Today we took a bus ride out to the Blythe House. This is where a rather large collection of children's books are held. Blythe House was built around 1900, originally as a post office and bank. The building was eventually handed to three museums. This place is used for study or reserved collections.
Alexia, the Art and Design archivist showed us a few interesting items. Her department collects British and British based designers. Most of the collections are from the 20th and 21st centuries. They have all kinds of leaflets and flyers and some objects. Most of the collection was gifts. We viewed a sampling of the Lucile Duff Gordon collection. She is a designer that went from designing her own clothes to designing for others. She is considered an early developer of the catwalk show.
We also got to view some exhibition catalogs for the Ideal Home. There was even a photograph album from 1956 of the House of the Future. This showed what they believed houses would be like in the 1980s.
Francis described the children's literature to us and showed us some of the Beatrix Potter collection. The children's literature collection is housed here almost in its entirety. There are 100,000 books. The Beatrix Potter Archives is the largest archive in the world. The main collection was put together by Leslie Linder. Leslie Linder was the man who deciphered Potter's journals she left behind after her death.
We got to view a 1901 printed copy, an 1876 sketchbook, and some family photos. Beatrix Potter loved nature and drew lots of flora and fauna. She also loved creating her own drawings from other stories. She did her ideas of Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella.
That is all for now...
No comments:
Post a Comment