Description: Thomas William Hammond 1854-1935. Born in Philadelphia of Nottingham emigres, and orphaned at the age of four, he came to England with his younger sister Maria and lived for a short while with his grandparents in Mount Street. In 1868 age 14 he enrolled in the Government School of Art. On the 1871 census he is described as a lace curtain designer, and in 1872 he was awarded the 'Queen's Prize for a Design of a Lace Curtain'. Other prizes followed and in 1877 he was again awarded the Queen's Prize, this time for the design for a damask table Cloth. Hammond was an indefatigable worker, and soon began to use his skills as a draftsman to record aspects of the changing town. He began showing his work at local venues in 1882 and in 1890 exhibited for the first time at the Royal academy. His real hobby was black and white sketching in charcoal. He drew about 350 pictures all together mainly scenes of a Nottingham he knew but which has largely passed away today. Extracted from 'The Changing Face of Tom Hammond's Nottingham' by John Beckett which is the introductory essay in 'A City in the Making Drawings of Tom Hammond'. The annual pandemonium of Goose Fair, held during the first week in October is the event from which all Nottingham activities date themselves. For three days the town is given up to noise and merry-making and in spite of numerous attempts to suppress it or to move it to a more convenient centre than the Market Place, Goose Fair shows signs of remaining where it is for many years to come. It was originated as far back as 1541 as a business fair, but its utility has long since disappeared and it is now merely a pleasure fair. Nottingham Market Place is the pride of the city; it is more than five acres in extent and is the largest open market in England, and with the pleasing bustle on market days when the country folk bring in their many-hued products it presents a scene of beauty and gaiety which is far removed from the sombre colours usually associated with English commerce. Mr. Hammond's picture shows us, in the distance, the Exchange, which has had a varied but rather uninteresting history in spite of the fact that it has been the centre of civic life during the whole of its existence. It was built in 1724, remodelled under Staveley in 1814, and is now being pulled down to make way for a modern building. Nottingham Market Place is a network of tramways. The first trams to run in Nottingham commenced their useful career on September 17th 1878. They were horse drawn, and the struggles of the poor horses to get their heavy loads up our steep hills troubled the hearts of our forefathers until 1880, when an attempt was made to use steam power on the Nottingham-Basford route. The Corporation took over the tramway under taking in 1897, and soon after, electric tramways were introduced throughout the city, to the great convenience of the inhabitants. Image and descriptive text taken from 'Nottingham Past and Present', published in 1926.