this links course is not actually in Liverpool.

Rather, it’s a short ferry ride across the River Mersey on the Wirral peninsula.

For the past few weeks, this blog has had to take a back seat as a combination of a holiday break and work on a new research paper have taken precedence.

So it’s pleasing that The Open offers a link to that research paper and to this stereoscopic photograph titled “Golf” that I have recently added to my collection.

It was taken by J.E. (James Edward) Ellam, one of the stereographers involved in the development of early press photography either side of 1900.

I wrote a blog about Mr. Ellam (Press Photo Pioneer – April 28, 2023), but since then I have become the owner of 30 stereos that can be attributed to him.

“Golf” with its “J.E. Ellam” credit stamp on the verso is one these stereos.

In future weeks, I’ll be blogging about these Ellam stereos and how they further inform understanding of how an amateur stereographer from Yorkshire became a Fleet Street press professional.

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