Manuscripts

National Building Record and Georgian Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings (SPAB)

Description: Typescript and manuscript agendas, reports, minutes, and correspondence for both organizations. Katharine Esdaile served on committees of both organizations and was particularly active during WWII.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: Late 1930s-1950
Call number: mssEsdaile
Creator: Esdaile, Katharine Ada (1881-1950)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased by the Huntington Library in 1962. The collection was initially accessioned into the Huntington Art Reference Library in 1962. Sometime afterwards, the printed books and pamphlets were removed, separately catalogued, and shelved with the main body of the Art Reference Books, and the photographs were removed to the Photo Study Collection. In 2005, the Art Reference Library collection was merged into the main collection of the Huntington Library and the decision was made to re-integrate the printed material and photographs of the Esdaile collection into the papers.

Reports of the British Records Association and the National Building Record

Manuscripts

Reports, agendas, etc. of the British Records Association and further reports, etc. of the National Building Record.

mssEsdaile

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York Georgian Society: annual reports

Manuscripts

This collection contains the papers of English art historian Katharine Ada Esdaile (1881-1950), with the bulk of the materials relating to her research and writings on British monumental sculpture, sculptors, and church monuments from the medieval period to 19th century. Material types include personal writings, diaries, correspondence, business papers, family papers and photographs, research files and research notebooks, and miscellaneous published and unpublished materials. Notably the collection includes more than 600 chiefly pre-World War II visitor booklets and pamphlets produced locally by British churches and approximately 3500 photographs taken or collected by Esdaile of sculpture, often funerary monuments in English churches, ranging from large churches like Westminster Abbey to small rural parishes. This collection provides a resource for viewpoints on monumental sculpture in the early 20th century (for instance as represented in book reviews by Esdaile) and for information about Esdaile's experience as a woman art historian in the early 20th century. Given the broadness of Esdaile's scope, from medieval to 19th century British monumental sculpture, the collection is less useful for specific information about monuments or sculptors. In addition, many of Esdaile's attributions in her notes appear to have been based primarily on her own instincts and do not have citations. Many of Esdaile's notes are handwritten on small scraps of paper or are fragments, sometimes making the information difficult to parse. The collection is chiefly Esdaile's files, but the dates on some items (such as post-1950 booklets) indicate the collection was added to and used after her death, presumably by her son Edmund Esdaile, who also made notes on items in the collection and appears to have done the preliminary organization of the papers after Esdaile's death.

mssEsdaile

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Documents of restoration and preservation organizations

Manuscripts

Notes and agendas, with manuscript listing of London churches and extent of wartime damage of committees including the London Diocesan Advisory Committee, the Georgian Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings, and the War Memorials Advisory Council. Also includes two copies of a speech about the "Town and Country Planning Bill" by E.H. Keeling in the House of Commons, July 11, 1944.

mssEsdaile

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Royal Academy of Arts. Exhibition of Spanish Paintings, November 1920-January 1921

Manuscripts

Two catalogues: one with illustrations and one smaller with text (annotated, perhaps by Arundell Esdaile). Accompanied by 21 press clippings of the exhibit and a typescript review of the exhibition, "The Royal Academy. The Spanish Exhibition" with handwritten corrections by "R.E.D. Sketchley" (Katharine Esdaile?).

mssEsdaile

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York Georgian Society, Occasional papers: Nos. 1, 2, 5, 6

Manuscripts

mssEsdaile

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Royal Academy of Arts. Exhibition of Works by Swedish Artists, 1880-1900. January 15-February 15, 1924

Manuscripts

Catalogue has news clippings pasted in, as well as additional clipping. Accompanied by typescript review (for the Glasgow Herald) "Swedish Art. Exhibition at the Royal Academy. From our Art Correspondent" (Katharine Esdaile?) as well as an additional untitled typescript article about the exhibit.

mssEsdaile

National Building Record and Georgian Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings (SPAB)

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Reports of the British Records Association and the National Building Record

York Georgian Society: annual reports

Documents of restoration and preservation organizations

Royal Academy of Arts. Exhibition of Spanish Paintings, November 1920-January 1921

York Georgian Society, Occasional papers: Nos. 1, 2, 5, 6

Royal Academy of Arts. Exhibition of Works by Swedish Artists, 1880-1900. January 15-February 15, 1924