Two albums of photographs in the Penlee House collection belonged to John Branwell, the elder son in the Branwell family who built the original house in Penzance that Penlee House Museum and Art Gallery occupies today. He created a darkroom within the house, and the two albums donated by the Branwell family to the museum show him to have been an extremely accomplished amateur photographer.

Importantly for the museum, he photographed the interior and exterior of the house in the mid 1880s, giving a flavour of the building as it was when it was his family home.  In addition to taking family portraits, he set out to capture life in West Cornwall.