Edwards H. Metcalf Library Collection on T.E. Lawrence: Scrapbooks

This collection consists of 36 scrapbooks containing photographs, newspaper clippings, periodical articles, and ephemera concerning British soldier and author T.E. Lawrence. Most of the albums were compiled in the 1960s, and many of the items discuss Lawrence retrospectively, concern individuals or places associated with Lawrence, or relate to works about Lawrence (such as the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia). The scrapbooks form part of the Edwards H. Metcalf Library Collection of T.E. Lawrence and were compiled chiefly by California Lawrence collectors Theodora Duncan, Frank C. Baxter, and Margaret M. Herbring, and later incorporated into Metcalf's collection.

Among the subjects represented in the albums are Lawrence's involvement in the Arab Revolt from 1916 to 1918; Lawrence's life (primarily documented in photographs and postcards of locales in England where Lawrence lived); the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia; Lawrence's fatal motorcycle accident in 1935; art depicting or memorializing Lawrence; and works by and about Lawrence published after his death. Materials consist chiefly of newspaper and periodical clippings, photographs (both originals and reproductions from museum collections), postcards, advertisements, leaflets, ephemera, research notes, and some brief correspondence primarily related to the research efforts of the scrapbook compilers.

The albums do not contain manuscript material by Lawrence and most of the items date from the 1950s onward. Notably, though, there are some original photographs by men who served with Lawrence during the Arab Revolt. The collection includes 100 photographs taken by Thomas W. Beaumont, a gunner in the Hejaz Armoured Car Company, and friends from 1915 to 1918 during the Arab Revolt (Scrapbook 1); a 1923 snapshot of Lawrence as a private in the Royal Tank Corps (Album 2.12); and some original photographs of Imperial Camel Corps members including George Sewell, Laurence Moore, and C. H. N. Ashlin, and their activities in the Arab world, 1917-1918 (Scrapbook 7). There is also a 1967 letter from British historian Arnold Toynbee to Duncan discussing Vietnam and communism (Scrapbook 2.4).

In addition to the scrapbooks focused on Lawrence, there is a volume with clippings about Winston Churchill (Scrapbook 8) and an album with photographs from the T.E. Lawrence Symposium held at Pepperdine University on May 20-21, 1988 (Scrapbook 15).

Most of the scrapbooks retain volume numbers presumably applied by Huntington Library catalogers working for Metcalf (though Scrapbooks 9, 13, 14, 15 were unlabeled and numbers were supplied by the cataloger), and many album pages have the labels "Anal." with analytical numbers that corresponded to the index-card filing system.

The volumes are physically comprised of a miscellaneous assortment of photograph albums, three-ring binders, and scrapbook volumes. Based on bookplates, correspondence within the albums, and appearance, the provenance can be identified as:

Scrapbook 3 is missing. A photocopy of an index card located in the Papers of T.E. Lawrence collection (mssTEL) indicates there was a Scrapbook 3 compiled by Thomas Hatton with "clippings relating to T.E. Lawrence's accident and death," but the location of this volume is unknown as of 2014.