Papers of Professor Marcia Pointon

The archive of Professor Marcia Pointon comprises papers relating to the prehistory of her published work up to the late 1990s, as well as conference papers, journal articles, reviews and newspaper articles. Material includes correspondence, research notes, draft manuscripts, corrected typescripts, annotated proofs, and cuttings. The correspondence includes letters to and from fellow art historians, private and institutional custodians of artworks (particularly in relation to image permissions), and publishers such as Cambridge, Oxford and Yale university presses. There is also a small but significant set of correspondence with the artist Paula Rego (MRP/2/30).

There is extensive correspondence relating to Pointon’s PhD research on the artist William Dyce (1806-1864), dating 1971-1981 (MRP/1). These letters, from dealers, galleries, institutions, publishers and other researchers, are arranged alphabetically.

The archive also contains three manuscript notebooks compiled during research visits during Pointon’s student years with a few pen-drawn sketches of buildings visited (MRP/3). Finally, there is a small quantity of personal material, including a degree day programme and examination papers from Pointon's BA in English and the History of Art, an academic curriculum vitae, and a small handwritten family tree (MRP/4).

The archive is an important source for studies of the historiography of art history in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, documenting the development of the academic discipline of art history and the changing nature of scholarly communications during this period.

Marcia Rachel Pointon, distinguished art historian, is professor emerita in the history of art at the University of Manchester and Research Fellow at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.

Born in 1943, the second daughter of Margaret Elsie and James Robert Verrall Collin, she was educated at the Quaker Ackworth School in Yorkshire, where her father taught, and then at the University of Manchester, obtaining a BA in English and the History of Art in 1966, followed by an MA in 1967, with a dissertation on Milton and English Art. She was awarded a PhD by the University of Manchester in 1974 for her thesis ‘The Work of William Dyce R.A. 1806-1864’.

Following a research fellowship at the Barber Institute, University of Birmingham (1973-1975), Pointon moved to the University of Sussex, where she remained for seventeen years being appointed Professor of the History of Art in 1989. She returned to Manchester in 1992 as Pilkington Professor of the History of Art, serving also as Research and Graduate Dean for the Faculty of Arts (1999-2002). She retired from the University of Manchester in 2002. In the following year the University awarded her the degree of Doctor of Letters and she retains the title of professor emerita. She continues to research and to serve on numerous advisory boards and panels. She has held fellowships at the Getty, the Clark Art Institute, Winterthur Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Mellon Centre. She served on the Advisory Board of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (1998-2004 and 2006-2011), and the Council of Tate Britain (2004-2007). She is a Trustee of the Art Fund and has been a member of the National Portrait Gallery’s Research Advisory Board since 2014.

Pointon’s professional interests range widely across many aspects of visual culture, imagery and representation in Western media from around 1700 to the present day. She has written extensively on portraiture, landscape, book illustration, the body in representation, gender and imagery and on the interrelations between the applied arts of jewellery and other forms of historical visual evidence. Her work has been heavily informed by feminist issues of gender and by critical theory.

Her major works include: Milton & English Art (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1970; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019); William Dyce RA 1806-64: A Critical Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979); History of Art: A Students’ Handbook (London: Allen & Unwin, 1980; numerous subsequent editions); Naked Authority: The Body in Western Painting 1830-1906 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); Hanging the Head: Portraiture and Social Formation in Eighteenth-Century England (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993); Strategies for Showing: Women, Possession and Representation in English Visual Culture 1650-1800 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997); Brilliant Effects: A Cultural History of Gem Stones and Jewellery (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009); Portrayal and the Search for Identity (London: Reaktion Books, 2013); and Rocks, Ice and Dirty Stones: Diamond Histories (London: Reaktion Books, 2017).

In the absence of any overarching original arrangement, the archive has been arranged into four series. Within the largest series, MRP/2, Pointon’s own division of her papers into folders has been preserved. Many of the folders are labelled by Pointon to indicate their contents, usually research for her books, journal articles and conferences. The text of any original labels has been transcribed in the catalogue descriptions. 

• MRP/1: Correspondence re William Dyce research, 1970-1977;
• MRP/2: Papers relating to Pointon’s research and publications, 1970-2009;
• MRP/3: Research notebooks, 1964-early 1970s;
• MRP/4: Personal papers, 1963-2003.

The collection is open to any accredited reader, subject to the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018.

The collection includes material which is subject to the Data Protection Act 2018. Under the Act 2018 (DPA), The University of Manchester Library (UML) holds the right to process personal data for archiving and research purposes. In accordance with the DPA, UML has made every attempt to ensure that all personal and sensitive personal data has been processed fairly, lawfully and accurately. Users of the archive are expected to comply with the Data Protection Act 2018, and will be required to sign a form acknowledging that they will abide by the requirements of the Act in any further processing of the material by themselves.

Some items in the archive are already closed to public inspection in line with the requirements of the DPA. However, most of the material in the archive has not been checked by an archivist for Data Protection issues. It is therefore essential that researchers contact the Library in advance with a list of the material they wish to consult; the archivist will then check the items to determine whether any further closures are necessary.

Open parts of this collection, and the catalogue descriptions, may contain personal data about living individuals. Some items in this collection may be closed to public inspection in line with the requirements of the DPA. Restrictions/closures of specific items will be indicated in the catalogue.

The papers were donated by Professor Marcia Pointon to the University of Manchester Library in four tranches, in 2002, 2009 and (MRP/2/34-41) 2022.

None.

Photocopies and photographic copies of material in the archive can be supplied for private study purposes only, depending on the condition of the documents.

A number of items within the archive remain within copyright under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988; it is the responsibility of users to obtain the copyright holder’s permission for reproduction of copyright material for purposes other than research or private study.

Prior written permission must be obtained from the Library for publication or reproduction of any material within the archive. Please contact the Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Library, 150 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 3EH.

The material in the archive was created or accumulated by Professor Marcia Pointon during the course of her career and retained by her until its transfer to the Library.

No further accruals are expected.

The Library also holds the papers of Marcia Pointon’s mother, Margaret Collin, ref. GB 133 MEC.