The wonderfully-named Dr Tempest Anderson (after whom the hall at the Yorkshire Museum is named) was a York opthalmologist with a yearning for adventure ...and a passionate interest in volcanoes.

The one-time president of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society is best known today (apart from the hall named after him) for his series of trips from 1883 onwards observing volcanoes all over the world. Most famously, he was in the West Indies in the summer of 1902, where he witnessed a massive eruption on the island of Martinique from which he barely escaped with his life, and a second eruption on neighbouring St Vincent.

He took some remarkable photographs while on his travels. But he also put those same photographic skills to use in his native York.

The wonderful Imagine York digital archive of images maintained by Explore York has a selection of Dr Anderson's photographs. Some date from as early as the 1880s, but most are from the 1910s.

We reproduce a few of them here. They provide a wonderful snapshot of what the city was like just before the outbreak of the First World War...

1. York Art Gallery, 1886. The Art Gallery was designed by Edward Taylor of York. It was opened in May 1879 and cost £25,000 to build. No permanent collection was housed there until 1882 when a gift was made by John Burton of Poppleton which was valued at the time (by Christies) as being worth £75, 000. Meetings such as concerts, displays, prize givings and lectures were held in the building. Until 1941, when it was demolished, a large temporary wooden hall was behind the permanent building, but this was declared unsafe and closed in 1909

2. Monkgate in 1912. Nos 37 and 39 Monkgate were, for many years, used as a nurses' home which was run by the Sisters of the Holy Cross. The recessed property on the left was an orphanage - the Grey Coat School for Girls. The cab stand, with the cabman's shelter on the right, appears to be generating little interest

3. The view from the West Esplanade across Walker's horse paddock to the Walker's Horse Respository (essentially 'parking for horses') on Tanners Moat in 1912. The paddock is now the city memorial garden

4. Bull Lane in Heworth in 1912. The lane joined up with Bull Lane in Lawrence Street and was an ancient track

5. This horse and carriage is passing along Minster Yard in 1912. The large house on the right is No. 6 which was built in about 1740 as the Prebendal house for Strensall. In more recent times it has been used as a private kindergarten. St William's College is in the background and the massive bulk of the Minster on the left

6. The Great East Window dominates this 1912 photograph, which shows a group of men and a horse and cart and the end of College Street. The wood and building materials to the left of the photograph opposite St William's College were from the buildings on Pavement and Coppergate which were demolished to make Piccadilly - something we wrote about a few weeks ago on these pages

7. This 1912 picture of the east end of the Minster shows the 'new' Deangate of 1903. The building on the left is the recently rebuilt (also 1903) Cross Keys Hotel with an electric street lamp outside. On the right are College Street and St William's College.

Stephen Lewis

All the photos on these pages, and thousands more, are held on Explore York’s Imagine York archive. You can browse it yourself at imagineyork.co.uk/