Joining mailing lists such a APML is a great way
to find out about upcoming events and tour. My most recent tour was of
the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A)
Archives at Blythe House located in
Olympia. Initially the Head Office of the Post Office Bank in
1900s, the grand building was taken over by the V&A, British Museum
and the Science Museum in the 1950s. With the addition of a study room, storage
facilities and Textiles Room, Blythe House became known as the building to
house the archives and collections of these 3 institutions.
At the start of the visit, Christopher Marsden,
Head Archivist of the V&A Archives printed the picture of the development
of the V&A archives. With focus on design education in 1830s, mainly
British art and design industry from 1920s and the Great Exhibition of 1982 the
importance of archives and record keeping policy came into play. It became
necessary to record correspondence to matching objects in the V&A
collection in nominal files and information about the V&A building design
itself. Logbook of materials, photographs also became an important source to
track the history of and locate objects.
The collection has continued to grow in areas of
children's literature books such as Beatrix Potter, theatre performance,
fashion and textiles. It now comprising of 4 units:
·
the
Archive of Art and Design
·
the
Beatrix Potter Collections
·
the
V&A Archive
·
the
V&A Theatre and Performance Archive
Open 4 times a week the V&A Archives is
available for consultation by appointment only. It is heavily used by
enthusiasts, students and academics. I definitely enjoyed seeing the
collections of art and design related to British and British based companies,
some still in business today. Some of the material on show was the Ideal
home photograph album, designs from Garrard silverware and House of
Worth items.
I would encourage others to visit these archives
to learn more about specialist collections such as art and design. You can see
a few pictures of the visit below.
N.B. Permission was granted to take photography on this visit.
