The University of Nottingham’s Manuscripts and Special Collections ISSUE 15: MAY 2021 Captured for posterity The student experience Kick-starting exhibitions as lockdown eases Explore the magical world of illustrator Kate Greenaway WELCOME Editor’s letter Letter from the Keeper ur previous issue reflected on the work done by Manuscripts and Special Col- Olections since the start of the first na- elcome to the latest edition of Discover. work completed to date. However we have had to tional lockdown in March 2020. As I write During the national lockdown, we con- delay the accompanying exhibition until next year this for April 2021 I’m starting to allow myself tinued to remain open to provide servic- because of uncertainty over the re-opening of the to hope that we might finally be approaching W something closer to normality. es to staff and students of the University, as uni- Weston Gallery. versity libraries are considered a key service. By We have been delighted to receive a substantial IN THIS ISSUE Regular readers of Discover will know that the time you read this we will have been able to personal donation for an 18 month project to cat- we always include a feature on our current ex- welcome back external readers. We also have the alogue our collections relating to Animal Welfare. hibition. For a year now we have only had one complication of sharing our building with an NHS Archivists Sarah Colborne and Zoe Ellis started exhibition to talk about – Florence Nightingale Vaccination Centre. The Weston Gallery and the work on this project in March in addition to their Comes Home. Originally slated to open in May Contents 2020 to coincide with the bicentenary of Night- Museum of Archaeology remained closed to the current part-time roles. public but we hope to re-open them after 17 May. We have also been awarded a grant from the Na- ingale’s birth, the exhibition has been there We are pleased to announce that we have re- tional Manuscripts Conservation Trust for a nine ever since, ready and waiting in the wings. cently acquired another addition to our designat- month project to conserve the papers of the Not- Letter from the Keeper Restrictions on the opening of museums ed DH Lawrence Collection: a letter to Lawrence’s tingham architect Thomas Chambers Hine (1813- 2 and galleries are set to ease in England in mid- sister Ada, 1930; a postcard to his niece Margaret, 1899) and will report on this in a future issue. May and I am delighted that we will finally be 1927; and seven postcards to his sister Emily. After saying farewell to Linda Shaw at Christ- Editor’s letter able to welcome visitors back to our exhibition The letter and eight postcards were written dur- mas we are very pleased to welcome Nicola Wood 3 gallery. Of course if you are not yet ready to re- ing the last three years of Lawrence’s life, with the to the role of Senior Collections Manager. Nicola turn then the online version of the exhibition is still available at nottingham.ac.uk/manu- final postcard written just days before his death on comes to us from Brunel University and started Life exposed: Photographing the 2 March 1930, and on the last day he wrote any work in January. 4 scriptsandspecialcollections/exhibitions/on- correspondence. They contain important details If you would like to find out more about any as- DH Lawrence Collections line/florence-nightingale and we will continue of his travels during these years, plus accounts of pect of our work, please do not hesitate to contact to update it with new content. his health which were obviously provided in more me. Meanwhile I hope that you enjoy reading this One thing that has kept many of us sane detail to family members than to his other cor- edition of Discover. 6 Kate Greenaway’s idyllic over the past year is getting out for regular respondents. This acquisition was supported by childhood walks and connecting with nature, even if that Arts Council England /Victoria and Albert Muse- is just in a local park. I hope you will enjoy our um Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the article on the famous children’s illustrator Kate Greenaway and how her nostalgic drawings National Libraries. 8 Florence Nightingale The cataloguing and digitisation strands of our Comes Home of children playing in bucolic settings were in Arts Council England, Designation Development part inspired by her stays in the Nottingham- Fund project ‘Unlocking the DH Lawrence Collec- shire countryside. I hope you enjoy browsing this latest issue tion: cataloguing and digitisation for research and Five minutes with... display’ have continued to a revised timetable and Mark Dorrington 10 of Discover and if you have any suggestions for this issue features an article on the digitisation Keeper of Manuscripts and Special Collections Robert Pearce what you would like to see in future issues, or if you would like to be added to the mailing list, then please do get in contact at mss-library@ 11 Self-preservation: The University nottingham.ac.uk of Nottingham in Manuscripts Hayley Cotterill, Senior Archivist and Special Collections (Academic and Public Engagement) Opening dates and times New accessions and Both our exhibition gallery and our reading room will 14 cataloguing continue to operate with revised opening hours for the foreseeable future so please do check our website before planning your visit. nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections Cover image: selection of images from page 11 feature article – University of Nottingham archives. 2 3 PROJECT UPDATE Pictured: Digitisation Assistant Jonny Davies capturing high quality images of our DH of these were housed by Lazarus in im- Lawrence literary manuscripts. pressive folders and bindings, such as the ornate bespoke leather box that currently holds the pages of The White Peacock. To preserve these pages in perpetuity, howev- er, it is necessary to rehouse the individual leaves in polyester sleeves and then store these in acid-free folders and boxes. This is to provide protection against handling as well as discoloration caused by both light ex- posure and the acidic chemistry of the paper. The original boxes will also be preserved and photographed to ensure that we have a record of the object’s history whilst under the care of George Lazarus. Thousands of images have already been cre- ated as part of the project, including complete Life exposed: copies of manuscripts of Lawrence’s short sto- ries Goose Fair (1910) and Odour of Chrysanthe- mums (1911), and many files of rich correspond- Photographing the DH Lawrence Collections ence. As photographers, Lawrence provides us with plenty of eye-catching references, whether it be a simple series of f numbers pencilled on the back of an envelope or mentions of the great and good in contemporary photography. Edward Weston is the n the previous issue of Discover we gave an update brated and profiled to image-maker we best associate with Lawrence be- on the cataloguing strand of the two-year project help achieve accurate cause of his portraiture, but the writer’s correspond- to unlock the research potential and usability of and consistent colour ence files also flesh out working relationships with I the photographers and gallerists Dorothy Warren our DH Lawrence collections. In this issue we turn reproduction. The work involves and Alfred Stieglitz. Lawrence’s painting exhibition our focus to the digitisation work. After capturing, all handling thousands Over a period of 15 months we are capturing im- images are checked at the Warren Gallery in 1929 proved highly con- ages of letters and postcards, manuscripts and proofs, and cropped. Meta- of items, capturing troversial, but fittingly for our project, in a letter to notebooks, typescripts, drawings and paintings. data is added – this over 10 thousand Warren in December 1928, Lawrence requests that photographers are given access to his paintings so Working closely with the conservation team, the work includes the reference images, and involves handling thousands of items, capturing over and title of the source that they can make reproductions of his work. 10 thousand images, and repackaging material to en- material, collection repackaging Digitisation work on the DH Lawrence Collec- sure long-term preservation of the originals. information, and di- material to tion is planned to continue until the end of Accurate images are captured using high specifi- mensions of the orig- ensure long-term 2021. The project runs until March 2022. cation camera equipment, with set-up and monitor- inal. Images are then preservation of the ing procedures followed to ensure that consistency output. Firstly, a full originals.” is maintained. Our medium format cameras with resolution file in an Pictured from top: Letter sent from 100mp digital backs capture high-resolution imag- uncompressed format DH Lawrence to Dorothy Warren, 1928, requesting es, while LED flash units are used to minimise the as the preservation that photographers have access to his paintings. amount of light and heat that the originals are ex- master file, and secondly a smaller deriv- Correspondence of DH Lawrence, 1903-1930, La C 22. posed to. During the set-up for each photography ative copy in a compressed file format to be Sample page from the first proofs of short storyOdour of session the appropriate lens is chosen for the docu- used for reference and general access. With Chrysanthemums by DH Lawrence, 1910. Papers of Louie ment being captured, measurements are taken to en- so many large files storage is a consideration. Burrows, 1904-1957, La B 3. Floral decoration painted onto the reverse of a 3 stanza handwritten poem titled Throstles sure the white balance and exposure are correct, and Photographing The White Peacock manuscript, in the Cherry Tree (1910).