written by Nancy Fulford, Project Archivist.
We are really excited to welcome the archive, library and associated architect’s collections of the Landscape Institute at MERL. Earlier this year the Institute decided that we would be the new home for these collections which have largely been in storage and inaccessible since 2008.
The Landscape Institute Archive arriving at our Store
The Landscape Institute was founded in 1929 with a formal library established in 1967 and archive collections in the 1990s. The archive collections include architectural drawings, photographs, slides, project files, notebooks and scrapbooks and include the drawings and personal realia (such as drawing equipment) of founder member of the Institute and landscape architect Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe. The library contains over 15,000 books, journals and pamphlets which we will be starting to catalogue and make accessible over the coming months alongside archive cataloguing. The archive boxes are on the shelves and we’re making our way through the 75+ crates of books before moving on to the drawings.
These collections are an invaluable resource for researchers, landscape architects, picture researchers and those with an interest in landscape design, gardens and gardening. In our redevelopment we’re hoping to be able to show off the richness of our Archive collections, so look out for regular updates on the MERL blog which will include current research, cataloguing updates and highlights from the collections.
Nancy, I’m sorry that I missed this post of yours because, like Claire’s more recent one on the Institute’s library, it is so interesting and positive. Great pictures! Shows the scale of the task too. Even with the best will in the world, the Landscape Institute was never going to buy a fork lift truck!
Thanks Penny, we’re enjoying getting to know the collections now that they are all unpacked. Our next-door-neighbours at the store very kindly offered their forklift truck as we don’t have one either. Gym membership isn’t required when you’ve got all this to move onto shelves!