ARCHIVES & COLLECTIONS
Portal, a pupil of de Lamerie.
We continue to preserve, make accessible and develop our archives and collections, whilst supporting talent and nurturing skills in a number of endangered crafts.
Facing page:
ARCHIVES
This page: Sir Jonathan Portal Bt donated this 18th-century cup by Abraham
A Freedom Ceremony, with the 500 Masters exhibition banners.
With more than 250 research enquiries answered and an increase in the number of research visits made by academics, 2019 was another busy year in the Archive. Subjects of interest included The Company’s role as lobbyist for the cloth trade, 1600 to 1640; reforms in schools influenced by livery companies in the late 17th century, for example at Sutton Valence Grammar School, Kent; 19th-century grants to University College Bristol; historical links between textile and fashion education and the textile and fashion industry in England, 1850 to 2000; and the Yorkshire College of Science (now the University of Leeds) and its relationship to industry and trade bodies.
the 18th Century, which ran along the breadth of Cheapside in the autumn and featured a number of prominent Clothworker businesswomen: www.citywomen.hist.ac.uk. A major project this year was an exhibition celebrating our 500th Master (Sir Jonathan Portal Bt, in the chair for 2019-20), which was intermittently displayed at the Hall for our members and guests. Much research behind the scenes went into the writing and production of a series of exhibition panels to communicate, illustrate and celebrate the lives and notable achievements of some of the 499 Past Masters be they merchants, cheesemongers, politicians, geographers, scientists, or bankrupts. The project uncovered a
great deal of new information about previous Masters, rescuing them from obscurity, and will be of longterm benefit to us both internally and in the assistance we provide to researchers. A digital slideshow of the banners will be available on The Company’s new website (expected to launch in July 2020). The Company is keen to ensure the furtherance of knowledge and skills transfer. Accordingly, we welcomed two volunteers during the course of the year. Anne Courtney, a UCL student on the MA programme for Archives Administration, spent two weeks cataloguing papers relating to the Royal Commission on Livery Companies in the 1880s. Freya Barrett, a history undergraduate and aspiring museum professional, was given a week’s work experience
assisting with research, displays and data entry using CALM, our collections management software. We plan for Freya to augment her hands-on experience in 2020. BOOKBINDING Bookbinding is an endangered craft that we have supported for more than 12 years. We are slowly building up a collection of designer bookbindings, and in 2019 took delivery of five newly completed bindings by Jo Bird, Pamela Richmond, Sue Doggett, Ann Tout – all seen in previous Clothworker membership magazines – and, most recently, Rachel Ward-Sale. Rachel’s startling binding is of The Revelations of St John the Divine, a
The breadth of interests demonstrates the research potential of our archives, and we are committed to widening access to our collections by enhancing our online catalogue, making preparations to provide access to digitised material online and participating in outreach activities to showcase our unique holdings. We contributed to the successful outdoor exhibition City Women in
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THE CLOTHWORKERS’ COMPANY
ANNUAL REVIEW 2019
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