Partnership with the Victoria & Albert Museum

In 2004 the Manuscripts & Archives Collection and the Drawings Collection will be moving to the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington, London. Preparations are currently underway for this move and the Collection will be closed for a period of time during the move. It will, however, remain open for the foreseeable future.

NB: The Drawings Collection is currently open by appointment to users on Mondays only, due to preparations for the move. However, microfilm copies of many of the drawings are available to view in the RIBA Library.

Acquisitions

Recent accessions to the Collection have included a substantial collection of the papers of Dame Jane Drew (1911-1996) and Edwin Maxwell Fry (1899-1987). This archive includes the texts of lectures and articles by Fry and Drew, drafts for proposed autobiographies and correspondence files. We hope to list the archive and make it available for consultation during 2001.

An archive consisting largely of offprints and cuttings collected together by Peter Moro (1911-1998) has also been received recently as part of a mixed media deposit including photographs and drawings. Other recent accessions include Maya Hambly's research papers on drawing instruments and architectural drawings, 1982-1994; Erith & Terry job correspondence, 1973-1985; and Roderick Gradidge job correspondence, 1960-1995.

Our substantial collection of Sir Edwin Lutyens' correspondence has recently been added to with a particularly interesting letter by Sir Edwin Lutyens to Lady Sackville, dated 22 November 1924. According to Christopher Hussey’s biography of Lutyens, none of the correspondence between Lutyens and Lady Sackville had survived, which makes this letter extremely unique. Its content is largely architectural, including a series of sketches showing basic stages in the design of a house and a sketch of Lutyens’ Memorial to the Missing at Arras, France for the Imperial War Graves Commission.

Page of a letter by Sir Edwin Lutyens to Lady Sackville, 22 November 1924.

Staff

Eleanor Gawne is now Curator of Manuscripts & Archives Collection, as Jane Collings has left the RIBA to take up a new post. Eleanor's previous post was Assistant Curator, RIBA Drawings Collection.