The Edinburgh College of Art (1904 - 1969): a Study in Institutional History
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This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: • This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. • A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. • This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. • The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. • When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. The Edinburgh College of Art (1904 - 1969): A Study in Institutional History. Scott J. Lawrie Submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) Edinburgh College of Art (Heriot Watt University) Department of Humanities May1996 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognize that the copyright rests with its author and that no information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author or the University (as may be appropriate). CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Page i Chapter 1 -BEGINNINGS Page1 Chapter 2- THE PRINCIPALS Page 17 Chapter 3- THE FINE ARTS (I) The School of Drawing & Painting Page 30 (II) The School of Sculpture Page 47 Chapter 4- DESIGN & CRAFTS (I) The School of Design & Crafts Page 59 (II) The Trades Classes Page 77 Chapter 5 - THE SCHOOLS OF ARCHITECTURE AND TOWN & COUNTRY PLANNING Page 87 APPENDICES (A) Staff lists Page 110 (B) Principals, Page 143 (C) The Board of Management & Page 144 The Board of Governors (D) Interviews Page 156 BIBLIOGRAPHY Page 170 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to record my thanks to the many people who assisted me in the compilation and research into the history of the College. In the first instance, I would like to thank Hugh Hagan at the Scottish Records Office; Windsor Newton at the City of Edinburgh Archive; Anne Jones, Head Archivist at the Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, and her 'team'; the staff of the Edinburgh Room of the Edinburgh Public Library on George IV Bridge, and likewise those in the National Library of Scotland. Within the College, I would like to express my gratitude to John Nice and Aileen Ramsay for access to the various 'rare' books, to Renee Mac:Niillan for helping me to keep my appointments, and passing on interesting correspondence, to Glenn Craig for being so free with his own personal research into the history of the College, and also to the Library Staff at both College Libraries. Many people have given up considerable time to allow me to interview them about their experiences of the College, and provide the thesis with much more colour than would have been otherwise possible, these are; James V. Campbell, Ralph Cowan, James Dunbar-Naismith, Victorine Foot, Alison Geissler, Douglas Hogg, Sandy Hogg, Katy Horsman, Kirk Main, David Michie, Alex Morrison, John Ponton, Bill Scott, Alex Somerville, Jock Stuart and Henry \t\'ylie. I vvould like to also thank my dearest Mal, and Karen, for coping well and allovving me to cope in the process. And, of course, my mum - my greatest teacher - for being the ,,vay she is. My greatest debt, and my most heartfelt thanks, however, go to my supervisor and friend, Professor Alistair J. Rowan, whose dutiful support, encouraging confidence, and exemplary teaching has made the whole project an enjoyable and immensely valuable experience from the beginning. ABSTRACT This thesis documents the academic and institutional history of the Edinburgh College of Art from its first conception by the 'Scotch Office' in 1904 to the establishment of an academic association by the College with the recently formed Heriot-Watt University in 1969. It is based on the evidence of existing documents from the College Archive; newspaper reports of the day; records and papers in the National Library of Scotland, the Scottish Records Office, the City of Edinburgh Archive, the Heriot-Watt University Archive, and the Edinburgh Room of the Central Lending Library. In this period of some 55 years, the thesis explores the thinking behind the setting up of the College; the nature and provision of its original courses; the development of teaching in the different Schools; some of the personalities involved and the changing character of the place while under the direction of its first six Principals. Appendices provide a database of academic staff throughout the period, a list of the Principals, together with an account of the composition of the Board of Governors, and the reminiscences of a number of former staff and students as the 'oral evidence' which is available on the life and work of the College. This work represents the first systematic attempt to provide an institutional history of the Edinburgh College of Art. INTRODUCTION The history of the Edinburgh College of Art, prior to this study, exists in a fragmentary form in partial references to the teaching and education offered in the College in individual studies of Scottish art. These references are few and general in character. No previous account of the purpose and arrangements of the College's education exists. There are indeed few such studies of Scottish Institutions beyond the history of the Royal Scottish Academy by E. Gordon of 1976, and more recently the centenary volume by Hugh Ferguson published by the Foulis Press for Glasgow School of Art in 1995. The thrust of this study is different in so far as it focuses not on the art or other work produced by staff and students of the College, but on the institutional organisation of the Edinburgh College of Art- why it came into being and how its courses and teaching vvere organised. A significant element in the history of the college's curriculum is the extent to which the teaching of part-time and Trades Classes dominated its early years. Indeed such courses survived into the 1950s though their relative importance declined after the end of the Second World War. Within the School of Design notable shifts of emphasis occur from craft-based activities such as Bookbinding, Leather Tooling, and Illumination & Calligraphy - or architecturally biased craft education- Ornamental Plasterwork, Wood & Stone Carving- to a conception of the design activity as a creative art in its own right, in Glass, Tapestry, and Jewellery. A similar development may be noted in the progress of the School of Sculpture, and indeed, in Architecture which moves from a traditional Arts & Crafts structure to the position of one of the leading exponents of Modernism in the 1930s. The documentary sources for this history are scarce and widely dispersed. Art Colleges are not noted for the retention of written materials, and huge gaps exist. Sources include printed records in the College Archives (Board of Management and Board of Governors Minutes, Annual Reports, Prospectuses, Newspaper Cuttings Books), and, as a primary source, the early letter books of i the College. Further information is held in Heriot-Watt University, the National Library of Scotland, the Scottish Records Office, the City of Edinburgh Archives, and in the Edinburgh Room of the Central Lending Library. A substantial aid to the process of assembling this history has been provided by oral evidence. Such information informs much of the general content in these pages, and has been gathered from the views and understanding of many members of staff. In addition I have sought out several older personalities of the College, whose recollections and reminiscences are gathered together as Appendix D, after the lists of staff, Principals and members of the Board of Management. The collection of such records has been a particularly rewarding aspect of my research, which I regard as an on-going process. ii CHAPTERl BEGINNINGS Four institutions 'vere to merge to form the Edinburgh College of Art from 1907: The Trustees Academy, the Life School of the Royal Scottish Academy, the Art Department of the Heriot Watt College, and the Edinburgh School of Applied Art. Each institution 'vas, however, feverently autonomous, and provided a speciality subject geared to,vards a certain area of industry, commerce or the Fine arts; Of these, the first, and perhaps the most famous, 'vas the Trustees Academy, also known as the School of the Board of Manufactures. 1 As part of the provisions of the Treaty of Union, the Board of Manufactures for Fisheries and Design was set up in 1727 to administer an annual grant of approximately £2000, and it 'vas this Board which set up the School of Design in 1760 'vith the sum of £115 for promoting the art of dra,ving for the use of the manufacturing industries. The Academy's first master was a Frenchman, William Delacour, who had 'vorked as a portrait painter, but 'vas perhaps better known as a decorative landscape painter working in many Scottish country houses. It 'vas no doubt this practice 'vhich lent him the experience to direct the affairs of the School. 2 Little is kno'v of the beginnings of the Academy, or the v.rork that ,,vas produced - the record books have not survived, and it is not until some ten or twenty years later that a more established picture of the 'vorkings of the Academy emerges. Although primarily established to train artists for industrial ends, principally for designs for the linen manufactures and other useful trades such as 1 For information relating to the origins and development of the Trustees Academy see David and Francina Irwin, Scottish Painters at Home and Abroad 1700-1900 (London: Oxford Phaidon, 1975), pp.