Birmingham City University Art and Design Archives - Collections Guide
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Birmingham
City
University
Art
and
Design
Archives
Collections
Guide
1
Contents
Page
Introduction 3
School of Art Archive 4
BIAD Plaster Cast Collection 8
BIAD Margaret Street Centenary Folio 10
BIAD Fine Art Graduate Records 12
Margaret Street Restoration Collection 13
Craftsman’s Club Collection 15
BIAD Hodgson Art History Collection 16
Birmingham Billboard Project Collection 17
Marion Richardson Collection 18
Larry Cartoon Collection 21
Bowater Family Collection 22
Public Art Commissions Agency (PACA) Archive 23
Using the Archives (with contact details) 25
2
Introduction
Unknown,
Photograph
of
Edward
Taylor,
Headmaster
of
Birmingham
School
of
Art,
c.1890-‐1900,
SA/AT/28/1/1.
There are a number of different collections in the Birmingham City University Art and Design Archives. This guide gives
a general description of those that have already been catalogued. The collections cover the fields of art and design
education and public art. They range in size from less than 50 items to over 40,000 items, and contain paper documents
and books as well as artworks, designs, posters, photographs and slides.
Twelve collections have been catalogued to date. The three main ones are the School of Art Archive; the Public Art
Commissioning Agency (PACA) Archive; and the Marion Richardson Collection. Each of the collections is outlined on a
separate page.
Access
You can make an appointment to view any of these collections by contacting us, either by telephone or by email.
Telephone: 0121 331 6981
Email: fiona.waterhouse@bcu.ac.uk
Front cover
Top row, left to right: Ethel Reynolds, Study of a passion flower, c.1900, SA/AT/5/1/35; Joseph Greenup, Portrait of a
man, c.1904-7, SA/AT/17/1/49; Plan of the ground floor of the Central School of Art, Birmingham, as it appeared in a
school prospectus, early 1900s; SA/AD/8.
Bottom row, left to right: unknown, The Circus, 1950, SA/AT/4/4/8; unknown, Photograph of design class at
Birmingham School of Art, 1920s, SA/AT/28/3/1; unknown, Front cover of Margaret Street Centenary Folio, 1984;
CF/CF/1/1/2.
3
School
of
Art
Archive
History
The School of Art (then known as the Birmingham Government School of Design) was formed following an application
for funding by the Birmingham
Society of Artists to the Council of
the Schools of Design in 1842. It
first opened in a few rented
rooms in New Street in 1843.
Student numbers rose
significantly under the headships
of Thomas Clark (1846-1851)
and George Wallis (1851-58). By
then, the rooms in New Street were no longer
Florence
Camm,
Pencil
and
watercolour
designs
for
adequate, and the School (then named the stained
glass
panel
of
the
Prodigal
Son,
1901,
SA/AT/20/1/16
Birmingham Government School of Art) moved to rooms in the new Birmingham and Midland Institute building in
Paradise Street under a new head, David Raimbach.
The new School had six studios, shared use of a lecture theatre and a range of classrooms and plans to develop both
libraries and an art gallery on site. However, the new building was
still insufficient to meet demands in general or from local trades.
Moreover, Raimbach struggled to gain more autonomy but with
relatively little success; the central control from London was
dominant in matters of syllabus, examinations, competitions,
examples to be used, and in the training, qualification and
appointment of teachers.
In 1877, Edward R Taylor was appointed head and it was under
his reign that two major changes were brought about - the first
municipalisation of an art school, thereby removing its
Detail
of
Elwyn
Davies,
Plant
study
of
the
woody
nightshade,
1921,
SA/AT/5/1/59. dependency on central Government monies and increasing its
potential autonomy, and the erection of a new purpose-built art school building to be known as the Birmingham
Municipal School of Art. Taylor’s persistence, growing student numbers and excellent examination results helped
persuade the Birmingham School of Art Management Sub-Committee to sponsor the new art school, which moved into
the Margaret Street building designed by the architect John Henry Chamberlain (1831-1883) and completed under the
direction of his partner William Martin (1829-1900) in 1885. The status of the School changed with municipal control.
4
Although London retained an examining and quality control role, the changed responsibility towards the new 'owners' -
the rate payers of Birmingham, led to an increase in independence. This was marked by more local entry scholarships,
further liaison with local industries and the development of the arts and crafts movement into an educational practice.
The Committee immediately began a policy of appointing new staff whose persuasion was that of the emerging Arts and
Crafts Movement. Most were believers in Ruskin's idealistic plans for the future of art, craft and design, admired Pre-
Raphaelite works and were or became sponsors and purchasers of Arts and Crafts work.
Inspired by the principles of the Arts and Crafts Movement, Edward Taylor encouraged students to carry out their
designs in the materials for which they were intended - something that was considered revolutionary at the time. Less
than ten years later, in 1892-3, the decision was taken to expand the School of Art building to house the practical
workshops favoured by him. The newly extended basement consisted of three workshops; one for modelling and
casting (to be done on site as opposed to the previous system of sending clay models out for casting), one for
metalwork activities and one for woodcarving. The first floor extension had three large rooms; one for painting and
antique study, one for cartoon, fresco, tempera and other painting, and a re-sited space for architectural and building
construction. In the 1890s, the range of subjects taught in the building expanded considerably as a result.
In 1890 the
Vittoria Street School of Jewellery and Silversmithing was opened as a branch school in the heart of Birmingham’s
Jewellery quarter.
In addition to the Central School in
Margaret Street, there were also a large
number of branch schools, some of which
were held in elementary schools in the
evenings. Among them were the Moseley
Road School of Arts and Crafts, Bournville
School of Arts and Crafts, the School of
Printing, and Handsworth School of Dress
Design.
Unknown,
Photograph
of
needlework
class
at
the
School
of
Art,
c.1900,
SA/AT/28/2/11
The subjects taught at the Central School have changed over
the years. By 1965 only painting, sculpture, ceramics and a limited number of classes in printing and graphic design
were taught at Margaret Street. Design subjects including fashion and textiles, interior design, product design and visual
communication were taught on the Gosta Green campus from the 1960s until the move to the new city centre campus
next to Millennium Point in 2013.
The School has been known by a number of different names in the course of its history. These include Birmingham
Government School of Design (1843-52), Birmingham Government School of Ornamental Art (1852-53), Birmingham
5
Government School of Art (1853-63), Birmingham School of Art (1863-9 , 1882-85 and 1913-20), Birmingham School of
Design (1869-82), Birmingham Municipal School of Art (1885-1913), Birmingham School of Arts and Crafts (1920-
1937), Birmingham College of Arts and Crafts (1937-66) and Birmingham College of Art and Design (1966-1970). It
became part of Birmingham Polytechnic in 1970, and is currently part of Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, a
faculty of Birmingham City University (formerly UCE).
Content
This collection covers the Birmingham School of Art from before its formation
as a Government School of Design in 1843 until it joined Birmingham
Polytechnic in 1971. It includes minute books, student records, programmes
and photographs that document the history of the School. There are also a
large number of works of art by past teachers and students. As well as fine art
these include designs for fashion, ceramics, textiles, jewellery and metalwork,
stained glass, furniture, interior design and work produced by the Birmingham
School of Printing. It includes work not only by students attending the Central
School in Margaret Street, but also by those from its branch schools at Vittoria
Street and Moseley Road as well as fashion and other design students who
studied on the Gosta Green campus in the 1960s.
Florence
Camm,
Life
study
of
seated
female
nude,
1897,
SA/AT/10/2/59
The collection is particularly strong for the period c.1880-
1920. At this time the Birmingham School of Art was one of
the largest and most successful Art and Design Schools in
the UK. The teaching staff included well-known artists such
as William Bloye, Benjamin Creswick, Arthur Gaskin,
Charles March Gere, Sidney Meteyard, Mary Newill, Henry
Payne and Bernard Sleigh. Among those who trained at the
School during this period were Gerald Brockhurst, Kate and
Birmingham
School
of
Printing,
assorted
publications
Myra Bunce, Florence Camm, Bernard Fleetwood-Walker
completed
under
the
direction
of
Leonard
Jay,
1927
-‐
1952,
SA/AT/23/1
(who later taught there from 1929 to 1956), Georgie Gaskin
and Joseph Greenup. It differs from a museum collection in
that it largely consists of student works, providing evidence of both pedagogical changes and artists’ early careers.
Among these is a significant collection of student work carried out under the direction of Leonard Jay, who taught at the
School from 1925 until his retirement in 1953. Jay was a teacher par excellence who influenced and transformed the
outlook of a whole generation of printers, making a significant contribution to British printing education in the first half of
6
the twentieth century. He made the Birmingham School without equal in Britain, and exercised a world-wide influence
on printing education policy.
There is also a collection of London Underground and travel posters from 1915 up to the 1950s that were collected as
exemplars of good design. Among the designers are Frederick Charles Herrick (1887-1970), Edward Kauffer McKnight
(1890-1954), Charles Paine (1895-1967), Walter Spradbery (1189-1969) and Harold Sandys Williamson (1892-1978).
Access
A catalogue is available in the Archives. There are copyright restrictions on providing reproductions of many of the art
works, and some of the more recent student records are closed to researchers to comply with data protection
legislation.
7
BIAD
Plaster
Cast
Collection
History
During the nineteenth century, the Birmingham School of Art, like many
schools in this country and abroad, developed its own collection of plaster
casts for students and teachers to use. Artists and students have studied
from plaster casts of original sculpture from classical antiquity and
archaeology for hundreds of years. Even the Ancient Romans produced
copies of earlier Greek statues for study. In the nineteenth century the
teaching in Birmingham followed ‘The National Course of Instruction for
Government Schools of Art in Britain’. In keeping with the long tradition
begun by the artists of Renaissance Italy, the syllabus of this course
focused on learning by practice and imitation. It was believed that by
Unknown,
Plaster
cast
of
a
Nereid
in
the
studying and copying from the `best` (ancient and classical) examples,
British
Museum,
19th
century,
PC/PC/1/1/18
particularly of sculpture, students could most effectively learn and refine
their artistic skills. The course specified the exact casts that had to be
studied and copied. For example, when studying the human or animal figure, students at the Birmingham School of Art
were directed to the Parthenon frieze, casts of which are included in the collection. As art education changed in the
1960s, the practice of drawing from plaster casts was discontinued and sadly many of the Birmingham School’s casts
were destroyed. Those that remained were moved into corridor spaces and public areas, where they are still on display.
However, their role as objects of study has now been lost.
th
Unknown,
Plaster
cast
of
Panel
XLII
of
the
Parthenon
North
Frieze
in
the
British
Museum,
19
century,
PC/PC/1/1/16
Content
The collection consists of plaster casts of famous sculptures from national and international collections. These are
mainly examples of Ancient Greek sculpture, but also include copies of later Renaissance pieces. The exact details of
8
when and where these plaster casts were acquired are not known. They may have been donated to the Birmingham
Society of Arts c.1820 or they may be later examples from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. There are also
a number of recent copies from other casts held by the School of Art.
Access
A catalogue is available in the Archives. The sculptures themselves are in the School of Art in Margaret Street.
9
BIAD
Margaret
Street
Centenary
Folio
Jean
Vaudeau,
Detail
of
While
Rome
Burns,
1984,
CF/CF/1/1/8.
History
Birmingham School of Art dates from 1843, when it opened in a few makeshift rooms in New Street. By 1858, these
were no longer adequate, and the School moved into premises in the newly-built Birmingham and Midland Institute in
Paradise Street. The new School had six studios, shared use of a lecture theatre and a range of classrooms, and plans
to develop both libraries and an art gallery on site. However, the facilities were still insufficient to cope with the growing
number of students, or to meet the demands of local trades. In the early 1880s this, coupled with the persistence of the
headmaster Edward Taylor and the generosity of local benefactors such as the Tangye brothers, Cregoe Colmore and
Louisa Ryland, persuaded the Birmingham School of Art Management Sub-Committee to sponsor the erection of a new
purpose-built art school in Margaret Street. The architect was John Henry Chamberlain, who sought to create a building
that was not only functional, but also morally and spiritually uplifting. Designed in an elaborate Venetian Gothic style, its
internal and external decoration reflects John Ruskin’s ideas on the nature as the fount of all knowledge in art.
Particularly noteworthy is the circular ‘lily and lattice’ panel on the Edmund Street elevation and the entrance hall, which
has colonnades of polished granite columns with stone capitals, each carved with different plants. Sadly the architect
died in 1883, two years before the building was completed in 1885. It was finished by his partner, William Martin, who
was also the architect for the extension to the building in 1892-93 to provide space for workshops in which students
might carry out their designs in the materials for which they were intended – somewhat that was considered
revolutionary at the time, but was greatly encouraged by Edward Taylor. The School is now a Grade I Listed Building.
This portfolio of prints was produced as part of the building’s centenary celebrations organized by Jean Vaudeau, then a
lecturer in print making at the School of Fine Art.
Content
The collection is made up of twelve unframed prints, some printed at the print studios at Margaret Street and others at
Jean Vaudeau`s studio in London. This portfolio is number 24 of an edition of 25. It contains original art prints by
members of staff of the School of Fine Art, namely Mel Gordon, Trevor Halliday, Jess Hand, Nick Jones, Kim
Kempshall, Alan Miller, David Prentice, Ted Rose, Alison Saint, Harry Snook, Keir Smith, and Jean Vaudeau. The
10
collection also includes typed lists of both the staff contributing to the portfolio and the 24 organisations that accepted
copies of it.
Access
A catalogue is available in the Archives.
11
BIAD
Fine
Art
Graduate
Records
History
Birmingham School of Art was known by a number of different names
during the course of its existence as a separate institution between 1843
and 1970. These records have been catalogued separately because they
were created after the Birmingham College of Art and Design (as it was
then known) became one of the organisations to be incorporated into the
City of Birmingham Polytechnic in 1971. The others included Birmingham
School of Music and the North and South Birmingham Technical Colleges.
The School of Art continues to offer a BA (Hons) in Fine Art . There are no
Unknown,
Photograph
of
painting
by
set pathways, and students have an opportunity to work in painting,
Manuel
Anjel
Aja,
BA
Fine
Art
graduate,
sculpture, printmaking, drawing, photography, film and video, digital media,
1978,
FA/FA/4/10/1.
sound, installation and performance. Students can work throughout
the course in one discipline or across a range, using the most appropriate media to express their ideas.
Content
This collection contains 99 individual student records for BA Fine Art graduates who graduated in 1978, 1979 and 1981.
These include class lists, assignments, references, reports, assessments and results. It also includes 266 colour
photographs of 73 of these students seated or standing alongside their work. Unless stated otherwise, each student will
have completed the full course.
Access
A catalogue is available in the Archives. The student records (but not the photographs of their work) are closed to
researchers to comply with data protection legislation.
12
Margaret
Street
Restoration
Collection
History
In the early 1880s growing student numbers, coupled with the persistence of the headmaster Edward Taylor and the
generosity of local benefactors, persuaded the Birmingham School of Art Management Sub-Committee to sponsor the
erection of a new purpose-built art school in Margaret Street. The architect was John Henry Chamberlain, who sought
to create a building that was not only functional, but also morally and spiritually uplifting. Designed in an elaborate
Venetian Gothic style, its internal and external decoration reflects John Ruskin’s ideas on the nature as the fount of all
knowledge in art. Particularly noteworthy is the circular ‘lily and lattice’ panel on the Edmund Street elevation and the
entrance hall, which has colonnades of polished granite columns with stone capitals, each carved with different plants.
Sadly the architect died in 1883, two years before the building was completed in 1885. It was finished by his partner,
William Martin, who was also the architect for the extension to the building in 1892-93 to provide space for workshops in
which students might carry out their designs in the materials for which they were intended. The School is now a Grade I
Listed Building.
Concourse
at
Birmingham
School
of
Art
before
and
after
restoration
(1993
and
1995
respectively),
reproduced
from
John
Swift’s
Changing
Fortunes:
the
Birmingham
School
of
Art
building
1880-‐1995,
Article
Press,
1996.
By the 1980s, many of the original features of the School of Art were either damaged or covered by surface boarding.
The Margaret Street building was dirty, leaking and badly maintained due to the penetration of damp and the
deterioration of the structure itself. Birmingham City Council funded the renovation of the internal staircases in 1988 and
1989, when a metal framework echoing the original wooden one was installed to strengthen the building. Rainwater
13
pipes were installed and the roofing lights over the stairs were improved, but rain continued to be a problem. In the early
1990s, a decision was taken to undertake a major refurbishment and renovation of the School of Art. Associated
Architects, who had worked for Birmingham Polytechnic on several previous occasions, were appointed architects and
contract administrators. Kyle Stewart Ltd won the contract for the building work at a cost of around £5,500,000. The
work began in late 1993 and finished in early 1995.
The general feeling was that the restoration of a working art school was antithetical to making a pastiche of the original
in new areas. Instead, echoing the spirit rather than the style of Chamberlain and Martin’s original concept (cf. the entry
for BIAD Margaret Street Centenary Folio, p.9), it was decided early on in the project that any new parts would not be
late 20th century reproductions, but use modern methods and materials. The major issues identified were the re-ordering
of internal space; removing obsolete services and treating the installation of new ones in a sympathetic manner;
meeting Health and Safety regulations; installing disabled access, lifts and new mezzanines; planning exhibition spaces;
and improving the roof. Important public spaces like the concourse were returned to their original specification, while
other areas were decorated in a manner that accorded well with, rather than replicating, the original.
Content
The collection contains three spiral-bound volumes of reports by the City Architects' Department on the state of the
Margaret Street building in 1984-5 and a sequential series of colour photographs taken by the builders Kyle Stewart Ltd
that document the progress of the restoration of the School of Art in Margaret Street in 1994-95.
Access
A catalogue is available in the Archives.
14
The
Craftsman's
Club
Collection
Unknown,
Craftsman’s
Club
minute
books,
2005,
CC/CC/1/1-‐2.
History
The Craftsman’s Club was a group founded in 1902 by Robert Catterson-Smith, Headmaster of the Birmingham School
of Art from 1903 to 1920. Catterson-Smith had become associated with William Morris early on in his career and the two
had become friends. Morris invited him to assist in the production of books for the Kelmscott Press, and, among other
things, he had prepared the illustrations for the Kelmscott Chaucer from designs by Edward Burne-Jones. Catteron-
Smith believed that craftsmanship had become devoid of human feeling and romance in the age of the machine.
Inspired by the ideals of John Ruskin and William Morris, the Club was set up with the aim of ensuring a high standard
of craftsmanship in Birmingham. Its members (all male) had to be established, practising artists and/or craftsmen. They
included painters, jewellers, gold and silversmiths, sculptors, architects and draughtsmen.
Membership of the Club started small with 21 subscriptions in the first year and between 8 and 12 members attending
the monthly meetings held between November and May each year. This rose to over 50 members in later years. The
last recorded meeting, the 239th, was held in February 1939 with five members present. During the meetings the
previous month`s minutes would be read and signed, and then a paper would be presented by a member on one of a
wide range of topics concerned with the arts. These presentations would usually be illustrated by photographs, lantern
slides, pieces of work or rubbings and a discussion would follow. Summer trips were organised and annual exhibitions
were later introduced, often with local media coverage.
Content
The collection contains the Club’s two minute books as well as press clippings, correspondence and exhibition leaflets.
These document the interests of many of Birmingham’s leading artists and craftsmen in the first forty years of the
twentieth century.
Access
A catalogue is available in the Archives.
15
BIAD
Hodgson
Art
History
Collection
History
Frank Hodgson (b.1902) started as a student at the Birmingham School of Art in 1929 at the age of just 17. He studied
drawing and painting for 4 years and became a part-time teacher of Drawing at the School in 1933. At first, he taught
mainly on the evening courses - his specific area of interest and skill being anatomy and life drawing.
In October 1938,
he was made a full-time member of staff and took on responsibility as Deputy Head of the Evening School, a post that
he went on to hold for over 30 years. Changes in art education meant that, during the 1960s, his position as a drawing
teacher disappeared. He therefore moved into the teaching of art history with specific responsibility for the teaching of
Design. He retired in the early 1970s after fifty years of service to the School, and died in the early 1980s.
Content
This collection mostly contains files and papers produced by
Frank Hodgson in his capacity as a teacher at the Birmingham
College of Arts and Crafts. These include lecture notes,
bibliographies, illustration lists, references and chronological
charts covering all aspects of art and design history from Roman
and Greek times up to the modern 20th century movements of
the Bauhaus and Art Nouveau that are of potential use to
researchers investigating the teaching of art history in the 1960s
and early 1970s. However, the majority of his research focused
on the mid to late 19th century and, most specifically, on the Arts
and Crafts Movement and the stained glass work of William
Frank
Hodgson,
Self
portrait,
1930,
SA/AT/1/1/5.
Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. The collection also includes
three sets of prints of historical costume, decorative arts and patterns that Hodgson produced as teaching aids. In
addition, there are a small number of files that deal with students on the Diploma of Art and Design course in 1970-71.
These include assessment guidelines, mark sheets, registers, timetables, notes on students’ seminar presentations and
outlines of subjects taught by other tutors in the School of History of Art and Complementary Studies.
Access
A catalogue is available in the Archives. There is restricted access to those files containing personal information about
individual students.
16
Birmingham
Billboard
Project
Collection
Front
cover
of
publication
documenting
the
Birmingham
Billboard
Project,
1993,
BB/BB/1.
History
This collection documents an art project organised by Graham Fagen, who was a member of staff in the Department of
Art at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design from 1991 to 1995. Born in Glasgow, he studied Fine Art at Glasgow
School of Art and completed an MA in Art, Architecture and Cultural Theory at the Kent Institute of Art and Design.
When he arrived in Birmingham in Easter 1991, he expected to find an artistic vibrancy in the city similar to that in his
hometown of Glasgow. His disappointment at not finding this the case influenced him to conduct a research project into
possible ways in which to interact and add culture through visual communication media. He worked in collaboration with
twelve other artists and Vision, a Birmingham-based independent outdoor contractor. Each artist was invited to design a
billboard poster that would be displayed for one month. The choice of billboard posters as a medium allowed the works
to be displayed outside the more traditional confinement of a gallery and created the opportunity for the works to be
viewed by a wider and more diverse public audience. Thus from May 1992 through to May 1993 twelve billboards
created by artists were exhibited on a chosen location in Snowhill Queensway, Birmingham. The project also formed the
subject of an exhibition at the Bond Gallery, Birmingham in 1993.
Content
The collection comprises 12 framed prints of the posters and multiple copies of the publication accompanying the
project, The Outing of Urban Art, Billboard Project (Birmingham) 1992-93. The artists are Art in Ruins; Sylbert Bolton;
Claire Collison; Alex Dempster and Alan Dunn; Lukas Einsele; Graham Fagen; Karl Grimes; Roshini Kempadoo; Sandi
Kiehlmann; Andrew O’Hagan and Kathleen Norcross; David McMillan and Michael Rothenstein.
Access
A catalogue is available in the Archives.
17
Marion
Richardson
Collection
History
Marion Richardson (1892-1946) was an influential art teacher and pioneer of the child art movement. Talented at art,
she was encouraged to sit for a teacher-training scholarship at Birmingham Municipal School of Arts and Crafts. She
studied here from 1908 to 1912, obtaining an Art Class Teacher’s Certificate.
In 1912 Marion became the art mistress at Dudley Girls High School, where she developed methods of teaching art that
were far removed from the traditional emphasis on copying and
technical skill. Instead she aimed to arouse children’s visual
awareness, to encourage self-expression and to enable pupils to
evaluate their own work. Her pupils would sit with closed eyes, perhaps
listening to a description, and waited for images to appear in ‘the mind’s
eye’. This resulted in vibrant, colourful and expressive paintings,
contrasting starkly with more traditional pencil drawings.
In 1917 she met Roger Fry at his exhibition of Children’s Art (Omega
Galleries, London) and showed him a portfolio of works by her pupils.
Impressed, Fry included some of them in the exhibition and began to
promote
her
work,
bringing
unknown,
Photograph
of
Marion
her to critical and
Richardson
as
a
young
woman,
early
1920s,
IMR/266
public attention.
Looking for new challenges, Marion moved to London in
1923, initially staying with Margery and Roger Fry. She
took private pupils and taught at Holloway Prison on a
voluntary basis. In September, she returned to teaching
at Dudley Girls High School part time and also took up a
post with the London Day Training College as a Lecturer unknown,
Mind
painting
by
pupil
at
Dudley
Girls
in Art on the new course for trainee art teachers. She continued High
School,
c.1915
-‐
1928
her private teaching and taught part time at Benenden School, Kent, and at Hayes Court School, Oxford. In 1923-24
Marion organised an exhibition of her pupils work at the Independent Galleries in London, which attracted considerable
press interest and in January 1924 the magazine Vogue nominated her for its Hall of Fame. Such publicity created an
increasing demand for her pupils work to be exhibited across the country and for Marion to give an extensive number of
lectures to organisations and societies.
18
In 1930 Marion became a Schools Inspector of Art for London County Council. She held surgeries for teachers, visited
schools, gave lectures and ran courses for teachers. These were extremely popular: for example, applications for 40
places on the 1934-35 course Art in Infant Schools were closed when the number exceeded a thousand. In 1934 she
toured Canada at the invitation of the Carnegie Trust and also visited the USA, giving lectures for the public, teachers
and university audiences. In 1935 Marion published Writing and Writing Patterns, a set of hinged cards and booklets
(developed from her Dudley Writing Cards, 1928) for teaching handwriting based on patterns and natural movements
and enabling each child to make a gradual transition to a personal style. Writing and Writing Patterns remained in print
and in use in schools in the UK until the 1980s.
Marion
Richardson,
Dudley
Writing
Cards,
G.
Bell
&
Sons
Ltd,
1928,
IMR/250
In 1938 Marion organised a large and successful exhibition of children’s art at County Hall in London. With works by
over 500 children from schools across London it was opened by Kenneth Clark and visited by over 24,000 people
including Queen Mary and her two daughters, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. She retired due to ill health in 1942.
In September 1945 Marion returned to Dudley, where she completed the manuscript for her long-planned book Art and
the Child. She died on 12 November 1946, the day after writing the book’s dedication. Art and the Child was published
posthumously in 1948, with Kenneth Clark providing a foreword. Marion’s child-centred approach to the teaching of art
in schools influenced art critics and educational theorists alike. In the 1980s the Department of Education and Science
funded a series of Fellowships enabling teachers to experiment with her ideas in the classroom once again.
The Marion Richardson Collection was held by the Richardson family until it was donated to the School of Art Education
at Birmingham Polytechnic in 1973. When the School moved out of its premises in Priory Road, it was transferred to
Birmingham City University Art and Design Archives.
Content
The Archive covers the whole span of Marion Richardson’s career and work from her first teaching job at Dudley Girls
High School to her teacher training and inspection work in London. It includes letters; her personal diaries for 1930-
1940; unpublished papers and lectures; examples of her writing cards; glass slides and photographs of classes,
19
exhibitions and children’s artworks; reproductions of artworks; part of her personal library (which includes books,
magazines and pamphlets on art history, art education, psychology and religion); press clippings about her career,
including reviews of exhibitions of her pupils’ work; recent research on her methods by teachers in the 1980s and
1990s, and several thousand examples of children’s artworks and samples of handwriting..
Marion Richardson’s correspondence spans roughly from 1917 to her death. It includes letters that make reference to
Dudley Girls’ High School, private tuition, visits in England and abroad, exhibitions, lectures, enquiries from teachers
and teaching organisations, her position as a schools inspector with London County Council, Christian Science, and
personal friends. Among her correspondents were Margery and Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Gwen Joh,
W.R. Lethaby, Herbert Read and William Rothenstein. The collection includes letters from organisations such as the Art
Teachers Guild; the Burlington Magazine; the Council for Art and Industry; the Courtauld; the National Gallery; the
National Union of Women Teachers; the Omega Workshops and the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester.
Access
A summary collection description and a partial card index are available in the Archives.
20
Larry
Cartoon
Collection
History
Terence 'Larry' Parkes (1927-2003) was a cartoonist and illustrator. He
was born in Birmingham and studied at the Birmingham College of Arts
and Crafts in the 1940s. After qualifying as an art teacher, he taught
art at Lincoln Road Secondary Modern School in Peterborough,
Lincolnshire between 1951 and 1954. In 1957 he became a freelance
cartoonist. He worked for Punch, the Birmingham Evening Mail,
Private Eye, the Oldie, the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph. ‘Larry’
illustrated many books as well as publishing several popular
collections of his cartoons, including Larry on Art and Larry’s Art
Collection. He was awarded an honorary degree by what was then
known as Birmingham Polytechnic in 1991.
Detail
from
Terence
‘Larry’
Parkes's
Man
with
Christmas
Present
by
Auguste
Rodin,
1991,
LC/LC/1/2/7
Content
This collection contains original cartoons by Larry on the subject of art, art galleries and the Margaret Street School of
Art building. Many of the cartoons are parodies of famous paintings such as Joseph William Mallard Turner’s The
Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16th October 1834 (1834-35); Rene Magritte’s The Great War (1964);
Jean Francois Millais’s The Gleaners (1857); Roy Lichtenstein’s Wham (1963); Claude Monet’s The Beach at Trouville
(1870) and Vincent Van Gough’s Gaugin’s Chair (1888). Several others, while not based on a particular work, parody
the work of Auguste Rodin, George Stubbs and Canaletto. The illustration shows a cartoon loosely based on Rodin’s
The Thinker (1880). The collection includes references to three well-known Pre-Raphaelite works in Birmingham
Museum and Art Gallery, namely John Everett Millais’s Christ in the House of his Parents (1849-50) and The Blind Girl
(1856); and Ford Maddox Brown’s The Pretty Baa Lambs (1851-59).
Access
A catalogue is available in the Archives.
The heirs of Terence Parkes own the copyright in these images, and they cannot be reproduced without their
permission.
21
Bowater
Family
Collection
Unknown, photograph of Gertrude Ann Bowater as a young woman, c.1900, BO/BO/1/2/4.
History
Gertrude Ann Lymn (née Bowater) was born in West Bromwich in 1880. Her link with Birmingham School of Art is
unclear as she does not appear in the admissions records for the Central School during the period 1895 to 1903, when
her art certificates were awarded. The donor of this collection, her daughter Barbara Murdoch, said that she might have
studied at one of Birmingham School of Art’s many branch schools. Gertrude married Arthur Henry Lymn between 1903
and 1906. The couple moved to London, where she exhibited a portrait miniature of her four year-old daughter Molly at
the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1914. Although not a professional artist, she remained an enthusiastic
amateur with a particular interest in creating flower paintings and portraits for her own home.
Content
This collection focuses on the history of the Bowater family (most especially in West Bromwich in the late nineteenth
century) and the artistic development of their daughter Gertrude Ann from the age of six in 1886 until the early 1940s. It
is divided into two series: one detailing with Gertrude Ann Bowater’s family history, and the second with her artistic
development. The first series includes family photographs; notes and correspondence about family history. Some of the
items have been annotated by her daughter to provide context. The creators of the material in this series are other
members of the Bowater family, including Gertrude’s parents and her brother Norman.
The material in the second series (with the exception of a handwritten list of paintings clearly made after her death in
1952) was collected by Gertrude during the course of her lifetime. It includes Gertrude's artworks, examination
certificates and notebooks on art; postcards from national museums that she copied paintings from; and ephemera
including gallery passes and an application form to be used when submitting paintings for exhibition at the Royal
Academy.
Access
A catalogue is available in the Archives.
22
Public
Art
Commissions
Agency
(PACA)
Archive
History
The Public Arts Commissions Agency (PACA) was formed in 1987 with funding from West Midlands Arts. Vivien Lovell
was the Founder-Director, having previously worked for West Midlands Arts as Public Art Co-ordinator. PACA was a
registered educational charity, a company limited by guarantee and a non-profit organisation with offices in Birmingham,
and later London. It was at the forefront of the proliferation of public art and the professional public art agency in the UK
in the late twentieth century. PACA organised the commissioning of many large and small-scale public art projects
throughout the UK and some international projects. It was also contracted by local authorities to draft public art
strategies, and promoted public art through seminars, publications and a series of “speculative proposals”. PACA
ceased trading in the summer of 1999.
PACA,
Loading
of
Anthony
Gormley’s
Iron:
Man
onto
trailer
prior
to
installation
in
Victoria
Square,
c.1993,
PA/PR/109/126/22.
Content
This collection is a large and complex business archive, and contains the financial and administrative records of the
Agency. It also contains project documentation for both realised and unrealised public art projects. This includes
correspondence, research notes, contracts, briefs to artists, minutes of meetings and artists’ curriculum vitae. There are
a number of drawings, sketches and proposals by artists, architectural drawings and plans as well as an extensive slide
and photographic record of the public art projects managed by PACA.
The PACA Archive also includes the Agency’s library. This is a large collection of books, exhibition catalogues and
journals on the subjects of public art, urban planning and architecture. In addition, the Archive contains some material
that predates the formation of the Agency and relates to Vivien Lovell’s previous employment as Public Art Co-ordinator
23
at West Midlands. This earlier material includes documentation on the sculpture programme for the National Garden
Festival at Stoke on Trent in 1986.
Access
A catalogue is available in the Archives. Some files and documents are closed to researchers to comply with data
protection legislation.
24
Using
the
Archives
The Archives will be moving to new premises in the summer of 2013. We are therefore temporarily closed to visitors,
but hope to open again in January 2014. While we are closed, we will endeavour to maintain a limited public enquiry
service. However, there may be times when we are unable to access the material needed to answer your query.
The Archives are normally open by appointment at the
following times:
Monday- Wednesday, 10am - 5pm.
Our address from 18 June 2013 onwards is:
Birmingham City University Art and Design Archives
Parkside Building
5 Cardigan Street
Birmingham B4 7BD
Please telephone or email us to make an appointment at least one week before your visit:
Sian Vaughan (tel: 0121 331 5968; email: sian.vaughan@bcu.ac.uk)
Fiona Waterhouse (tel: 0121 331 6981; email: fiona.waterhouse@bcu.ac.uk).
On your first visit to the Archives, you will be asked to complete a Research Registration Form and to provide two forms
of proof of identity.
We ask all visitors to the Archives to agree to abide by the rules set out on the website, which also provides collection
updates and further information about our projects. Among these is a web-based resource Archives and Creative
Practice developed in collaboration with two students on our Art Based Masters programme with the view of increasing
use of the archives by practice-based students. (Please see www.biad.bcu.ac.uk/research/archives/pages_about.)
Birmingham City University Art and Design Archives have so far been unable to trace the copyright owners in many of
the original artworks in our archives and collections. We regret that, where this is the case, the images are provided for
reference and private research only and reproductions cannot be supplied.
25
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