Over the last few weeks we've been delighted to have student archivist Alice O'Hanlon with us on work placement. Alice is about to start a great new job, so we thought we'd catch up with her before she left:
Q: Alice, you were here as part of a postgraduate course - can you tell us a bit about what you were studying?
A: I've been studying for a Postgraduate Diploma in Archives and
Records Management at
UCL. The course covers everything from how to store,
preserve and conserve different materials (both physical and digital); to the
history of archives, theories relating to archival arrangement, freedom of
information and data protection, records management systems and the challenges of making
archives accessible both physically and on-line. The course is changing to reflect
developments in technology and the growing online presence of archives and this
year we were able to explore topics such as digitisation, XML and how to make
information shareable and interoperable as linked open data.
Q: What attracted you to work in this field?
A: I’ve always been fascinated by how a story can be told or
imagined through an historical object or document and enjoy carrying out
research to build up a picture of the past. I worked for a number of years in
cultural institutions such as the
Museum of London and the
Royal Institute of British Architects in administrative roles before deciding to take a new
direction and study a Fine Art MA at
Camberwell.
It was during this MA that I began to make
work around found historical objects such as photograph albums, or items passed
down through my family, weaving together fact and fiction to create a narrative
about an event or person lost to history. I became very interested in archives
– what they hold and what they mean for recording and understanding history and
cultural memory - and began to consider a career as an archivist to support my
art practice. I went on to volunteer for the
V&A Archive of
Art and Design, the
Natural History Museum, the
British Postal Museum and the
Swedenborg Society to gain different experiences of working in archives and
collections and to secure a place on the Diploma at UCL.
Q: Why did you want to do your placement at MoDA?
A: I have been aware of
MoDA for a number of years as I have
always been interested in architecture and interior design, especially from the
1930-1950s. I had the wonderful opportunity while at the V&A Archive of Art
and Design to work very closely with material from the studio of furniture and
textile designers, Robin and Lucienne Day, whose work I have always greatly
admired. This was a fascinating experience and I learnt a great deal about the working
practice and behind-the-scenes life of these two designers.
As part
of the MA at UCL we are required to do a two-week cataloguing placement and working at the V&A had given me a taste
for working with the archives of designers. I wanted to experience this in a
different collection, particularly one comprised of such beautiful examples of
domestic design. I also thought the
new website, providing such a visual and
multi-navigational snapshot of the wonderful collection, was an exciting
development.
Q: What have you been working on at MoDA?
A: I have been working with the collection of correspondence
between the
Silver Studio and its designers, manufacturers, suppliers, clients,
personal acquaintances and membership bodies. The collection is arranged
according to date, meaning that there are multiple entries for many
correspondents since they would have communicated back and forth with the
Studio over a number of years, often decades. This is unlike the way an archivist would, traditionally, arrange a collection in a
hierarchy, grouping particular people or subjects together.
This is what I have
been tackling with relation to the Silver Studio correspondence: rearranging
the structure so that all the correspondence between, for example, Rex Silver
and Madeleine Lawrence, are listed together. At present the folders will remain as they are and the hierarchy I have
produced will act as an alternative finding aid for researchers, which will
hopefully prove very useful as they can see on paper groupings of
correspondence with a particular person or business, listed alphabetically,
rather than having to look through the whole list of the collection and noting
down every time a name appears.
Aside from creating this finding aid I have catalogued to
item level, correspondence between Rex Silver and business associate Harry
Napper, book dealer Frank Lewis and designers John Churton, Herbert Crofts,
Madeleine Lawrence, Winifred Mold and Doreen Whitehead. For each letter I have
noted the date and written a brief summary of the contents. In the case of
Rex’s letters to designers, particular design numbers are regularly mentioned
and these have all been recorded, meaning that these could act as tags in a
database, or could even just be searchable in a word document, so that if a
researcher would like to see all the correspondence relating to a certain
design they can easily collate all the relevant documents.
Q: What's been the best thing about your placement and what have you learnt
about the collection?
A: I have found it really interesting cataloguing Rex
Silver’s correspondence with his book dealer Frank Lewis and with designers
alongside each other as I began to understand connections between Rex’s book
collecting activities and the design process. Not being an expert on the Silver
Studio or knowing much about Rex’s level of involvement with the design
process, at first I was unsure whether he was acquiring books from Frank Lewis
for personal or business use, and if the latter, how exactly the books were
used. Through cataloguing Rex’s letters to designers such as Doreen Whitehead I
was able to see that many of these books, and other cuttings and sketches, were
sent out to the Studio’s designers, particularly women such as Whitehead, Mold
and Lawrence since they worked from home, to act as guidance and inspiration
for specific designs. It has become clear to me that the books collected by Rex
played a significant role in his own forming of ideas for future designs and
his guiding of studio designers in a particular direction.
I have also found it very interesting to observe the
quantity of letters between Rex Silver and designers such as Madeleine Lawrence
and Doreen Whitehead which, at periods, would be sent daily, sometimes twice a
day. The letters give an impression of the speed at which they would need to
react to Rex’s sometimes very specific requests and directions, often being
asked to work on several designs at once, and for very little remuneration. One
section of correspondence documents the salary negotiation between Rex and
Doreen Whitehead in 1935, the two settling on a figure less than that paid on
average to a shop assistant at the time. Later that year Miss Whitehead writes
that her only hope of affording a holiday that year is by selling her ‘Victorian
Bunches’ design to Rex or another buyer for around £8. Rex writes that he is
only able to offer her a few shillings. The letters, which capture Rex’s often
blunt and critical feedback and high expectations, provide a detailed insight
into the demanding working life of the Silver Studio’s female designers. I know this story is explored in more detail in MoDA's
Petal Power exhibition, which sounds really interesting.
Q: What's next for you now?
My Diploma is now coming to an end and in a few weeks I will
be starting a new job as Archivist for
Thomas Heatherwick’s design and
architecture practice. This will involve, initially, organising the many
architecture models that the studio has accumulated over the years, cataloguing
them in detail and considering their long-term preservation needs. After that I
will be working on organising the documentation for everything the studio has
worked on, from 1994 through to the present, so that the story of each project,
from initial idea, through to design process, construction and reception by the
public and press is recorded and preserved – in the form of objects, models,
sketches, digital design files, paper and email correspondence, photographs,
press cuttings, audio and video files and much more.
If you are interested in using the Silver Studio correspondence for your own research please contact Maggie Wood to make an appointment. We would like to thank Alice for all her hard work and we wish her every success in her new job.
