It was a tragedy that made national newspaper headlines. At 3pm on April 17, in the year 1900, a 19-year-old holidaymaker was swept from the rocks off the coast of Filey, a North Yorkshire seaside town popular for its sandy beaches and rugged cliffs. Despite the frantic efforts of friends, the teenager, Margaret Middleton, drowned in the roiling sea and her body was never found.What did wash up on the shore a few days later was her camera. A keen photographer, Margaret had been standing on the edge of the long narrow peninsula known as Filey Brigg taking a snap of the breakers when she was hit by a sudden groundswell of water. It was an early equivalent of taking a selfie on a cliff edge. The make of camera wasn’t reported at the time, but Eastman Kodak had only unveiled the Box Brownie earlier that year.
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