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Bechstein are a German firm of piano makers founded in Berlin in 1853 by Friedrich Wilhelm Carl Bechstein (1826-1900), who founded the firm in 1853 in Berlin. Following successful receptions at the 1862 London exhibition and the 1867 Paris exhibition, the output of the firm grew from 300 instruments a year during the 1860s to 1000 a decade later, 3000 during the 1890s and 5000 in the years preceding World War I. Following the founder's death, his sons Edwin Bechstein and Carl Bechstein assumed control and later Carl's son, also Carl, joined the firm. The importance of the British market to the firm was such that half of the firm's annual output of pianos was sold there. The firm sought to provide an impressive yet intimate showcase for recitals (particularly featuring the firm's instruments). In 1901 the firm opened a concert room in London, known as the Bechstein Hall, next to its showrooms on Wigmore Street; the first concert on 31 May 1901 featured the virtuoso pianist Ferruccio Busoni. The Hall quickly came renowned for its superb acoustics and enjoyed popularity with both performers and the public. Bechstein, like other German firms in Britain during World War One, experienced anti-German hostility and a decline in business. The firm's affairs were wound up in 1916 by the Board of Trade and the entire business - including studios, offices, warehouses, 137 pianos, and the Hall itself - was sold at auction to Debenhams for £56,500. The Hall reopened in 1917 as the Wigmore Hall.
Henry Cope Colles, born Bridgnorth, Shropshire, 20 Apr 1879; entered Royal College of Music at age of 16 and studied music history under Sir Hubert Parry, the organ under Walter Alcock and counterpoint under Walford Davies; won an organ scholarship at Worcester College, Oxford; graduated, 1902; appointed music critic of The Academy and assistant music critic of The Times, 1905, and appointed chief critic, 1911; taught at Cheltenham Ladies College; joined RCM to lecture on music history, analysis and interpretation; joined the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music as an examiner; Fellow and Governor of St Michael's College, Tenbury; chairman of the Church Music Society and of the School of English Church Music; appointed freeman of the Musicians' Company, 1934; Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, 1936; died London, 4 Mar 1943. Publications: Brahms (London, 1908); The Growth of Music (Oxford, 1912-1916); edited Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians Third edition (London, 1927); Voice and Verse: a Study of English Song (London, 1928); The Chamber Music of Brahms (London, 1933); The Royal College of Music: a Jubilee Record, 1883-1933 (London, 1933); edited Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians Fourth edition (London, 1940); On Learning Music and Other Essays (London, 1940); H. Walford Davies (London, 1942); with MF Alderson History of St Michael's College, Tenbury (London, 1943).
George Grove became a member of the Council and Executive Committee of the proposed Royal College of Music (RCM) in July 1881, and became its first Director in 1882, rather through his abilities in organizing the many fund raising and administrative meetings required prior to the College's opening than by an official appointment. Through Grove, the Director's role gained wide-ranging powers of policy and administration subject to the College's Council. Grove retired in 1894. He was succeeded by Sir Hubert Parry (1895-1918), Sir Hugh Allen (1919-1937), Sir George Dyson (1938-1952), Sir Ernest Bullock (1953-1959), Sir Keith Falkner (1960-1974), Sir David Willcocks (1974-1984), Michael Gough Mathews (1985-1983) and Dr Janet Ritterman (1993-).
The Board of Professors was established from the outset of the College in 1883, in continuance of a similar system previously operating in the National Training School for Music, to assist in general educational matters and policy within the College. The first Board consisted of 10 professors, supported by a larger panel of 30 other teachers. In 1975 the Council decided that three additional members of staff appointed by the Board of Professors were to be eligible to be members of the Council.
Sir Henry Walford Davies, born, Oswestry, Shropshire, 6 Sep 1869; trained in choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor, and was was pupil assistant to Walter Parratt; entered Royal College of Music under a composition scholarship, 1890; studied with Charles Parry and Charles Stanford; became teacher of counterpoint, RCM, 1895-1918; organist at St George's Kensington, St Anne's, Soho, and Christ Church, Hampstead; organist and choirmaster at the Temple Church, 1898-1919; conductor of the Bach Choir, 1903-1907; appointed director of music to the Royal Air Force, 1918; professor of music, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1919-1926; chairman of the Welsh National Council of Music; knighted, 1922; appointed Gresham Professor of Music in the University of London, 1926; made his first radio broadcast to schools, 1924; his popular radio series 'Music and the Ordinary Listener' commenced, 1926; records for His Master's Voice Melody Lectures (HMV C 1063 to 1701) and Twelve Talks on Melody (HMV C 1759 to 1767); organist, St George's Chapel, Windsor, 1927-1932; music advisor at the BBC, 1927-1939; appointed Master of the King's Musick, 1934; died, Wrington, Somerset, 11 Mar 1941. Publications and music (a selection): Rhythm in Church (London, 1913); The Pursuit of Music (London, 1935); Symphony in D, 1894; Overture in D minor, 1897; Welshmen in London, 1897; folksong cantata Three Jovial Huntsmen, 1902; oratorio Everyman, 1904; Symphony, in G, 1911; cantata Song of St Francis, 1912; anthem, `Let us Now Praise Famous Men'; Solemn Melody; RAF March Past.
The Junior Department of the RCM was begun in 1897 with 16 pupils, following an aborted scheme of 1895 which had proposed to divide the College into 'Upper' and 'Lower' divisions, though admittedly based on musical experience and ability rather than age. In 1926 a new Junior Department was established on the advice of Angela Bull (the Director's Appointment's Secretary and subsequently General Supervisor of the Junior Department) and Percy Buck, then a Professor at the RCM, which consisted of 36 Junior Exhibitioners from London County Council schools who were taught at the RCM by 36 members of the Teachers' Training Class. By 1966 the Junior Department had grown to 345 pupils of whom 226 were exhibitioners, and a teaching staff of over 100.
Samuel Ernest Palmer, 1st Baron Palmer of Reading (1858-1948) was a Vice-President and Member of the Council of the Royal College of Music; and elected its first Fellow in 1921. He was raised to the peerage in 1933 for his services to music. In 1903 he endowed the Royal College of Music Patron's Fund with £20,000 for `the encouragement of native composers by the performance of their works'The first use of the funds was to give public concerts of new chamber and orchestral works. A selection committee chose some eight works from a range of 42, for the first performance at St James' Hall on 20 May 1904. Works by Gustav Holst and Arnold Bax featured in the first two concerts. In 1925, he supplemented his Patron's Fund with a Fund for Opera Study, as well as contributions to the fabric of the building. The Fund also gave assistance to young musicians studying abroad and for the publication of compositions. Following World War One, the evening concerts were replaced by daytime concerts in the RCM hall (effectively open rehearsals), the first being performed on 13 Nov 1919. By 1928 there had been 75 such performances, receiving good public attendance and press coverage.
The composer Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was appointed Vice Kapellmeister to the Esterházy court at Eisenstadt, Austria, in 1761, and became Ober-Kapellmeister in 1766. Anton Richter (1802-1854) was an organist and choirmaster at Eisenstadt and father of Hans Richter (1843-1916) the Austro-Hungarian conductor. Anton Prinster and his brother Michael were horn players in Haydn's orchestra at the Esterházy court. Their niece, Fanny Elssler, was the daughter of Johann Florian Elssler (1769-1843), music copyist to Haydn.
Giovanni Battista Viotti, born Fontanetto da Po, 12 May 1755; taken to Turin under the protection of Prince Alfonso dal Pozzo della Cisterna, in whose home he lived and was educated, 1766; studied first with Antonio Celoniat, and with Gaetano Pugnani from 1770; entered the orchestra of the royal chapel at Turin, Dec 1775; occupied the last desk of the first violins in the orchestra, 1775-1780; set out with Pugnani on a concert tour to Switzerland, Dresden and Berlin, 1780; his first publication, the concerto in A (now known as no.3), published in Berlin, 1781; gave concerts in Warsaw and St Petersburg; returned to Berlin, 1781; made his début at the Concert Spirituel, Paris, 17 Mar 1782; instant success established him at once in the front rank of violinists, continued to play to critical praise, 1782-1783; retired from public concerts, 8 Sep 1783; entered the service of Marie Antoinette at Versailles, Jan 1784; also appointed leader of Prince Rohan-Guéménée's orchestra, and may have held a similar position for the Prince of Soubise; established a new opera house called the Théâtre de Monsieur (after July 1791, Théâtre Feydeau), 1788; produced a number of important works, both Italian and French, including the operas of his friend and associate Luigi Cherubini; fled revolution in France to London, Jul 1792; probably half of his published works, including 19 violin concertos, had appeared, 1782-1792; made a successful début at Johann Peter Salomon's Hanover Square Concert, 7 Feb 1793; featured violinist for Salomon's series, 1793-1794; appointed musical director of the new Opera Concerts, 1795; played at Joseph Haydn's benefit concerts, 1794 and 1795; frequent performer in the homes of the wealthy, including the Prince of Wales; acting manager of Italian opera at the King's Theatre, 1794-1795; succeeded William Cramer as leader and director of the orchestra at the King's Theatre, 1797; ordered to leave by the British government on suspicion of Jacobin activity; lived with English friends in Schenfeldt, near Hamburg, where he published a set of duos op.5, 1798-1799; left Germany, Jul 1799; returned to London, c1801; retired from music to concentrate on his wine business, but continued to play for friends and publish music in London and Paris; Director of the Paris Opéra, Feb 1819-Nov 1821; returned to London, 1823; died in the London home of his closest friends, Mr and Mrs William Chinnery, 3 Mar 1824. He produced over 30 violin concertos, 21 trios, 18 string quartets,42 duos, 24 violin solos, 8 piano works and 12 vocal works, and is considered the founder of the 'modern' (19th-century) French school of violin playing.
William Henry Havergal, born 1793; educated Merchant Taylors' School, London, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford (BA, 1815; MA, 1819); ordained, 1816; curate at Bristol, Coaley (Gloucs.), 1820, and Astley (Worcs), 1822; appointed rector of Astley, 1829; rector of St Nicholas, Worcester, 1845; retired to the vicarage of Shareshill (Staffs.), 1860; commenced publishing cathedral music in the 1830s; in 1844 he began to produce a series of publications aimed towards the improvement of psalmody; wrote hymns, sacred songs and carols for the periodical Our Own Fireside and selected, harmonized and arranged vocal music; published two volumes of Sermons (London, 1853) and A History of the Old Hundredth Psalm Tune (New York, 1854) as well as other sermons and religious essays; died 1870.
William Sterndale Bennett founded the Bach Society in 1849, as part of the growing interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach in England in the nineteenth century known as the 'Bach revival'. Bennett had had a brilliant early career as a pianist and composer, which included a friendship with Felix Mendelssohn begun in 1836, himself a renowned promoter and perfomer of Bach's music. The first meeting of the Society, on 27 October 1849, at Bennett's house in Russell Place, formulated the objects of the society, which included the collection and promotion, but not publication, of the works of Bach (though the society did publish a volume of the motets, with English text added, in 1851). A number of concerts were given, and at last the St Matthew Passion had its first English performance (with English words) at the Hanover Square Rooms on 6 April 1854, Bennett conducting. Several other important works were revived before the society disbanded in 1870. Charles Steggall (1826-1905), the organist and composer, was a pupil of William Sterndale Bennett at the Royal Academy of Music, 1847-1851, and was also Secretary of the Bach Society throughout its existence. He edited an edition of Bach's motets for the Society (1851).
Dora Mary Powell, née Penny, born 8 Feb 1874, daughter of Rev Alfred Penny and Dora Mary Heale. Following the death of her mother, she lived at Highfield with her grandmother while her father served in missionary work in the Melanesian and Solomon Islands. She rejoined her father at Wolverhampton, where he had been appointed Rector in 1895. Soon after he married Mary Frances Baker, who was a childhood friend of Caroline Alice Roberts, whom Edward Elgar married in 1889. As well as being stepmother of Dora, she was the sister of William Meath Baker, sister-in-law to Richard Baxter Townshend, and a close friend of Isabell Fitton, all of whom feature in Elgar's 'Enigma Variations'. In this way Dora Penny became acquainted with the Elgars and was to be characterised as 'Dorabella' (Variation X) of the Variations. She also became a close friend of A J Jaeger ('Nimrod' of the Variations). She took singing lessons, sang in the Wolverhampton Choral Society, and kept diaries during her years at Wolverhampton which record in passing this circle of friends. She lost regular contact with the Elgars after their move to Hampstead in 1912, paying a penultimate visit in 1913. She made her final visit to the Elgars shortly after her marriage to Richard Crofts Powell in Jan 1914. The couple moved to East Grinstead, Sussex. Richard Powell died in 1962 and Dora Powell died in 1964.
Born Cambridge, Massachussetts, 8 Nov 1906, the eldest son of (Eugène) Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940) a pioneer in the revival of the performance of early music and the building of renaissance and baroque instruments. The family moved to France and then settled in Haslemere, Surrey, in 1914. He was an early and talented player of the harpsichord and viol, and assisted his father in arranging music for the annual festivals of early music in Haslemere. He also formed an orchestra while a teenager of local residents. In 1929 he married Millicent Wheaton, a local school teacher, and also his viola da gamba pupil. The couple gave numerous recitals and recordings of early music during the 1930s. He was the first of the family to show an interest in modern music, both as composer and conductor and broke the family tradition of early music by studying conducting at the Royal College of Music under Constant Lambert and Sir Adrian Boult. He joined the Royal Artillery as a gunner in 1940, and his career was cut short tragically when he was lost at sea on board the liner Ceramic, torpedoed on 7 Dec 1942. His works include the Symphony in D minor (1932); Sinfonietta (1933); Ground and Caprice for orchestra (1934); Concerto for Clarinet, Harp and Orchestra (1939); Concertino for Viola da Gamba and Small Orchestra (1941); Violin Concerto (1942).
Joan Stocker was a pupil of William Henry Reed (1876-1942), the English violinist and composer, who was the leader of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1912-1935, and also taught violin at the Royal College of Music for many years.
Carl Engel was born in Hanover in 1818 and after being taught the piano and organ there moved to Manchester in 1846, and then to London in 1850. He began to establish an exceptional library and instrument collection. He became organological adviser to the Victoria and Albert Museum and produced a formidable Descriptive Catalogue. Many of his other publications were devoted to European folk music. He died in London in 1882. His publications include The Music of the Most Ancient Nations, particularly of the Assyrians, Egyptians and Hebrews (London, 1864); An Introduction to the Study of National Music (London, 1866); A Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1870, revised 1874); Musical Myths and Facts (London, 1876); 'The Literature of National Music', articles in Musical Times, 1878-1879; 'Music of the Gypsies', Musical Times, 1880; 'Aeolian Music', Musical Times 1882.
Mary Cowden Clarke (1809-1898) was the daughter of Victor Novello (1781-1861), the choirmaster, composer, musician and publisher. She married the author Charles Cowden Clarke (1787-1877) in 1828. She became renowned as a Shakespearean scholar, particularly for her Complete Concordance to Shakespeare (1844-1845). Charles Cowden Clarke published editions of the works of Chaucer, Burns and other poets, and was renowned for the series of lectures on Shakespeare and other dramatists and poets that he gave between 1834 and 1856, many of which were he delivered to audiences at the London Institution.
Muriel Smith was Secretary of the Lewes Music Club.
Doris M Armitage (died Feb 1974) was a friend and student of the pianist Fanny Davies and an acquaintance of the singer Helen Henschel.
Born 1889; educated at Westminster School, Leipzig Conservatory and Christ Church, Oxford; DMus, 1914, joined the music staff at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1914; conducted first performance of Holst's The Planets, 1918; taught at the Royal College of Music, 1919-1930; assistant musical director, Covent Garden, 1926; musical director of the Bach Choir, 1928-1931; musical director of the City of Birmingham Orchestra, 1924-1930; appointed music director for the BBC, 1930; formed the BBC Symphony Orchestra and toured Europe and the USA; associate conductor of the Proms, 1942-1950; retired from the BBC, 1950; music director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, 1950-1957; musical director of the CBSO, 1959-60; taught at the RCM, 1962-1966; undertook recordings of Elgar and Vaughan Williams for EMI; made his final public appearance and his final recording, 1978; died 1983.
Katharine Goodson, born Watford, 18 Jun 1872; entered Royal Academy of Music at age of 12 to study piano; studied under Oscar Beringer, 1886-1892; studied with Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna for four years; made her London debut, 1897; subsequently played throughout Europe; mader her American debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1907; made a total of seven tours of the USA; following several years of retirement, made a public reappeappearance, 1946; also broadcast on television; died London, 14 Apr 1958. Goodson was married to the composer Arthur Hinton. He was born in Beckenham, Kent, 20 Nov 1869; educated, Shrewsbury School; entered RAM and studied violin and composition; appointed Sub-Professor, RAM; studied composition under Joseph Rheinberger in Munich; appointed Professor of Composition, RAM, and an examiner to the Associated Board; died Rottingdean, Sussex, 11 Aug 1941. His works, include 2 symphonies, an opera Tamara', 2 operettas, chamber music, a suiteEndymion', piano music and songs. His Concerto in D minor for piano and orchestra was frequently performed by his wife.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) studied composition at the Royal College of Music, 1890-1897. He enjoyed frequent public performances of his music, including concerts at the RCM and in Croydon, Surrey, during this period. He received his first commission, from the Three Choirs Festival, in 1898. This work, the Ballade in A minor for orchestra, was well received at its first performance. His best known work, the cantata 'Hiawatha's Wedding Feast' was given its first performance in the same year and became widely acclaimed in England and the USA. The period 1897-1903 saw prolific composition by Coleridge-Taylor, particularly for festival commissions and incidental music for plays. He was active as a conductor: he worked for the Handel Society, and became their permanent conductor in 1904 until his death. He was also conductor of the Westmorland Festival, 1901-1904, and of many choral and orchestral societies. He also undertook much teaching in and around Croydon, and was appointed professor of composition at Trinity College of Music, London, in 1903. Edith Carr was an amateur violinist in South Croydon and aged in her twenties around the time of the correspondence with Coleridge-Taylor. She appears to have played in musical ensembles under Coleridge-Taylor's conduction.
William M Coulthard, organist, assembled this collection.
Sir Walter Galpin Alcock (1861-1947) was an English cathedral organist and also taught at the RCM.
George Dorrington Cunningham (1878-1948) was City of Birmingham organist, 1924-1948) and conducted the City of Birmingham Choir.
Basil Harwood (1859-1949) was an English organist and composer.
John Nicholson Ireland (1879-1962) was a composer, and organist and choirmaster of St Luke's Chelsea, 1904-1926.
F J Livesey was organist at St Bees Priory, 1887-1934.
Cecil Clutton (b 1909) is an English writer on the history and design of the organ.
Percy William Whitlock (1903-1946) was an English organist and composer.
Henry Willis (1821-1901) was an English organ builder.
George Dixon (1870-1950) was an English organ designer and writer on organs, and collaborated with the firm of Harrison and Harrison.
Sir Hubert Parry, born Bournemouth, 27 Feb 1848; educated Twyford School, near Winchester, Eton College; B Mus, 1866; read law and modern history, Exeter College, Oxford; studied in Stuttgart with Henry Hugo Pierson, 1867; worked at Lloyd's of London as an underwriter; took lessons with William Sterndale Bennett and Edward Dannreuther; composed works for piano for concerts at Dannreuther's home during the 1870s; engaged by George Grove as sub-editor for the Dictionary of Music and Musicians, to which Parry contributed more than 100 articles; appointed by Grove as Professor of Musical History, Royal College of Music (RCM), 1883; during the 1880s created four symphonies and a symphonic suite and an unsuccessful attempt at opera; the success of his ode 'Blest Pair of Sirens' brought commissions from provincial festivals for choral music, including 'Judith' (1888), 'Ode on St Cecilia's Day' (1889), 'L'Allegro ed Il Pensieroso' (1890), 'The Lotos-Eaters', (1892), 'Job' (1892) and 'King Saul' (1894); worked with Robert Bridges for the Purcell bicentenary on the ode 'Invocation to Music', 1895; composed a setting of the Magnificat in celebration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, 1897; succeeded Grove as Director of the RCM, 1895; knighted, 1897; collaborated with Bridges on 'A Song of Darkness and Light' (1898); appointed Heather Professor of Music, Oxford, 1900 (held until 1908); created a baronet, 1902; composed 'ethical oratorios' 'Voces clamantium' (1903), 'The Love that Casteth out Fear' (1904), 'The Soul's Ransom' (1906), 'The Vision of Life' (1907); composed settings for Dunbar's 'Ode on the Nativity' (1912) and Bridges' 'The Chivalry of the Sea' (1916), and the motets 'Songs of Farewell' (1914-1915); died Rustington, Sussex, 7 October, 1918. Publications: these include, as well as his numerous articles for journals and for the Grove Dictionary, Studies of Great Composers (London, 1886); The Art of Music (London, 1893; enlarged as The Evolution of the Art of Music, London, 1896); Summary of the History and Development of Mediaeval and Modern European Music (London, 1893); Johann Sebastian Bach: the Story of the Development of a Great Personality (New York and London, 1909); Style in Musical Art (London, 1911) [collected Oxford lectures].
The lawyer Lord Thring (1818-1907), renowned for his work as a parliamentary draftsman and innovator in the framing of legislation, served on the Council of the Royal College of Music.
Valley Lasker's early life was closely connected to Gustav Holst. Born in 1885, she was educated at Morley College while Holst was director of music there, and later taught music at St Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith, as assistant to Holst, who was also head of music. She arranged several works by Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams for piano and was a regular participant in the Whitsun festival established at Thaxted, Essex, by Holst in 1916 for both amateur and professional musicians. She was also a singer in the Whitsuntide Singers, giving concerts for Holst's festivals at Thaxted, Dulwich, Canterbury, Chichester and Bosham. She directed the singers in 1933, as Holst was ill and conducted the choir at the interment of Holst's ashes in Chichester Cathedral in 1934. Following Holst's death, she directed the group, renamed the Holiday Singers, mainly singing at Chichester and Boxgrove, 1937-1957. She retired from the choir in 1958.
Anne Marie Meyer was born in Berlin into a Jewish family, 1919. She came to Britain with her father and younger brothers in 1933 and attended Bunce Court School in Kent. Unable to fund a university education, she trained as a secretary and started work at the Warburg Institute in London in 1937. From 1939 until her retirement in 1984 she was the Institute's Secretary and Registrar. Although employed as an administrator, Meyer acquired a wide scholarly knowledge in her own right, particularly in relation to classical music and to the history of the Warburg Institute, and her scholarship, knowledge of four languages and editorial skills proved invaluable in the production of the Institute's journal and monographs. She was awarded the MBE in 1983 and became an Honorary Fellow of the Institute in 1984. She died in 2004.
Henri Frankfort was born, 1897; brought up in the Netherlands and served in the Dutch armed forces during the First World War. He later studied at University College London and the British School at Athens and led archaeological excavations in Egypt before taking his PhD from Leiden University in 1927. He subsequently spent several years in Iraq carrying out fieldwork for the University of Chicago, where he became a Professor in 1932; he also held an Extraordinary Professorship at the University of Amsterdam concurrently with the Chicago chair. In 1949 he left the United States to become Professor of the History of Pre-Classical Antiquity at the University of London and Director of the Warburg Institute, a post he retained until his death in 1954. Prominent among his research interests were the religions of Ancient Egypt and the Near East. The art historian Enriqueta Harris was his second wife.
Aby Moritz Warburg was born in Hamburg, 1866 to a wealthy banking family; instead of entering the family business, he devoted himself to the academic study of art, European civilization and the classical tradition; studied in Bonn, Munich, and in Strasbourg, focusing on archeology and art history; worked in Florence producing studies on single works of art and their wealthy patrons; spent time on the Hopi Indians conducting an ethnological study, 1896; founded the Kultur-wissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (KBW), to serve both as a private collection and as a resource for public education, 1921; visited the United States to document the Native Americans and their mystic traditions using photographs and text; hospitalized, 1921-1924; worked at the KBW, 1924-1929; died 1929.
The Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg grew out of the personal library of Aby Warburg. In 1921, with the help of Fritz Saxl, the library became a research institution in cultural history, and a centre for lectures and publications, affiliated to the University of Hamburg. After Warburg's death in 1929, the further development of the Institute was guided by Saxl. In 1934, under the shadow of Nazism, the institute was relocated from Hamburg to London. It was installed in Thames House in 1934, moving to the Imperial Institute Buildings, South Kensington, in 1937. In 1944 it became associated with the University of London, and in 1994 it became a founding institute of the University of London's School of Advanced Study.
Alfons Barb was born in Vienna. He supported himself working as a goldsmith whilst studying at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate aged 25. He then worked as a museum director for several years until the Anschluss, when he was dismissed under the new racial laws. He moved to England with his young family in 1939 where, after time spent interned as an enemy alien and eight years working as a factory tool fitter, he eventually resumed an academic career. Barb joined the Warburg Institute in 1949 as Assistant Librarian and subsequently served as Librarian (1956-1966). He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute from 1968 until his death in 1979. He was also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society, and received the Austrian Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst in 1968.
Charles Mitchell was born 1912 and educated at Merchant Taylor's School and at St John's College, Oxford. He received his BA in 1934 and a BLitt in 1939, having simultaneously worked as an assistant at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich (1935-1939). He served at the Admiralty and in the Royal Navy during the Second World War before becoming a lecturer at the Warburg Institute. Having previously held two visiting appointments in the United States, he left London permanently in 1960 for a position at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania. After leaving Bryn Mawr in 1980, he held several short term profesorial appointments in the eastern United States before finally retiring in 1985. His scholarly interests were wide, but his chief areas of study were Renaissance art and British art of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Fritz Saxl was born in Vienna and educated in Vienna and Berlin; librarian at the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg, and after Aby Warburg's death became Director of the Library (1929-1933); oversaw the Warburg Institute's move to London in 1933 and remained Director until his death in 1948; became a naturalized British subject in 1940 and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1944.
Aby Moritz Warburg was born in Hamburg, 1866 to a wealthy banking family; instead of entering the family business, he devoted himself to the academic study of art, European civilisation and the classical tradition; studied in Bonn, Munich, and in Strasbourg, focusing on archeology and art history; worked in Florence producing studies on single works of art and their wealthy patrons; spent time on the Hopi Indians conducting an ethnological study, 1896; founded the Kultur-wissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (KBW), to serve both as a private collection and as a resource for public education, 1921; visited the United States to document the Native Americans and their mystic traditions using photographs and text; hospitalised,1921-1924; worked at the KBW, 1924-1929; died 1929.
The Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg grew out of the personal library of Aby Warburg. In 1921, with the help of Fritz Saxl, the library became a research institution in cultural history, and a centre for lectures and publications, affiliated to the University of Hamburg. After Warburg's death in 1929, the further development of the Institute was guided by Saxl. In 1934, under the shadow of Nazism, the institute was relocated from Hamburg to London. It was installed in Thames House in 1934, moving to the Imperial Institute Buildings, South Kensington, in 1937. In 1944 it became associated with the University of London, and in 1994 it became a founding institute of the University of London's School of Advanced Study.
Gertrud Bing was born in Hamburg and studied at the Universities of Munich and Hamburg. After receiving her doctorate in 1921, she became a librarian at the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg, subsequently serving as Assistant to Aby Warburg (1924-1929). She moved to London with the Warburg Institute in 1933 and became a British citizen in 1946. She was Assistant Director (1944-1954) and then Director (1955-1959) of the Institute, and subsequently an Honorary Fellow until her death in 1964.
Otto Kurz was born in Vienna, 1908 and studied Art History at the University there. He was a Research Assistant at the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg in Hamburg and the Warburg Institute in London (1933-1943), and subsequently Assistant Librarian (1943-1949) and Librarian (1949-1965) of the Institute, before becoming the Institute's Professor of the History of Classical Tradition (1966-1975). He was also a visting scholar at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem (1964) and Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University (1970-1971). He married Hilde Schüller in 1937. Died 1975.
The Silver Studio of design was opened in 1880 by Arthur Silver, with the aim of "bringing together a body of men to establish a studio which would be capable of supplying designs for the whole field of fabrics and other materials used in the decoration of the home." He had trained at Reading School of Art and as an apprentice to the freelance designer H W Batley. The Silver Studio became successful: in the early 1890s it was regularly producing more than 500 designs a year and was selling between 170-300 designs yearly, mainly to buyers of the major textile, wallpaper and carpet producer. Silver showed at the Arts and Crafts Society Exhibitions between 1889-1896 and was elected a member of the Royal Society of Arts in 1893. By the time of his early death at 43 in 1896, he had created Britain's most important independent studio, selling to leading manufacturers and stores at home, in America and in Europe. Clients included Liberty's, Turnbull and Stockdale, Sanderson and Warner and Sons Ltd, all of which used the Silver Studio's designs for their own ranges of wallpapers and textiles.
In 1901, Silver's son Reginald (known as Rex) took over direction of the Studio. He ran it until 1963, two years before his death. He kept excellent records, many of which have survived, providing good evidence of the activities of the Studio during these 62 years. The Studio's fortunes fluctuated, partly due to external conditions. In 1914, many of the staff were serving in the forces and the remaining designers were put on half salaries until trading conditions improved. When Rex was called up, the Studio closed for a year. Working hours were cut in 1921 due to the high cost of raw materials, which had a disastrous effect on the textile industry. The size of the Studio varied over the years: there were around 5 staff in 1908, 11 in 1922, and 14 in 1938. During the Second World War, production of domestic textiles and wallpapers virtually ceased and there was only one designer (Frank Price) in the studio. He was joined by another former employee, Lewis Jones, after the war. When Jones died in 1952, Price continued as the Studio's sole designer until the closure of the Studio in 1963. The Studio's most productive periods were 1891-1896 and 1924-1938. During the latter period, the studio produced over 800 designs annually. Between 1940-1962, output averaged only 175 per year.
The Studio was always able to produce work in a variety of styles at any one time. Even though it participated in the latest fashions, such as the Japanesque of the 1880s or the Moderne sunbursts and geometrics of the 1930s, it also continued to offer more traditional, often floral patterns. As a commercial studio it had to satisfy its customers, relatively few of whom were prepared to take a risk with cutting-edge designs. The Studio's output therefore tended to reflect existing trends rather than break new ground. Because the Silver Studio sold its designs to other manufacturers, its name is not well known in its own right. However, its ability to respond to changing fashions in domestic interiors contributed to its commercial success for over eighty years, and the Studio's output provides a vivid insight into changing tastes in the English home throughout this period.
The firm was established as E Atkins in 1879 by Edwin Atkins. The firm originally had factories at Church Row, Bethnal Green, London and in Birmingham. It was incorporated in 1922, with Edwin Atkins, his son Claude Cyril Atkins and George Clifton Sunley as shareholders and directors. It later changed its name to Atcraft Ltd, and moved to a factory at the Atcraft Works, Alperton, Wembley in the 1920s. The product range consited mainly of indoor and garden chairs, occasional and garden tables, hall furniture, bureaux, hammocks and camp beds, cots and playpens, prams and invalid chairs. In later years the firm concentrated almost entirely on producing nursery and garden furniture. The firm ceased trading in the 1980s.
Anthony Crossland, in his notable 1965 Woolwich speech, laid out the Government's vision for a binary system of Higher Education within the UK: i.e. universities and polytechnics, where the latter would concentrate on high-level vocational skills. He claimed that, whilst it is always sensible to build on what already exists if rapid expansion is to be achieved within limited resources, it is also important to offer an alternative channel to H.E. that is distinct from the established University system in a number of ways:
Distinct in traditions that have been inherited from its precursors in the non-university sector
Distinct in its adaptability and responsiveness to social change
Distinct organisationally
Distinct in the kind of students that it attracts
The City of London Polytechnic was formed in 1970 from an amalgamation of the City of London College, the Sir John Cass College and the Navigation College at Tower Hill and it was one of the first of the London-based polytechnics to be so designated. It was initially organised into 4 Schools:
The Sir John Cass School of Science and Technology
The Sir John Cass School of Art
The School of Navigation
The School of Business Studies
In 1972 it became one of the first institutions in the country approved to run a modular degree. In 1977 it took responsibility for the running of the Fawcett Library (subsequently renamed the Women's Library), the oldest established women's library in the UK. It merged with the London College of Furniture in 1990. In 1992 the Polytechnic was granted university status - and, with that, its own degree-awarding powers - by the Further and Higher Education Act of that year and was renamed London Guildhall University.
Born 1869; District Commissioner, Ikom, Eastern Province, Nigeria; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1909-1918; died, 1917.
Born 1874; served as British Resident to the Sultan of Zanzibar, 1923-1929; Governor of Trinidad and Tobago, 1930-1936; died 1961.
Born, 1848; educated: Tipperary Grammar School; Trinity College, Dublin; Indian Civil Service, 1871-1895; Collector and Magistrate at various times of the districts of Saharanpur, Gorakhpur, Mirzapur in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh; wrote prolifically on India, particularly on Ethnology, Anthropology and Folklore; died, 1923.
Thomas Crawford Johnston was a scholar working in San Francisco, USA. He was an honorary member of the Geographical Society of California.
Alfred Lionel Lewis was a chartered accountant; joined the Anthropological Society of London (ASL), 1866; specialised in the study of stone monuments; member of the Council of the ASL, 1869; member of the Association, 1869; elected to the Association's General Committee; member of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI)
on its formation, 1871; Honorary Secretary of the London Anthropological Society, 1873-1875; rejoined the RAI, 1875; RAI Council member, 1976; RAI treasurer, 1886-1903; RAI Vice President, 1905-1908; died 1920.
Born, 1853; educated, City of London School; worked for a railway company, 1869; moved to Fulham district board of works; worked for the Metropolitan Board of Works (later the London County Council), 1873-1914; Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Statistical Society, the Anthropological Institute, and other learned societies; founder member (1878) and sometime Secretary and President of the Folk-Lore Society; died, 1916.
Francis J Hambly was a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1943-[1946], he died either in 1945 or 1946.
Born, 1867; educated in engineering at Mason Science College; served as Transport Superintendent at the coast of Mombasa for the Imperial British East Africa Company, 1890-1893; served the Foreign Service in Kenya, 1894-1921; undertook a general tour of the whole of the Central African Lake Region, 1895-1896; established a British administration in Mumias, 1895; first European to circumambulate Mt Elgon, 1896; oversaw a number of punitive expeditions, 1894-1908; Provincial Commissioner of Kavirondo Region (later called Nyanza Province) and sub-commissioner of Ukamba Province (stationed in Nairobi), c1909; retired from the Foreign Service, 1921; died 1947.
Educated, Aberdeen; Medical Officer, Witwatersrand Native Labour Association, Ltd., Johannesburg; Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1911-1917; died, 1917.
Born in Britstown, Cape Colony, 1906; educated: South African Collegiate High School at Cape Town; MA in English and psychology at the University of Cape Town, 1926; postgraduate student in psychology at University College, London, 1930; Ratan Tata research studentship at the London School of Economics, 1930; Fellow of the International African Institute, 1934-1938; carried out fieldwork among the Tallensi of the northern territories of the Gold Coast, 1933-1934; temporary lectureship at the London School of Economics, 1938-1939; research lectureship, Oxford, 1939-1940; carried out research in Nigeria under a project organized by Margery Perham, 1941-1942; remained in west Africa to carry out intelligence work; head of the sociological department in the West African Institute, Accra, 1944; directed the Asante social survey, 1945-1946; returned to Britain, 1946; reader in social anthropology, Oxford; William Wyse chair at Cambridge, 1950-1973; died, 1983.
Publications: The Dynamics of Clanship among the Tallensi(1945)
The Web of Kinship among the Tallensi (1949)
Kinship and the Social Order (1969)
Oedipus and Job in West African Religion (1959),
Religion, Morality and the Person (1987)
Edward E Long was a member of The Savage Club, Adelphi Terrace, London and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Born, 1752; educated, University of Jena and the University of Gottingen; his MD thesis 'De generis humani varietate nativa' (On the Natural Varieties of Mankind), 1776, is considered influential in the development of subsequent concepts of 'human races'; Extraordinary Professor of Medicine in Göttingen, 1776; Ordinary Professor, 1778; died, 1840.
Born, 1778; educated: Eton College; Dr Thomson's school in Kensington; Pembroke College, Cambridge; University of Göttingen, 1798-1801. Geological and mineralogical exploration in Cornwall, Ireland, and Scotland, 1801; Excursions with both artistic and scientific aims in France, Switzerland, and Italy, 1802 and again in 1816; organised the production of a geological map of England and Wales, 1820; founder member and president of the Geological Society of London, 1807-1813, 1818-1820 and 1833-1835; co-ordinating the publication of a geological map of the Indian subcontinent; President of the Royal Geographical Society, 1839 and 1840; died, 1855.
Publications: A Critical Examination of the First Principles of Geology, 1819.