The material in this series comprises the main A-Z sequence of artist research undertaken by Haldin for her proposed dictionary.
Haldin compiled the information she had collected about each artist into a single entry. Most of the entries are handwritten drafts on a single-sided sheet of notepaper, although, for sections B and D, the majority are typescript. Haldin had kept several drafts which were subsequently rewritten by her or her assistants, however, in the process of cataloguing, multiple drafts were only kept if they provided additional information. Otherwise, only the most complete version has been retained.
The amount of information given varies between entries but they typically include the following elements:
-name
-nationality
-dates (either dates active or birth and death dates)
-subject and/or style of their work
-brief biographical notes (primarily concerning their training)
-list of works (with dates and where they were exhibited)
-note on source used (often in the form of an abbreviation, e.g. TB for Thieme-Becker)
Occasioanally, Haldin included images of the artist's work along with the notes. These are either in the form of postcards (listed as such) or cuttings from magazines (listed as 'images', and counted according to the number of individual images included, rather than number of pages).
As these notes are research notes they exist in the various stages of completion they were at when the original project concluded: they range from coherent drafts to brief notes. Some contain only a short transcription from a single original source. Entries that are more than one page tend to include information harvested from more than one source that were intended to be collated for the final draft. However, the amount of information on each page may also be quite brief. Haldin used a wide range of sources, particularly when locating particular works by an artists, but she primarily relied on standard texts such as Thieme-Becker and Benezit for the core content of the entries. There are, however, many entries that do not feature in either.
The description in this catalogue will only note full artist name (including maiden name, where known) and dates (where given or implied). The dates used follow Haldin's research, as such those in (round brackets) denote exact dates according to her research, and those in [square brackets] denote dates which are imprecise or estimated by her. Dates have been omitted if Haldin didn't include them. Similarly, the names and spellings given here are following Haldin's research, so there may be some inaccuracies. Searching alternative spellings is advised when looking for a particular artist in these listings. The catalogue also uses Haldin's abbreviation 'op.' to denote when an artist was active.
As stated above, all entries are on a single-sided page (handwritten or typescript) unless otherwise noted.
Similar research notes can also be found in the 'General Research' series (DLH/2), which mostly covers artists who did not meet the criteria for inclusion in the dictionary. The General Research series also includes notebooks and loose sheets which contain information about multiple artists.