Darkroom Assistant’s Scrapbook Contains Unseen Photos Taken by Lee Miller and Cecil Beaton

by · Peta Pixel
The scrapbook contains a lesser-seen version of Miller in Hitler’s bathtub. | Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford

A darkroom printer’s scrapbook containing previously unseen photos that belonged to Lee Miller and Cecil Beaton has been unearthed and acquired by the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries.

Roland Haupt was a photographic assistant to two of Britain’s most iconic photographers and kept a scrapbook of their prints, including a different frame of Miller’s famous portrait showing her bathing in Adolf Hitler’s bathtub in his Munich apartment, the same day the Nazi leader died.

Both Miller and Beaton worked for Vogue magazine, and Haupt was the darkroom printer in the London office. The album spans from 1943 to 1949, and the photographs reflect that tumultuous time as the Second World War came to an end.

Miller’s wartime photography in Germany. The photos show Hitler’s sitting room (1), Eva Braun’s house and bed (2 and 3), and Eagle’s Nest in flames (4).
Cecil Beaton’s photo of Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor.

The prints were made by Haupt in Vogue’s London darkroom. The unprocessed negatives were sent by Miller and Beaton, often from the frontlines in Europe. The book is a working record that documents Haupt’s favorite photos that he was asked to process and print. Haupt kept the album in his personal possession until his death; the album has never been displayed in public before.

“This is the story of my favourite photographer Lee Miller — Vogue war correspondent,” Haupt wrote in the book. “She followed the American army from the beaches of Normandy, five days after D-Day, up to the final entry into Berlin, and after that she continued her journey visiting countries that had been occupied, having many exciting experiences — these are a few of the beautiful pictures she sent back.”

According to a press release, Miller trained Haupt as her assistant in 1940, later charging him with taking over darkroom production while she went away to war as a correspondent. Miller’s life story was recently made into a movie, where she was played by Kate Winslet. Miller, a former Vogue model, was one of the first accredited female war reporters.

A portrait of Miller (top) and a photo of her with Pablo Picasso (bottom).
Some macabre images taken by Miller of the end of World War II.

The album was acquired by the Bodleian Libary through photography dealer Michael Hoppen, who obtained it directly from the Haupt family. He tells The Times of London that it was a surprise to him that Miller entrusted such momentous photographs to Haupt.

“That relationship was clearly very important,” Hoppen tells the newspaper. “And he has clearly been instrumental in showing us how extraordinarily brave this woman was.

The album captures many other pivotal moments in Miller’s war photography, including the German army’s surrender to the U.S., the liberation of Dachau and Buchenwald, and an arresting image of two captured and beaten SS officers. Other images reflect Miller’s strong connection to the contemporary artistic circles of the day: one photograph shows Miller, in her army uniform, in conversation with Pablo Picasso.

Cecil Beaton portrait of the then Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret.
Portraits of Beaton.

Haupt also worked as a photographic assistant to Cecil Beaton, who was stationed in North Africa during the 1940s. Beaton’s photographs from the region, also included in the album, document the stark, surreal beauty of the desert landscapes, in sharp contrast to the harrowing scenes from wartime Europe.

Beaton’s photos from Africa.

Now part of the Bodleian’s collections, the album will undergo conservation and cataloguing before being made available to researchers. In time, the Bodleian plans to explore opportunities for public display and wider access.

Image credits: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford