Welcome to the webpages for the University of Essex Art and Special Collections. The University is home to two major art collections; ESCALA (the Essex Collection of Art from Latin America) and the University Art Collection. Our Colchester Campus library houses Special Collections, over 70 individual archives containing primary source materials and collections covering a variety of subjects and time periods. The collections provide a valuable resource for teaching, through object based learning and other sessions, and for research. More information about teaching sessions and research support is available on these pages, together with our collections policy and information for visitors.
This collection contains materials relating to the life and work of the crime writer Margery Allingham and her husband, the artist Philip Youngman Carter. Margery Allingham is best known for her novels featuring the detective Albert Campion. From the 1930s to the 1960s she was considered one of the most distinguished writers of detective fiction’s “Golden Age”, together with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh.
The collection consists of 23 metres of archival material and artwork, including original manuscripts, edited proofs, diaries, photographs, printed books and objects. The collection also includes paintings and drawings by Philip Youngman Carter.
The collection has been placed on permanent deposit in the Library by the Margery Allingham Society
This archive relates to the life and work of the Essex nature writer, J.A. Baker, 1926-87, author of the critically acclaimed The Peregrine (1967). The collection was donated to the Library in 2013 with the assistance of Dr John Fanshawe, who, with the author, Mark Cocker, edited the complete works of Baker for publication by HarperCollins in 2011. The bulk of the archive, which comprises notebooks, diaries, draft manuscripts, maps, photographs, letters and optical artefacts, was brought together by Bernard Coe, Baker’s brother-in-law. Additional materials have been generously donated by David Cobham, John Thurmer, and Don Samuel. A detailed catalogue completed in 2016 by Hetty Saunders is available below. Anyone with further information, including personal memories, relevant to Baker, is encouraged to contact the library by email at libline@essex.ac.uk
This collection, which was presented by the late Mrs. M. Bean of Sudbury in 1975, is devoted to the study of William Blake. The main Bean Collection consists of the facsimile series of illuminated books and other works by Blake that were published by the Trianon Press, Clairvaux. An additional collection of works about William Blake, including further works donated by Mrs. Bean, supports the main collection and is added to regularly.
This collection of printed works, approximately 2,500 volumes, was placed on permanent deposit in 2017 by the Bibliographical Society (founded 1892), the primary learned society concerned with the study and history of the book in the United Kingdom. The volumes, which include works on printing, publishing, bookselling and collecting will be added to the main University Library catalogue
This collection comprises 70 rare and specialist volumes, mainly dating from the 19th century, amassed by historian and sociologist Leonore Davidoff (1932-2014) in the course of her research into women’s and family lives. Professor Davidoff, was associated with the University’s Department of Sociology from 1969 and was a generous donor to the Library during her lifetime. The collection includes works of children’s literature, women’s fiction, polite literature, women’s conduct books, and volumes on domestic manners and morals. The collection was donated by Professor Davidoff's family in 2015
A collection of note-books, work-sheets and letters deposited in 1968 by the poet Donald Davie (Professor of Literature, University of Essex, 1964-68). The collection was augmented in 1976 by the purchase of a collection of Davie papers, for which the Library received a grant from the Arts Council.
Henri Gaudier (1891-1915), sculptor and draughtsman and his partner, writer Sophie Brzeska (1873-1925) came with to London in 1911. The nucleus of the archive is 34 letters which, with one exception, are from Henri to Sophie. The letters cover the period 12 July 1910 to 10 October 1913 and have been published, in part, in H.S. Ede's Savage Messiah, 1931. The main part of the collection consists of Sophie's diaries and her unpublished creative writings; many of which date from after the death of Henri in June 1915. The collection was donated in 1964 by Mr. H.S. [Jim] Ede, founder of the University Art Collection
This collection is devoted to the life and work of the Essex author and educationalist, Nicholas Hagger, 1939-. The Archive, which was placed on permanent deposit in March 2016, by the author, is composed of distinct sections. The initial 2016 deposit covers Mr Hagger’s literary and poetic writings, as well as his works on history and philosophy. Future boxes will contain papers of a personal/biographical nature. For further information on Nicholas Hagger, please go to www.nicholashagger.com
A collection of books relating to and by Andrew Lang (1884-1912), poet, literary critic and editor, including volumes of fairy stories, legends and ballads. Donated in memory of Dr Christopher Harris (1934-2009)
John Hassall (1868-1949) was popularly described in his day as the 'king of poster artists'. The collection consists of diaries (from 1894-1948), family and official correspondence, photographs, and a substantial collection of printed works, as well as preparatory sketches. The original gift was made in 1966 through Mrs. D.M. Dobereiner, daughter of John Hassall.
This original collection was donated to the Library by the playwright and academic, Roger Howard, who was a lecturer in the Department of Literature, University of Essex, 1979-2003. The collection contains working scripts, programmes, brochures, as well as a complete list of productions and writers, 1979-2002, relating to the Theatre Underground and the Essex University Theatre Writer’s Residency.
In 2019 a further donation was made of short early plays by Roger Howard, as well as individual files on the theatrical productions (often including manuscripts, photographs and other ephemera) associated with more recent plays.
Liberate Tate was formed as an activist art collective in the United Kingdom with the goal of ending the sponsorship of art institutions, more specifically the Tate Galleries, by oil companies such as BP.
Liberate Tate was born out of a ‘Disobedience Makes History Workshop’ held in 2010. The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination were invited by Tate Modern to organise and run a two-day art activism workshop. The brief given – to use Tate’s own words – “the most appropriate way to approach political issues within a publicly funded institution.” However, Tate’s response to a planning meeting with a member of the organising group was to specify “No activism is to be directed against Tate and its sponsors.” In response, and instead of pulling out, the Lab of Insurrectionary Imagination used the email as a starting point.
Whilst the workshop acted as a catalyst for the formation of Liberate Tate, the planning, directing, and shaping of their work took place over the two years following the workshop.
Liberate Tate’s public profile was raised through its creative, direct action arguing that BP’s sponsorship was a form of ‘artwash’, an extension of the term ‘greenwashing’. The sponsorship of Tate as a cultural institution was seen as an attempt by BP to legitimise its often controversial actions. The aims of the Collective were to challenge the ethical implications of sponsorship by an oil company and to raise public awareness about climate change, environmental issues, and corporate influence in the arts.
The archive includes planning documentation, emails and objects.
This small collection of books represents those titles from the library of the late George Mayer Marton (Senior Lecturer in the History of Art, University of Liverpool, 1950-1960) not otherwise represented on the shelves of the Albert Sloman Library. Mayer-Marton, (1897-1960), was born in Hungary and was a major figure in the artistic world of pre-war Vienna. In 1938 he took refuge in England, and two years later many of his paintings were destroyed in the London Blitz. He did not paint again until 1948, but managed to build a considerable reputation as a mosaicist in the immediate post-war years. One of his finest mosaics is now housed in Liverpool’s Roman Catholic cathedral
This collection contains notebooks, typescripts, research material, correspondence and printed works of the poet, novelist, academic, journalist and translator, Douglas Oliver (1937-2000), who was associated with the University in the 1970s, first as a mature student, and later as a lecturer in the Literature Department. The archive, which has been placed on permanent deposit with the Library by his widow, Alice Notley has been supplemented with additional material.
24 books written by or about members of the Pattle family from Suffolk, including the writer Virginia Woolf and the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. Also included in the Collection are a photocopied typescript by Elizabeth Boyd entitled The Chevalier de L’Etang, and three family trees detailing the genealogical history of various branches of the family. The collection was donated by Mrs. Jean Pattle in July 2004,
A file of lectures on the history of art by Professor Thomas Puttfarken (1963 – 2006), former head of the Department of Art History at the University of Essex.
A collection of 130 books and pamphlets is named after its donor, (John) Edgell Rickword, the poet and literary critic who was born in Colchester in 1898. The main themes of the collection are Irish literature and history, parliamentary and social reform, chartism, and the labour movement. The collection includes volumes and pamphlets by or relating to William Hone, the 19th century bookseller and political satirist.
Books from the library of the late Paul Spitzer, of Zug, Switzerland, were bequeathed to the University in 1994. Paul Spitzer served in the Czech air force during the Second World War, and was stationed at Wivenhoe Park August-September 1943. His connection with Britain and with Essex is commemorated in the donation of the collection. The collection consists of 1,500 volumes, covering subjects including modern history, military history, literature and art. The collection also includes a box of personal ephemera, relating to the Spitzer family.
In 1965 the Western Madrigal Society, which was founded in 1840, presented its collection of sheet music to the Library. The collection comprises about one hundred different works, mostly by 16th and 17th century composers
Purchased jointly by the Universities of Cambridge and Essex in 1969, this collection is part of the library of the Parish of Bassingbourn and consists of nearly 400 titles, mainly on theological subjects. It includes 19 sixteenth-century titles, and 253 seventeenth-century titles
Samuel Levi Bensusan (1872-1958) produced a series of stories of Essex life that make him one of the leading writers on country life. The collection, acquired in 1966, includes an almost complete set of Bensusan's published works, his diaries for the years 1891 to 1957, typescript files of published and unpublished works, and four files of miscellaneous documents and correspondence. An additional collection includes diaries kept by the artist John Bensusan Butt, nephew of Samuel Bensusan on a visit to the Soviet Union and film posters collected during his visit
Papers of the late Thomas Brimelow (Ambassador, Poland 1966-69; Deputy Under-Secretary of State, Foreign Office 1969-73; Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Foreign Office & Head of Diplomatic Service 1973-75). The papers include lecture notes, correspondence and newspaper cutting relating to the Cold War during the period 1956-1988, together with material concerning repatriation and the Yalta Repatriation Agreement, and the obligation to carry out an agreement. The collection includes typescript drafts (incomplete) of a text in preparation, 'The Yalta Repatriation Agreements', with photocopies of associated Foreign Office and War Office papers dating from 1944-1947
Colchester Recalled is a voluntary group compiling an archive of recorded memories about Colchester & District over the past 120 years. They have completed more than 3,550 hours of recording, mostly interviews with over 1,500 local people, but also live recordings of local events as they happened. Originally recorded on tape, the archive has been transferred to digital media. The collection was founded on the recordings known as the Hervey Benham Collection, approximately 1400 tapes covering many aspects of Colchester and Essex life. As well as "whole life" interviews there are themed series on topics such as agriculture, the Colchester & East Essex Cooperative Society, and World War II.
Researchers who are not members of the University should refer to the Colchester Recalled Oral History Group website for details on access.
This collection contains 70 rare and specialist volumes, mainly dating from the 19th century, collected by historian and sociologist Leonore Davidoff (1932-2014) in the course of her research into women’s and family lives. Professor Davidoff, was associated with the University’s Department of Sociology from 1969 and was a generous donor to the Library during her lifetime. The collection includes works of children’s literature, women’s fiction, polite literature, women’s conduct books, and volumes on domestic manners and morals. The collection was donated by Professor Davidoff's family in 2015
A collection of books belonging to the Essex Gardens Trust, on the subjects of gardening and plant cultivation, which has been integrated with the Special Collections general sequence
The library of the ESAH contains works with particular emphasis on archaeology, antiquities, ancient and modern history (notably local history), and related subjects. It includes several hundred periodicals and newsletters, many received from similar county societies, and the current runs continue to be maintained. The collection was placed on permanent deposit in 2000, and continues to be enlarged with regular additions by the Society. The Society's collection of rare books has also been transferred to the Library. This is comprised of approximately 600 volumes, including some original Civil War tracts relating to the Siege of Colchester.
This collection consists of transcripts of Essex Parish Registers and lists of Monumental Inscriptions in Essex Churches. In addition to the material in Special Collections, the Society donates copies of family history journals, which are shelved with the main periodicals collection at the classmark CS 1
Between 2010 and 2019 the National Lottery Heritage Fund (formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund) invested £98 million in communities and groups across the UK to conserve and share their First World War heritage and create a greater understanding of the impact of the conflict. This collection contains leaflets, postcards, catalogues, flyers, DVDs and CDs produced by groups who received funding for national, local and community history projects commemorating the centenary of the War. The collection was deposited in 2019, with the assistance of Karen Brookfield of the Heritage Fund and Professor Lucy Noakes of the Department of History
Donated to the Library in 1997 by Mr. P.W. Glassborow of Bury St. Edmunds, this collection comprises of some 250 items of grey literature relating to rail travel and commuting into London in the 1960s and early 1970s. In addition to published reports, the collection includes typescripts of transport surveys carried out at that time
Amy Zahl Gottlieb worked from 1944 to 1952 for the Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF), then went to America to take up a post at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign where she started a programme in holocaust education, and returned to Britain in the late 1980s to act as the CBF’s honorary historian and archivist. She donated her personal library to the University in 2002 together with reels of microfilm, reproducing the Archives of the Central British Fund and the text of the Jewish Chronicle from 1937 to 1939. The collection contains approximately 200 books relating to the Holocaust, Jewish history, and Anti-Semitism. It also contains books on a range of historical topics, including several works on American immigration.
This single box archive was deposited with the Library in 2017 by Janet Gyford of Witham, Essex. It chronicles her 1963 visit to the USA and Mexico with the British Universities North America Club. The archive consists of maps, tickets, postcards, leaflets, notebooks, and other ephemera gathered during the trip, a box of photographic slides taken by Mrs Gyford (along with a descriptive list) and a post flight report/journal detailing her experiences of the tour.
This collection consists of 900 books comprising the personal library of Samuel Harsnett, 1561-1631, Archbishop of York, 1629-1631. Many of the books are polemical treatises relating to contemporary controversies between the Churches of England and Rome, as well as works on theological subjects published throughout Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and works on travel, philosophy and science. The collection contains several incunabula as well as a volume with embossed binding from the library of King Henry VIII
Forty four letters of T.E. Lawrence to H.S. Ede, written between 16 June 1927 and 5 April 1935. The letters were published in 1942 as Shaw-Ede; T.E. Lawrence's letters to H.S. Ede, 1927-1935. The letters were donated by H.S. Ede in 1964.
Liberate Tate Archive
Liberate Tate was formed as an activist art collective in the United Kingdom with the goal of ending the sponsorship of art institutions, more specifically the Tate Galleries, by oil companies such as BP.
Liberate Tate was born out of a ‘Disobedience Makes History Workshop’ held in 2010. The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination were invited by Tate Modern to organise and run a two-day art activism workshop. The brief given – to use Tate’s own words – “the most appropriate way to approach political issues within a publicly funded institution.” However, Tate’s response to a planning meeting with a member of the organising group was to specify “No activism is to be directed against Tate and its sponsors.” In response, and instead of pulling out, the Lab of Insurrectionary Imagination used the email as a starting point.
Whilst the workshop acted as a catalyst for the formation of Liberate Tate, the planning, directing, and shaping of their work took place over the two years following the workshop.
Liberate Tate’s public profile was raised through its creative, direct action arguing that BP’s sponsorship was a form of ‘artwash’, an extension of the term ‘greenwashing’. The sponsorship of Tate as a cultural institution was seen as an attempt by BP to legitimise its often controversial actions. The aims of the Collective were to challenge the ethical implications of sponsorship by an oil company and to raise public awareness about climate change, environmental issues, and corporate influence in the arts.
The archive includes planning documentation, emails and objects.
This collection was donated to the Library in 2017 by the sons of the late Professor David Lockwood. Born in Yorkshire in 1929, David Lockwood was educated at the LSE and joined the University of Essex in 1968 from the University of Cambridge. His ground-breaking studies of social class, as exemplified by his books, The Blackcoated Worker (1958) and Solidarity and Schism (1992) marked him out as a sociologist of the highest order. In 1976 he was elected to a fellowship of the British Academy and in 1998 was appointed CBE for his contributions to the discipline of sociology. He died in 2014
This collection of papers and allied books relates to the life and work of Professor Juliet Mitchell (born 1940), the New Zealand-born psychoanalyst, socialist feminist and pioneer of gender studies. The collection, which was placed on permanent deposit by Professor Mitchell in 2011
The National Social Policy and Social Change Archive, was set up in October 1996 by Qualidata with support from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the University of Essex. The collection includes a range of well-know pioneering classic studies from the social sciences including works by Peter Townsend, Ray Pahl, Jan Pahl, and Annette Lawson.
For more information see the UK Data Service website : https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/other-providers/qualitative
The NVALA archives covers the period 1964 to 1991 and consist of 144 boxes of NVALA publications and committee papers, television monitoring reports and surveys, correspondence of Mary Whitehouse with the BBC and IBA, publications of Mary Whitehouse, files relating to specific films and television programmes, newspaper cuttings, and correspondence of the NVALA secretary. A preliminary set of content lists is available below. Access to committee papers and financial reports is restricted
This collection of 130 books and pamphlets was donated by (John) Edgell Rickword, the poet and literary critic who was born in Colchester in 1898. The main themes of the collection are Irish literature and history, parliamentary and social reform, chartism, and the labour movement. The collection includes volumes and pamphlets by or relating to William Hone, the 19th century bookseller and political satirist.
The records of the former Rowhedge Ironworks Company were placed on indefinite deposit with the Library in 1969 by the Essex Record Office. The records cover the period 1904-1964 and represent an almost complete business archive, including order books, wage ledgers, blueprints and photograph albums, over 2,000 items covering the day-to-day transactions of the shipyard.
A private library from Stubbers, a country house near North Ockendon, now demolished. The books were mostly published in the 18th or early 19th centuries, and reflect the interests of three or four generations of the Russell family. There are practical works of interest to a county squire such as farming, sport, and law, but the best represented fields are history, topography and travel, and literature. The collection also includes family papers and account books which record the household's day-to-day financial transactions
This archive consists of 94 boxes of material from the papers of the late Paul Sieghart (1927-1989), law reformer, international arbitrator, writer and past Chairman of Justice (British Section of International Commission of Jurists). The archive includes texts of lectures delivered by Mr. Sieghart, drafts of books and articles, and reviews of his published output. The boxes also contain photocopies of articles from learned journals, press cuttings, and documents and booklets relating to human rights around the world. In 2006 the collection was expanded by approximately 300 French and German volumes on 19th century European history, with particular emphasis on Bismarck and Napoleon.
This collection consists of the books and manuscripts from the Friends' Meeting House in Colchester and was deposited with the Library in 1978. It includes over 1,000 printed works and nearly 200 bound manuscript Minute and Account books. The Minute books for the Colchester Meetings run from 1667, those for the Coggeshall Meetings from 1695, and those for the Essex Quarterly Meetings from 1711. There are also volumes covering Copford, Kelvedon, Layer Breton, and Manningtree. The collection is particularly valuable for tracing individual Quakers through the various notes of Removals, Condemnations, and Intentions of Marriage. The book Colchester Quakers, by S.H.G. Fitch, classmark BX 7678.C7, is recommended as preliminary reading.
In addition to the Colchester collection, Special Collections also holds collections of printed books from the Leiston, Letchworth and Sudbury branches of the Society of Friends.
Books from the library of the late Paul Spitzer, of Zug, Switzerland, were bequeathed to the University in 1994. Paul Spitzer served in the Czech air force during the Second World War, and was stationed at Wivenhoe Park August-September 1943. His connection with Britain and with Essex is commemorated in the donation of the collection. The collection consists of 1,500 volumes, covering subjects including modern history, military history, literature and art. The collection also includes a box of personal ephemera, relating to the Spitzer family.
This collection, which extends to 22 boxes of archival material, is centred around the papers of Ronald Sturt, MBE, founder of the Talking Newspaper Association UK. Ronald Sturt, 1921-2003, onetime head of The Department of Administrative Studies at the College of Librarianship in Aberystwyth and later Chief Librarian and Assistant Provost at the City of London Polytechnic, observed a talking newspaper scheme in operation in Sweden in the 1960s and set up a similar group in Cardiganshire in 1970. This scheme, whereby volunteers recorded the contents of newspapers onto audiotapes for the benefit of the blind and partially sighted, was a great success and soon spread nationwide, leading to the foundation of TNAUK in 1974. In addition to 13 archive boxes containing the administrative records of TNAUK, 1969-2002, the collection also contains newspaper cuttings, audio/video tapes and TNAUK publications. Two boxes of personal papers relating to the life and work of Ronal Sturt are also retained.
Newspaper cuttings, correspondence and papers, 1970-1972, relating to the proposal for a Third London Airport at Foulness Island, Essex. In addition to material originally received from Councillor D.C. Wood and Major General W. Odling, the collection was greatly enhanced in 2014 by papers donated by Mr Patrick Arnold, erstwhile Chairman of the Foulness Island Residents Committee. Mr Arnold’s papers include drawings, submissions to the Roskill Commission, correspondence, posters and the manuscript of an unpublished book.
This collection was donated to the Library in November 2018 by Professor Valerie Fraser. It consists of two ring binders containing notes, drawings, pictures and general observations of historic churches and monasteries in Mexico made by Dr Eleanor Wake (d. 2013) during research for the Ph.D. thesis which formed the basis of her seminal book Framing the sacred: the Indian churches of early colonial Mexico, 2010. In addition to the site observations, the collection contains a box file with the texts of lectures, conference presentations and talks given by Dr Wake between 1994 and 2012.
Purchased jointly by the Universities of Cambridge and Essex in 1969, this collection is part of the library of the Parish of Bassingbourn and consists of nearly 400 titles, mainly on theological subjects. It includes 19 sixteenth-century titles, and 253 seventeenth-century titles
Amy Zahl Gottlieb worked from 1944 to 1952 for the Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF), then went to America to take up a post at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign where she started a programme in holocaust education, and returned to Britain in the late 1980s to act as the CBF’s honorary historian and archivist. She donated her personal library to the University in 2002 together with and reels of microfilm, reproducing the Archives of the Central British Fund and the text of the Jewish Chronicle from 1937 to 1939. The collection contains approximately 200 books relating to the Holocaust, Jewish history, and Anti-Semitism. It also contains books on a range of historic topics, including several works on American immigration.
The Archive consists of nine boxes containing the writings, notes and correspondence of Michel Haar, 1937-2003, Professor of Philosophy at the Sorbonne, Paris. Haar was an internationally renowned scholar of phenomenology who wrote extensively on both Heidegger and Nietzsche. His papers were deposited the Library in August 2005 with the assistance of Dr Beatrice Han-Pile. The catalogue to the Archive was compiled by Dr Adrian Samuel.
This collection is devoted to the life and work of the Essex author and educationalist, Nicholas Hagger, 1939-. The Archive, which was placed on permanent deposit in March 2016, by the author, is composed of distinct sections. The initial 2016 deposit covers Mr Hagger’s literary and poetic writings, as well as his works on history and philosophy. Future boxes will contain papers of a personal/biographical nature. For further information on Nicholas Hagger, please go to www.nicholashagger.com
This collection consists of 900 books comprising the personal library of Samuel Harsnett, 1561-1631, Archbishop of York, 1629-1631. Many of the books are polemical treatises relating to contemporary controversies between the Churches of England and Rome, as well as works on theological subjects published throughout Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The collection contains several incunabula as well as one book from the library of King Henry VIII
This collection is made up of the professional papers, correspondence and draft publications of Arnold V. Miller, one of the first translators of the works of the philosopher Hegel into the English language. The collection also contains writings by the Czech philosopher and scholar Francis Sedlak, a prominent Hegelian and long-time associate of Miller.
This archive, comprising both manuscript materials and printed books, was placed on permanent deposit with the Library in 2013 by Dr Alison Bush, a Colchester Quaker. The archive brings together items assembled by her mother, Irene Pickard, over a period of more than 40 years, but concentrate on her time in Geneva in the 1930s, when she was part of a circle of Quakers with connections to the League of Nations. Many of these Quakers, including Irene Pickard, became interested in the work of Carl Gustav Jung, and Jungian scholarship is the main focus of the archive. One notable aspect of the collection are the papers of the Seeker Group/Movement, a collective of non-Quaker Jung enthusiasts. The papers have been listed by local Quaker archivist, Ros Thomas
This collection consists of the books and manuscripts from the Friends' Meeting House in Colchester and was deposited with the Library in 1978. It includes over 1,000 printed works and nearly 200 bound manuscript Minute and Account books. The Minute books for the Colchester Meetings run from 1667, those for the Coggeshall Meetings from 1695, and those for the Essex Quarterly Meetings from 1711. There are also volumes covering Copford, Kelvedon, Layer Breton, and Manningtree. The collection is particularly valuable for tracing individual Quakers through the various notes of Removals, Condemnations, and Intentions of Marriage. The book Colchester Quakers, by S.H.G. Fitch, classmark BX 7678.C7, is recommended as preliminary reading.
In addition to the Colchester collection, Special Collections also holds collections of printed books from the Leiston, Letchworth and Sudbury branches of the Society of Friends.
This collection includes the political and personal papers of Lord Alport, M.P. for Colchester division of Essex (1950-61); Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Commonwealth Relations Office, 1957-1959; Minister of State, Commonwealth Relations Office, 1959-1961; British High Commissioner in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, 1961-63; a Deputy Speaker, House of Lords, 1971-82, 1983-94; Adviser to the Home Secretary, 1974-82; High Steward of Colchester, 1967-. His papers concerning the 'One Nation' group (1951-56) and correspondence and papers as Special Representative to Rhodesia, June-July 1967 may be of particular interest to researchers. A scan of a letter relating to the death of UN Secretary General, Dag Kammarskjöld, is included below
In May 1995 copies of the transcripts of public enquiries and Assistant Commissioners' reports relating to the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies were received by the Albert Sloman Library. More recently, the collection has been supplemented by copies of representations and documentation submitted at the public enquiries, together with minutes of Boundary Commission meetings, May 1988-February 1995. In all, the collection consists of 86 boxes of papers. A preliminary list has been prepared.
Papers of the late Thomas Brimelow (Ambassador, Poland 1966-69; Deputy Under-Secretary of State, Foreign Office 1969-73; Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Foreign Office & Head of Diplomatic Service 1973-75). The papers include lecture notes, correspondence and newspaper cutting relating to the Cold War during the period 1956-1988, together with material concerning repatriation and the Yalta Repatriation Agreement, and the obligation to carry out an agreement. The collection includes typescript drafts (incomplete) of a text in preparation, 'The Yalta Repatriation Agreements', with photocopies of associated Foreign Office and War Office papers dating from 1944-1947
Emeritus Professor Ian Budge (MA Edinburgh, PhD Yale) has been associated with the Essex Department of Government from 1966, when he helped to organise it and promote international initiatives such as the Summer School in Quantitative Methods, the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) and the coding of party manifestos in over 50 post-war democracies. In this consortium he has held visiting fellowships and professorships in six countries across the globe. His Archive reflects his research and teaching, being particularly rich in documents relating to political science organisation and theoretical development at Essex and across the world leading up to his comprehensive work Politics: A Unified Introduction to How Democracy Works (London, New York, Routledge 2019).
Having its origins in a letter published in the New Statesman in 1988, Charter 88 is a non-party organisation which argues for increased democracy and freedom, as well as civil, political and human rights, through constitutional and electoral reform in the UK. Occupying 22 metres of shelving, the archives encompass committee papers and minutes, publications, conference proceedings, correspondence, press cuttings, audio/video tapes, as well as lists of Charter signatories.
A small collection of material relating to UK general elections in the late 20th century (1979-1992), donated by Ivor Crewe, Emeritus Professor, Department of Government and Vice Chancellor of the University of Essex (1995-2007). The main part of the collection is BBC Election Survey poll data and Harris Research Centre opinion polls, together with various press cuttings, newspaper opinion polls, and pieces of electoral analysis. Contents: Box 1, 1979-1983; Box 2: 1983-1987; Box 3: 1987; Box 4: 1992
Donated by Sir David Dimbleby, journalist and broadcaster, this archive is a collection of recordings covering his career in broadcast journalism, with particular emphasis on Question Time, the BBC political panel programme.
This collection was presented in October 2002 by Mr. Andrew Ellis, OBE, technical adviser on international democracy and governance issues, and Coordinator of the OSCE Observation Mission for Registration of Voters in Bosnia and Hercegovina in 1997. It comprises posters, leaflets, stickers, flags and other ephemera relating to the first democratic elections in Eastern Europe in the 1990s, contemporary newspapers reporting on these landmark events. An outline list of this collection is available from the JISC Archives Hub. https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/
This is a collection of the personal case files of Sir Vincent Evans from his time as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights, 1980-1991, and as a member of the Human Rights Committee set up under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1977-1984. The 54 box files contain handwritten notes, background documentation (including applicants' memorials and records of hearings), news cuttings and miscellaneous reports. An index for the collection (prepared by the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex) is available below.
Working papers produced by Professor S.E. Finer when he was Professor of Political Institutions, University of Keele, 1950-66. The papers are concerned with transport policy in the UK, 1945- c. 1955 and include press cuttings, extracts from transport journals, notebooks, correspondence with transport user groups and trade unions, notes on transport legislation and drafts of various chapters of an unpublished work on transport policy. The collection also includes grey literature relating to transport policy and the T.U.C.
Amy Zahl Gottlieb worked from 1944 to 1952 for the Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF), then went to America to take up a post at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign where she started a programme in Holocaust education, and returned to Britain in the late 1980s to act as the CBF’s honorary historian and archivist. She donated her personal library to the University in 2002 together with and reels of microfilm, reproducing the Archives of the Central British Fund and the text of the Jewish Chronicle from 1937 to 1939. The collection contains approximately 200 books relating to the Holocaust, Jewish history, and Anti-Semitism. It also contains books on a range of historic topics, including several works on American immigration.
In 2007 the Library acquired the books and papers of the human rights scholar and activist Bernie Hamilton (1945-2005) from his widow Dr Mirilee Pearl. Bernie Hamilton, who taught at universities in both the UK and the US, is perhaps best known for his work with organisations such as Doctors for Human Rights (DHR), Minority Rights Group International (MRG) and the Leo Kuper Foundation, a body dedicated to the eradication of genocide worldwide. The Archive comprises 14 metres of specialist documents, papers and reports, which are currently housed in the Library’s Special Collections, and a number of books on law, human rights and politics which have been integrated into the Library’s main collection of printed works. The archive is classified according to the classification scheme attached below (please note: the archive does not hold in depth material on all subjects outlined in this document)
The principal part of this collection consists of ephemeral pamphlets which are of particular interest to the study of labour history and the growth of the Unions. (Lord Hill was a member of the General Council, Trades Union Congress, 1948-65 and Chairman of the T.U.C. in 1961). Most of the pamphlets were obtained by Lord Hill during the course of his working life. There is a large file of newspaper cuttings relating to all periods of Lord Hill's life and activities, together with some of his personal and official correspondence. The collection was presented to the University in 1970 by Lady Hill
In 2002, Professor Paul Hunt (Department of Law/Human Rights Centre) was appointed to the post of United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health ("right to health" or "right to the highest attainable standard of health"). This Archive contains documents on the work that Professor Hunt has carried out in his capacity as Special Rapporteur (Aug 2002-July 2008), as well as the work of other staff at the Right to Health Unit, Human Rights Centre, working in support of the mandate. The collection consists of boxes of papers, reports and specialist documents covering areas such as: essential medicines; undocumented migrants/asylum seekers; right to water; right to food and housing; environmental health; human rights and health in India; documents on the situation in Darfur; impact assessments; indicators; participation and accountability; and guidelines. An additional collection of monographs will be added to the Library main collection
See also: The Right to Health Unit Website https://www.essex.ac.uk/research-projects/un-mandate-on-the-right-to-health
This collection consists of publications and correspondence of Dr David Leigh Kerr, M.P. (Labour) Wandsworth Central, 1964 - 70 and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 1967 - 69. In addition to the papers of various societies and organisations with which Dr Kerr was associated, for example the Socialist Medical Association, the collection also includes a large number of transcripts of health education talks which he gave on commercial radio between 1965 and 1966
Anthony Stephen King was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1934. He came to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1956; taking his doctorate there in 1962. King was recruited to the new Department of Government at Essex in 1966 and remained there until his death in 2017. During his time at Essex he became one of the foremost political scientists and commentators of his generation. Equally erudite in the scholarship of both UK and US politics, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2010. In addition to his academic work, King carved out a formidable career in political journalism; writing for national newspapers and for many years becoming a mainstay of BBC’s television’s election night coverage. In later years King was also a member of both the Nolan (later Neill) Committee on Standards in Public Life (est. 1994) and the Wakeham Commission on Reform of the House of Lords (1999). This Archive, which has been assembled with the help and agreement of King’s wife, Jan, covers all aspects of his life: teaching, university administration, academic writing, journalism and public service. Of particular interest are papers on the early years and subsequent merger of the SDP acquired from one of its founders, Shirley Williams.
This collection of VHS videotapes, presented to the Library in February 1996 by Mr. Martin Levene, producer Sky News, 1989-1992, consists of recordings of the first 354 'Target' programmes, hosted by Austin Mitchell, MP, and Norman Tebbit, MP (later Lord Tebbit), during the period 1989-1992. The archive also contains recordings of 60 editions of 'The Editors' programme and 6 programmes from the 'Challenge' (religious affairs) series
Donated to the Library in December 2014 by Baroness Williams of Crosby, this collection is concerned with the later academic life of her late husband, Richard E. Neustadt, 1919-2003. A native of Philadelphia, Richard Elliott Neustadt was one of the most prominent political scientists of his generation. A specialist in the politics of the US presidency, Neustadt wrote the seminal study, Presidential Power (1960), and acted as an advisor to Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and Clinton. At various times he also held chairs at Cornell, Columbia and Harvard.The papers in this collection date from 1992 to 2002, during which time he lived in the UK for most of the year. Neustadt was a teacher, mentor and close friend to US Vice-President Al Gore, and there are several letters from Gore in the collection.
Three boxes of grey literature and personal papers relating to the first Sandinista government of Nicaragua (1979-1990). Donated by social anthropologist Hermione Harris in 2007.
The establishment of the Committee on Standards of Conduct in Public Life was announced by the Prime Minister, John Major, in the House of Commons on 25 October 1994. The Committee’s terms of reference included the examination of concerns about standards of conduct of holders of public office, civil servants and National Health Service bodies. The Committee was chaired by Lord Nolan of Brasted (1994 – 97) and Lord Neill of Bladen (1997 – 2001). The collection includes evidence to the Committee (for the First Report), video tapes of meetings held in 1995, press cuttings, and transcripts of speeches given by Lord Nolan on public life, governance and the executive.
Donated in 2009 by Dr Tony Rich, Registrar at the University of Essex from 1999 to 2011, the archive consists of 12 boxes of material associated with Dr Rich's 1983 Ph.D. at the University of Manchester, on the development of the nationalist movement in Zimbabwe 1963-1980.
This collection of 130 books and pamphlets is named after its donor, (John) Edgell Rickword, the poet and literary critic who was born in Colchester in 1898. The main themes of the collection are Irish literature and history, parliamentary and social reform, chartism, and the labour movement. Of particular interest is the collection of volumes and pamphlets by or relating to William Hone, the 19th century bookseller and political satirist.
The correspondence and papers of Bill Rodgers covering the period 1979 (Campaign for Labour Victory)-1987 (Liberal & Social Democrats), together with Tawney Society papers (1985-1987).
This archive consists of 94 boxes of material from the papers of the late Paul Sieghart (1927-1989), law reformer, international arbitrator, writer and past Chairman of Justice (British Section of International Commission of Jurists). The archive includes texts of lectures delivered by Mr. Sieghart, drafts of books and articles, and reviews of his published output. The boxes also contain photocopies of articles from learned journals, press cuttings, and documents and booklets relating to human rights around the world. In 2006 the collection was expanded by approximately 300 French and German volumes on 19th century European history, with particular emphasis on Bismarck and Napoleon.
The archives of the SDP were acquired between 1988 and 1994. The collection consists 80 metres of SDP committee minutes and papers, administrative records, publications (including policy papers and Council for Social Democracy records), local SDP files, speeches of the 'Gang of Four', a newspaper cuttings collection, and a small number of video-tapes. The archives cover the period 1980-1987. More recently, the papers of Lord Alec McGivan, The Rt. Hon. Robert Maclennan, Sir Ian Wrigglesworth, Lord Rodgers of Quarrybank and Mr Douglas Eden have been acquired.
The Tawney Society - the "Think tank of the SDP" - placed its archives on indefinite deposit with the Library in 1991. The collection consists of a complete set of Tawney Society publications, and committee papers and minutes.
Newspaper cuttings, correspondence and papers, 1970-1972, relating to the proposal for a Third London Airport at Foulness Island, Essex. In addition to material originally received from Councillor D.C. Wood and Major General W. Odling, the collection was greatly enhanced in 2014 by papers donated by Mr Patrick Arnold, erstwhile Chairman of the Foulness Island Residents Committee. Mr Arnold’s papers include drawings, submissions to the Roskill Commission, correspondence, posters and the manuscript of an unpublished book.
This collection relates to the life and work of George Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth, 1921-2008, Cabinet Minister in the Wilson Government and later European Commissioner and Chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority. The archive, which occupies some 15 boxes, contains much on international affairs – particularly in relation to the European Community and Rhodesian Oil Sanctions – as well as files on broadcasting and Lord Thomson’s resignation from the Shadow Cabinet in April 1972.
Named after the Watergate Investigation of 1974, this collection is an invaluable source of material for the study of the U.S. Administration of that period. The collection includes various series of U.S. official publications, including the transcripts of the hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Activity and the hearings before the Committee on the Judiciary. In addition to official publications, the collection includes books and newspaper cuttings relating to Watergate
In 2002 Sir Frederick Warner, one of the Inquiry Assessors, donated to the Library a set of papers relating to the 1977 Inquiry into an application by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. for the siting of a nuclear reactor fuel reprocessing plant at Windscale, Cumbria. The collection, in addition to evidence received from witnesses, includes (in boxes 10, 11, and 12) transcripts of proceedings. The Inquiry was chaired by the Hon. Mr. Justice Parker and his report was published by H.M.S.O. in 1978 (a copy of which is available in the Library at TD 812)
These papers are chiefly concerned with the professional life of the psychoanalyst Enid Balint, with additional material relating to the work of her husband Michael Balint, a follower of the work of Sandor Ferenczi, one of the fathers of modern psychoanalysis. The collection comprises professional correspondence, drafts and typescripts of books and papers, as well as Balint Society minutes and papers. The collection also includes typescripts of the Freud - Ferenczi letters, 1908-1933, which have been edited for publication by Brabant, Falzeder and Giampieri-Deutsch.
This collection, which was donated to the library with the assistance of Dr Diana Gittins and Professor Joan Busfield, concentrates on the work of the prominent psychiatrist Dr Russell Barton, Physician Superintendent at Severalls Hospital, Colchester, 1960-1971. Dr Barton was an important pioneer of deinstitutionalisation and community care for the mentally ill, and this collection encompasses professional writings, pamphlets and brochures, press cuttings, correspondence and notes, as well as reports – particularly relating to Severalls Hospital. As the collection contains materials of a potentially sensitive nature, researchers are required to provide a guarantee of patient confidentiality
Dedicated to the work and life of Sigmund Freud. The collection comprises 2,000 volumes, 4,500 photocopies of letters, 2,500 typescripts of letters and 2,700 original letters (including 39 in the hand of Sigmund Freud). This collection is on permanent loan to the Library by generous agreement of Mark Paterson Associates and the Freud Beneficiaries.
This collection consists of 50 books and journal articles published by the German psychoanalyst Georg Groddeck (1866-1934), together with letters from Georg Groddeck to Oscar Köllerström (a pupil of Groddeck), Mary Collins (a translator of Groddeck's works), and Groddeck's sister. In addition, the collection includes an almost complete run of Die Arche (1925-1927), translations (in typescript) of 'Conference psychoanalytiques à l'usage des malades and Der Seelensucher : ein psychoanalytischer Roman', and 27 photographs and sketches of George Groddeck
This collection comprises proof copies of 'The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud' and 'The Pelican Freud Library', together with related correspondence and notes. The collection was purchased by the Library from Mark Paterson & Associates.
This collection of books relating to analytical psychology was previously owned by the Jungian scholar David Holt (1926-2002) and was donated to the Library by his widow, Edith Holt, in summer 2007. In addition to specific works on Jungian analysis, the collection includes titles in allied disciplines such as philosophy, religion, mythology and literature. Many of the books contain notations made by Holt.
This collection of papers and allied books relate to the life and work of Professor Juliet Mitchell (born 1940), the New Zealand-born psychoanalyst, socialist feminist and pioneer of gender studies. The collection was placed on permanent deposit by Professor Mitchell in 2011
This small collection is devoted to the New York psychoanalyst Benjamin Wolstein (died 1998), a leading authority on transference and countertransference. It was donated to the Library in 2018 by Cristobal Garibay-Petersen, who acquired it from Wolsein’s nephew, Carlos David Wolstein. The archive contains a typescript interview with Wolstein, offprints of several scholarly articles, and correspondence with, among others, the philosopher John Dewey and the psychologist Erich Fromm.
This major collection of works on psychotherapy and psychoanalysis – which celebrates the life and work of Dr Bernard Zeitlyn, Consultant in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, 1957-1979 – was placed on permanent deposit with the Albert Sloman in 2009 by Alice Zeitlyn and the B.B. Zeitlyn Psychotherapy Training Fund. The books, which were previously housed in Cambridge, are not held in Special Collections storage, but have been catalogued and distributed throughout the Library’s wider collection. This arrangement makes them readily accessible both to students of psychoanalysis within the University and to trainee psychotherapists in the region; who have borrowing access to the Albert Sloman Library’s print holdings upon recommendation by the Zeitlyn Training Fund.
The Aerosol Society is a scientific, non-profit organization aimed at supporting the study, and extending knowledge of airborne particles. This collection of materials relating to the foundation and running of the Aerosol Society was donated by Professor Ian Colbeck in 2019. The collection includes meeting minutes and agendas, abstracts, conference guides, and recordings of the inaugural meeting of the Society on DVD and VHS.
This archive relates to the life and work of the Essex nature writer, J.A. Baker, 1926-87, author of the critically acclaimed The Peregrine (1967). The collection was donated to the Library in 2013 with the assistance of Dr John Fanshawe, who, with the author, Mark Cocker, edited the complete works of Baker for publication by HarperCollins in 2011. The bulk of the archive, which comprises notebooks, diaries, draft manuscripts, maps, photographs, letters and optical artefacts, was brought together by Bernard Coe, Baker’s brother-in-law. Additional materials have been generously donated by David Cobham, John Thurmer, and Don Samuel. A detailed catalogue completed in 2016 by Hetty Saunders is available below. Anyone with further information, including personal memories, relevant to Baker, is encouraged to contact the library by email at libline@essex.ac.uk
This collection concentrates on the work of the prominent psychiatrist Dr Russell Barton, Physician Superintendent at Severalls Hospital, Colchester, 1960-1971. Dr Barton was an important pioneer of deinstitutionalisation and community care for the mentally ill, and this collection encompasses professional writings, pamphlets and brochures, press cuttings, correspondence and notes, as well as reports – particularly relating to Severalls Hospital. As the collection contains materials of a potentially sensitive nature, researchers are required to provide a guarantee of patient confidentiality. The collection was donated to the Library with the assistance of Dr Diana Gittins and Professor Joan Busfield,
This collection of papers was donated in 1999 and 2002 by Geoffrey Bone, an honorary graduate of the University (1991) and member of the University Council, 1965-1990. After graduating from Cambridge Mr Bone started his engineering career with Rolls Royce. In 1941 he was commissioned in the technical branch of the RAF where he worked with Sir Frank Whittle as development engineer on the design of the jet engine. The collection includes technical papers relating to the design of the jet engine, postwar correspondence with Sir Frank Whittle, press cuttings, and the transcript of an interview with Sir Frank Whittle in 1994. Geoffrey Bone's autobiography Reminiscences of an East Anglian engineer, 1996, is also held in Special Collections.
This collection consists of papers and correspondence relating to research projects of the University concerning the computerisation of medical records. Professor Keith Bowden (1935-1982) was Professor of Computer Science at the University and between 1967 and 1973 pioneered research in the use of computers for information handling in respect of health care.
A catalogue for this collection of papers and correspondence has been prepared by the Contemporary Scientific Archives and is available on request
This collection comprises approximately 500 historical books placed on permanent deposit by the Society in April 2008. The books, colloquially known as the Penfold Collection, were previously housed at Essex County Hospital and at the Postgraduate Medical Centre at Colchester General Hospital. The volumes include early treatises on surgery, anatomy, illness and disease, and are likely to be of major interest to scholars of both the history and sociology of medicine. The collection has been catalogued, and individual works can be found using Library Search. In addition, the Minute books and manuscript volumes listed in the spreadsheet below were deposited by the Society in August 2012. Documents relating to Colchester General Hospital were added in 2014
Documents, correspondence and publications of the Colchester Natural History Society
A collection of books belonging to the Essex Gardens Trust. The aims of the Essex Gardens Trust are:
“We share our love of gardens and landscapes, their design, making, history and the stories that surround them; and we foster that love in others by organising events for the interest and enjoyment of our members and the wider public. We protect Essex's precious green spaces -past and present -by identifying and recording their details, and making that information available; and we influence Essex's future green spaces for the well-being of everyone, by using our knowledge to provide informed comment on relevant plans for development.” (from EGT website)
The books that form the Essex Gardens Trust library have been catalogued and interfiled with the main General Special Collections sequence.
A physician and geneticist, Lionel Sharples Penrose, 1898-1972, carried out pioneering and influential work in the fields of schizophrenia, Down syndrome and intellectual disability, and was the Galton professor of eugenics (1945-1965), then Professor of human genetics (1963–1965) at University College London. The main part of the collection is a bound volume containing off prints of 49 articles written by Penrose during his time as Research Medical Officer at the Royal Eastern Counties' Institution, Colchester, in the 1930s. In addition to the articles written by Penrose, the collection also contains several legal documents and two short histories of the Royal Eastern Counties' Institution/Essex Hall. The collection was donated by Dr W. R. McKibben in 2003.
A substantial portion of the library of the Royal Statistical Society, amounting to 9,000 volumes, was placed on permanent deposit with the Albert Sloman Library in 2000. It consists of back runs of 30 periodicals, a large book collection, and an important series of tracts - bound volumes of pamphlets on diverse topics. The core of the collection relates to statistics and statistical history, and contains much material of interest in the field of social and economic history, particularly for the 19th and early 20th centuries. The books, periodicals and 7,500 pamphlets are all listed in our online catalogue.
This collection comprises one archive box and is dedicated to the life of Dr Paul Townsend, 1933-2006, lecturer in the Department of Physics, University of Essex, 1965-1988. The box contains a biographical memoir compiled by his widow, Elizabeth Townsend – who donated the collection to the Library in 2016 – along with photographs, personal documents, offprints of scholarly articles, a copy of Dr Townsend's Ph.D. thesis (University of Exeter, 1959) and personal items, including a Pilots Flying Log Book and other memorabilia (badges, buttons, etc.) from his time in the Royal Air Force, 1952-1954
This collection, catalogued by the National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists, chiefly dates from the late 1960s to the late 1990s and includes biographical material, papers relating to the Scientific Committee on Problems of Environment (SCOPE), including the three SCOPE projects (ENUWAR, RADPATH and RADTEST), material relating to the Royal Society Study Groups on Assessment and Perception of Risk, and lectures, broadcasts, conference papers and correspondence. A printed index of this collection is available for consultation.
In 2002 Sir Frederick Warner, one of the Inquiry Assessors, donated to the Library a set of papers relating to the 1977 Inquiry into an application by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. for the siting of a nuclear reactor fuel reprocessing plant at Windscale, Cumbria. The collection, in addition to evidence received from witnesses, includes (in boxes 10, 11, and 12) transcripts of proceedings. The Inquiry was chaired by the Hon. Mr. Justice Parker and his report was published by H.M.S.O. in 1978 (a copy of which is available in the Library at TD 812)
In addition to the main University committee papers and minutes, this collection includes foundation papers from the earliest days in July 1959. The archive is supplemented by an extensive collection of early photographs, newspaper cuttings and University calendars and prospectuses from the early 1960s. The collection also includes papers, miscellaneous publications and press cuttings relating to the unrest of 1968 and 1973/74
An extensive collection of photographs of the University of Essex from the 1960s onwards. A listing of the physical collection is available here. Digitised versions of the photos can be seen on Flickr (http://libwww.essex.ac.uk/Archives/uoephotos.htm) and History Pin
This book is part of the Harsnett Collection, a library of books that was the property of Samuel Harsnett, Archbishop of York between 1629 and 1631. Most of the volumes in the collection are on religious subjects, but there are some exceptions. Libri de re rustica (book of country affairs) contains writings on agriculture by four leading classical authors, Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 BC), Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BC), Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella and Palladio. This edition was published in 1528 and is bound in leather. The armorial (heraldic design) on the front and back covers suggests that the book may have been part of the library of King Henry VIII.
This portrait was painted by Christopher Wood (1901-1930) a British artist who trained in Paris. The sitter is Jeanne Bourgoint, a friend and lover of Wood's, whose relationship with her brother Jean inspired Jean Cocteau's Les Enfants Terribles. On his return to England, Wood became a member of the London Group and the Seven and Five Society, and exhibited work with Ben and Winifred Nicholson. Following a visit to Cornwall, Wood became inspired by the landscape painter Alfred Wallis, whose naïve style influenced Wood's later work. The portrait is an important piece of the University Art Collection and was donated by the founder of the collection, H.S. (Jim) Ede, who founded the Kettle's Yard gallery in Cambridge
This page is from a diary belonging to the ornithologist and writer J.A. Baker (1926-1987) author of The Peregrine. Baker observed the bird life of East Anglia and recorded his findings in notebooks and dairies while in the field (this page shows spots where rain has caused the ink to run.) The Peregrine, published in 1967, was a ground-breaking work of nature writing which drew attention to the plight of birds of prey, many species of which were on the verge of extinction at that time. As well as notebooks, the J.A. Baker archive contains manuscripts, maps, correspondence and optical artefacts.
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (1891-1915) was a French artist and sculptor. Henri Gaudier studied business before becoming a sculptor. In 1910 he met and began a relationship with the Polish writer Sophie Brzeska and the couple later moved to London from France, using the name Gaudier-Brzeska. After working in figurative sculpture, Henri's style became more abstract following the influence and advice Joseph Epstein. He joined the vorticist group, led by Wyndham Lewis, and the group's philosophy of abstraction and mechanisation informed his work. Henri Gaudier-Brzeska was killed in action on the Western Front in 1915. The Gaudier-Brzeska collection contains letters from Henri to Sophie (many of them illustrated,) original artworks and diaries and unpublished writings of Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska. The collection was donated by H.S. (Jim) Ede, founder donor of the University Art Collection
John Hassall (1868-1948) was an artist, illustrator and cartoonist. Shown here is one of his designs for a magazine cover: the Christmas edition of Ideas for 1911. Hassall's work ranged from book illustrations to commercial posters and advertisements, to cartoons. One of his most famous commissions was for the London North Eastern Railway; a poster showing a fisherman skipping along a beach, with the caption "Skegness is SO bracing!" The Hassall Collection includes original artworks, sketchbooks, letters and diaries, and books with Hassall covers and illustrations.
This illustration is for the dust jacket of The Crime at Black Dudley, by Margery Allingham (1904-1966.) The novel, which was first published in 1929, was the first to feature the detective Albert Campion, who is her most famous creation. The jacket, designed by the artist Philip Youngman Carter, Allingham's husband, is part of the Allingham Collection an archive of Margery Allingham's life and works. The collection includes manuscripts, proofs, diaries, notebooks, photographs, artworks and artefacts, including a prop from a film version of The Tiger in the Smoke (widely held to be her finest novel) and awards. The collection was placed on permanent deposit in the Library by the Margery Allingham Society, which is dedicated to preserving and promoting the literary work and reputation of the author
