Books To Grace Your Shelves

Book illustration and design at Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections

These are links to larger images. Copyright © Vincent Freedman, Doreen Roberts, Rigby Graham, estate of Paul Hogarth, estate of John Farleigh, Arts Council of Wales.

The archive collection at Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections is part of a wider art and design collection that also includes major collections of objects and books, some of which were collected when the Manchester School of Art was created in 1838. As well as historic pieces we have continued and continue to collect contemporary work with particular emphasis on the work of students and staff at MMU. The collections are housed in the Sir Kenneth Green Library on the All Saints campus close to Manchester city centre and are used in research and teaching by MMU students and staff as well as those beyond the university.

The archive collection is a nationally important source for the study of art and design with particular emphasis on twentieth and twenty first century book illustration and design, print history and on artist's working in wood engraving. The archive collections particularly support and complement the Book Design and Children's book collections that are housed in the same repository.

As well as the collections at MMU, we are also highlighting related collections held elsewhere, and also related links to other websites.

Collections at MMU

Simon Lawrence (born 1958) and the Fleece Press : Acquired from one of Britain's most important private presses this archive comprises material concerning all the Fleece's publications from inception to completion. Project files include the publisher's notes, correspondence with authors and illustrators and proofs and mock-ups of text and illustrations.

John Farleigh (1900-1965): An archive comprising nearly one hundred engraved woodblocks as well as a large number of developmental prints from those blocks by a leading twentieth century wood engraver and artist, John Farleigh.

Barnett Freedman (1901-1958): This is a substantial archive of the papers and some pieces of original artwork from the influential artist, illustrator and designer Barnett Freedman. Freedman is perhaps especially regarded for his innovations in colour lithographic techniques and his book jacket designs for Faber and Faber.

Rigby Graham (born 1931): An archive of, principally, prints and original artwork from one of the county's most significant topographical artists and printmakers, Rigby Graham.

Paul Hogarth (1917-2001): This archive is the largest in the collection. It comprises the papers and original artwork from the important book illustrator and ‘artist reporter', Paul Hogarth. Hogarth was a Royal Academician who worked with some of the most significant post-war British and Irish artists and writers including: Doris Lessing; Robert Graves; Brendan Behan and Lawrence Durrell. Of particular interest is the extensive material concerning Hogarth's collaborations with the novelist Graham Greene.

Peter Reddick (born 1924): Peter Reddick is one of the country's leading wood engravers and printmakers. This archive consists of a great range of his developmental prints and original sketches as well as some editioned prints, original artwork in other media and some associated correspondence.

Doreen Roberts (born 1922): Doreen Roberts is children's book illustrator, author and art teacher. She worked extensively for Oxford University Press in the 1970 producing a series of vividly colourful picture books. Her archive contains original art work, sketch books and developmental drawings which illustrate the creative and practical processes of her work.

- Jeremy C. Parrett, Special Collections Archivist, Manchester Metropolitan University.

Related collections

• Allen Freer (born 1926): artist, art collector and writer
• Penguin Collection: archives of Penguin Books Ltd, from their founding in 1935 to the present.
• Jessie Marion King (1875-1949): designer and illustrator, and Ernest Archibald Taylor (1874-1951), designer and artist
• Ruari McLean Associates: book design and production firm
• Morison Room: library collected by typographer Stanley Arthur Morison (1889-1967)

Links

• K Lindsley, wood engravings: MMU Special Collections: Book Design
• Printing Collection Leeds University Library Special Collections
• St Bride Library: printing and graphic arts library (London)
• Penguin Collectors Society: founded in 1974
• V&A National Art Library: public reference library (London)

The title for this month's feature is from a sales catalogue published by the Fleece Press in 1994.

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