The Pease-Ford dynasty

I thought that this time I might give an example of a particular collection I’m working on. It’s been difficult to connect artworks with a collection, especially in the store, as so often, not everything is listed in the collection’s record in EMu – or, if it is, it might say ‘artworks’ without being any more specific. However, I’m pleased to say that I did find evidence in the database of exactly where my group of portraits in the L-shaped room has come from. This was made easier by the fact that the portraits (and some other art) are the only items in this particular collection, so everything was listed nicely and to order.

The University has a very large Quaker collection, and these portraits relate to the Ford family, a wealthy Quaker family of the Victorian era. They intermarried with the Leeds branch of the Pease family, prominent industrialists in the wool trade. The Leeds Peases are here on Wikipedia, under ‘more distant relations’.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pease_family

Once I found the list for the collection in EMu, I started to piece together exactly who these people were and the important part they played in Leeds' history, and have been researching where I can ever since. Here is the entire list, with my notes on it - you'll have to zoom in, and apologies to anyone colour blind! The objects I’ve found are in red and my additions are in purple. Incidentally, when I was volunteering, one of my tasks was to write lists like this!

The object that has most intrigued me is the family portrait (xi) –  actually the ‘Pease Family Portrait’. We have a black-and-white photograph of this, with a letter attached written by Marian Pease, the daughter of the young boy in the photograph, Thomas Pease. (Marian is mentioned on the Wikipedia page as an ‘educator’, though I don’t know in what capacity.) This letter names everyone in the portrait and details some of Marian and her father’s memories of the Pease sisters. I am now dying to find out where the original is. Even if it’s in a private collection, I just want to know! An image of it has been contributed on ancestry.co.uk and I have decided to become a paying member just so I can look up the Pease and Ford family tree and try and trace the portrait! Until then, only my line manager can log me in, so this image of the portrait is small (as it’s taken from a thumbnail). I’ll replace it when I can.

The oldest sister, Hannah Ford nee Pease,

was the mother of Isabella Ford, the social reformer, and Emily Ford, the artist, two amazing women I can’t believe I’ve only just discovered now. Read about them here:

http://spartacus-educational.com/Wford.htm

http://blog.library.leeds.ac.uk/blog/art-gallery/post/78

However, I feel a lot of sympathy for the youngest daughter in the portrait, Jane. 

She is described as 'mentally deficient' and was institutionalised at various times during her life.

Apparently the Fords of Adel were a radical family who supported societal reform – very unusual for their class. They also believed in gender equality: definitely my kind of people!

The other portrait that really interests me is an older, early 18^th century print of Christopher Rawlinson, a descendant of the Fords. He was an aristocrat from Essex who went to live at Cark Hall in Lancashire and spent his days editing Anglo-Saxon texts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Rawlinson

The National Gallery holds more of the same print; here is the image from their website:

Unfortunately, the one we have is the picture I referred to last time, that has been eaten away by silverfish! If you can imagine, those nasty critters have left all the black parts (as they don’t like eating ink) and have taken big patches out of the white parts, namely his face. He looks like he has had a bad case of peeling after sunburn.

On the back of the frame is a label with some manuscript in Latin; I had to go and ask the two people in the office who were fluent in Latin to help me decipher it, except that it confused them as well. Eventually I found out that the text was taken from the frontispiece of Rawlinson’s book.

http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/xjf373241eng/frontispiece-to-christopher-rawlinsons-translation-of-alfred-the-greats-edition-of-boethius-de-consolationis-philosophiae-1698-xjf373241-eng/

It’s so interesting researching these people – I just have to make sure it doesn’t distract me too much from doing my surveys!

Creepy crawly alert!

I forgot to mention in the post about conservation that occasionally you also see some insect damage. I had to check for bugs quite a lot as a volunteer – my seminal moment was finding a ‘book louse’, as identified by the conservator. She takes bugs very seriously; any sign of them gets the infected item or box a sentence of two weeks’ quarantine. Another option is freezing, if the item is made of suitable material. Usually, though, what looks like some kind of sinister, paper-chomping insect turns out to be a squashed, dead spider.

Silverfish can be a problem in archives; it's hard to spot them or get rid of them in rooms piled high with old things.  Although they may seem relatively innocuous when whizzing round your bathtub, in fact they are little horrors if they get out of hand.  Before I started, I had no idea that silverfish ate paper, but in fact, because their diet is of starch and sugar (pretty much like mine really), they enjoy eating wood, paper or carpet (OK, not like me). For us this means they can damage any paper item including drawings, prints or photos. The example I was shown was a portrait from which the person’s face had pretty much disappeared because the bugs had taken the surface off the paper; I couldn’t find a similar picture to this to show you but here is a map and its frame that have had a bit of a chomping (all pics from Creative Commons of course):

 

Something else I've come up against is woodworm holes.  The woodworm (and I’ve only recently learned this interesting fact) isn’t actually a species in its own right, that’s just a term we use to describe damage made by the larvae of wood-boring beetles. I very often find holes on the stretchers of old paintings, but the worst case I've seen was on a wooden cover of a book from the Brotherton Collection’s Incunabula (or printed, pre-sixteenth century books to you and me).  A staff member showed me this during a talk and it was absolutely peppered with holes.

I find it very hard to ascertain how old the holes are; someone told me you can consider how clean-looking they are, but they mostly look the same to me!  You also have to consider the insect’s life cycle and that generally only in the summer months will the adult beetles emerge and cause havoc. Here is what the holes look like, though the ones I've seen are smaller than this.

We did find an object recently that had wormholes that looked slightly suspect.  It is a mysterious painting in oil wash, artist unknown and titled ‘Massacre of the Innocents’!  In one regard, it's one of my favourite objects, but as it depicts Roman soldiers pillaging a small town and killing its inhabitants, maybe it shouldn't be.  Anyway, gallery staff wrapped it up in plastic and have kept it off the rack, though it's winter anyway so the pests won't be too dangerous.  It's just a precaution and I'll leave it with them as to how long to keep it like that.  I can still examine it, I just need to keep wrapping it up again!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, because to research it and find images I’ve had to trawl through horrid blown-up pictures of bugs – yuk. Someone has put a sticky trap in the corner near where I work – it’s a really useful way of finding out what insects have been around, but is mainly full of huge spiders and is right next to my chair! Still, it comes with the territory…

Those pesky life decisions!

Well, things seem to be going pretty well for me at the Brotherton archives. I had a meeting with my manager to 'discuss the first stage of my probation' (uuurk!). Thankfully this was not as scary as it sounds; it was just to see if I'd achieved my objectives so far, which, apparently, I had. Learning to use the digitisation suite will come later, probably in January, when I've got more of the survey under my belt. I suggested that, sometime soon, I could learn to upload photos to EMu, as a better way of dealing with the elaborate labels the late Victorians so enjoyed sticking on things. For example, on one picture, by William Gosse (from the family of Philip Henry Gosse), the artist explains in detail the origins of the work, then digresses to point out huffily that he actually made another sketch of the same subject that was effectively stolen by an aquaintance, who gave it to 'some friend of his', who then exhibited it without asking permission! Yep, it's a big label. And in archiving, you generally try and copy anything written on anything into a record, or where it won't get lost, which means I had to type out the whole of Gosse's lament. Another painting is by an Italian artist and includes a long label written completely in Italian, which I gave up trying to copy out in full, or indeed translate! Luckily, my manager agreed that photos were a good idea.

Learning that I'm doing well in the job has also added to my growing conviction that I would like to follow archiving as a career. When first starting my internship, despite having done a lot of volunteering, I was unsure, preferring to keep my options open, but now I've had the chance to take on more responsibility, I can see that this could be my vocation. I feel at home in this working environment; in fact, for the first time, I feel part of a group of people who are actually like me (sounds terrifying to you, I know!). There are a lot of introverts and quiet people, and everyone gets satisfaction from putting things in order! They tend to be meticulous and fastidious and, I think, put effort into keeping things running smoothly. They also aspire to help others through their work in the public sector. Generally, then, they seem to share my kind of attitudes and values. Here I can put my skills to use and feel a part of something bigger that is going to make a difference to academic research in the years to come. This isn't to say that I'd definitely wind up with a job in a similar environment, and there are issues as with any vocation (for example competition in the job market, especially where permanent contracts are concerned). However, I feel enthusiastic about continuing on from here, and that's what's important.

Therefore, I'm trying to ascertain whether I will have enough experience to apply to do my postgraduate diploma in a year's time. I've booked a careers appointment to discuss options, and am looking at ways I can fill in any gaps in my knowledge. I've applied to join the Archives and Records Association as a full member (now that I'm technically 'working in the profession'!). I've had an e-mail saying that they've received my application and someone will get back to me; let's hope it won't be with a test or some kind of Herculean challenge! I imagine, though, that they'll be happy for me to join, and when I do I can try and attend some events and learn more about the role of the archivist in the wider world, and the latest developments.

According to ARA's complex website at  http://www.archives.org.uk/ , they seem to offer many and varied services. One really great thing is that you can join online groups according to your particular interests - I've requested to join those for digital archiving, conservation, film heritage and, essential to me, new professionals and students. I also found this fab blog, affiliated to the new professionals section, called 'Off the Record'  http://aranewprofessionals.wordpress.com/ . There are so many interesting articles on here I don't know where to start, but doubtless I'll find all the advice helpful, including that on how people got started in archiving.

I'll start to try and put some images on here soon - I'm not sure the staff would approve of my waltzing around taking pics and putting them online but I'll see if I can show you or direct you to some examples from collections I'm talking about - or, if you're lucky, something with alligatoring or silverfish damage :o)