A chance enquiry from a Madonna fan in Spain this week has prompted us to revisit Barnaby's for our Collection of the Week newsletter. He had discovered the above 1947 photograph, of a couple disembarking from the glamorous 'Golden Arrow' train, on our website and requested a print, telling us it was used for the UK single release of 'Holiday' by Madonna back in 1983. In fact, in a rather pleasing case of synchronicity, this Thursday actually marks the 40th anniversary since the release of 'Holiday' (although why nobody thought to release it a couple of months earlier when it actually WAS the holidays is anyone's guess).

The Barnaby's Collection was acquired by Mary Evans Picture Library in 2001, so of course back in 1983, Barnaby's was still a fully-operational image library in its own right and would have licensed this image to Madonna's record company. 'Holiday' is generally acknowledged to be her breakthrough single and we wonder if, back then, the staff of Barnaby's had any idea who Madonna was, and we're also intrigued to know what they charged! Ironically, despite the photograph's prestigious licensing pedigree, it had not been used since Barnaby's came to Mary Evans and as we had no historic picture sales data, we had not made the connection. So it's been rather exciting to discover we hold an image which played a part in establishing the career of one of the world's biggest music megastars, especially on the eve of the single's anniversary.

It also gives us the perfect excuse to remind you of what a truly unique photographic resource Barnaby's is. Founded by Joyce Dixon as a photographic studio in 1934 (supplying photographs for Fleet Street features), Barnaby's soon started to acquire collections and represent individual photographers' work. In the mid-1950s the library changed hands when Mary Buckland bought the collection and continued to run it as both a studio and a picture library until the late 1990s. Some of you may remember the Barnaby's office, located behind a Georgian shop front on Rathbone Street, just off Oxford Street.

Many of the hundreds of Barnaby's contributors are now represented by Mary Evans Picture Library. The photographs cover specific subject areas such as the D-Day landings, the Blitz, British topograghy, the 1951 Festival of Britain and the Swinging Sixties, while other more general areas such as fashion, homes and social scenes are very well represented through the decades.

We've gathered together a selection of some of Barnaby's greatest hits including, of course, that Golden Arrow couple, immortalised on the cover of one of the biggest pop bangers of all time.

Whether you're after pitch perfect pictures for records or reports, museum display or multimedia learning, books or brochures, we've got plenty of pictures that hit the high notes. Contact us for research, quotes or to answer any of your library-related queries either by email at pictures@maryevans.com or by calling 020 8318 0034.