Arthur Cooper was a press photographer in Coventry between 1940 and 1965, working mostly for the Midland Daily News and Coventry Evening Telegraph. Thanks to MirrorPix, which has cared for the collection for many years, Coventry Digital holds nearly 10,000 Cooper images.

Arthur's collection came to us through a project with MirroPix, publicity from which resulted in a further 900 scans being discovered. We're also very grateful to a group of people, including Canon Martin Williams from Friends of Coventry Cathedral, who looked through the images and added their knowledge. The beauty of collections like Arthur's is that on the British Newspaper Archive there is likely the corresponding article. The article can tell us why the photograph was taken - what day, event and people - but it doesnt tell us why it matters today. This comes from people today - what connects you to this image from long ago?