500,000 Thank yous

Today HLF are celebrating their 500,000th National Lottery grant.  We'd  like to thank the National Lottery players who have helped to support half a million projects including our current HLF Collecting Cultures project. 

Since our last update a lot has happened at Seven Stories thanks to the HLF funding; we've opened new exhibitions, have been documenting our 2015 arrivals and have made some really exciting acquisitions into the collections.  So, in the spirit of celebration we want to share with you our 2016 Collecting Cultures achievements. 

Acquisitions 

Since January we have received seven acquisitions into the collection. These include 

Wombles artwork 

Artwork from two Wombles illustrators are now represented in our Collection and complement our existing Elisabeth Beresford Collection. 

We now hold a full suite of Oliver Chadwick's original pen and ink artwork for the 1970 title 'The Wandering Wombles'.  What makes this collection so fascinating are the Wombles themselves, they look nothing like the Wombles you may be imagining but seem more bear-like. 

Selection of artwork by Oliver Chadwick for Elisabeth Beresford's book 'The Wondering Wombles.' Photograph © Seven Stories – The National Centre for Children’s Books

The Wombles many people will be familiar with, those based on the design of the Ivor Wood television puppets, can be seen in our second acquisition. These are two pieces of final artwork by Barry Leith for the 1975 reissued edition of 'The Wombles'.  

'The Wombles' books had three illustrators Oliver Chadwick, Barry Leith (who also illustrated 'The Wombles at Work') and Margaret Gordon (who illustrated the other four).  

Selection of artwork by Barry Leith for the 1975 reissue of Elisabeth Beresford's book 'The Wombles.' Photograph © Seven Stories – The National Centre for Children’s Books

Kathleen Lines papers

Back in May we received Kathleen Lines papers which includes material relating to her editorial work, anthologies and talks.  Kathleen Lines was a librarian, critic and anthologist who is well known for her selection of classic fairy tales in Lavender's Blue.   Lines' papers are very well situated in our Collections at Seven Stories and help to support our current holdings. In 2008 we received Lines' book collection and we also hold a full suite of Harold Jones' artwork for Lavender's Blue (some of which you can see in our Rhyme Around the World exhibition).  

Ruth Gervis accrual

To build upon our existing holdings for Ruth Gervis we have acquired a box of original artwork, two notebooks and reviews. Already in our Collection is material associated with the book 'Ballet Shoes', illustrated by Ruth Gervis and written by her sister, Noel Streatfeild. We're very excited to start documenting the accrual!

Wes Magee

Wes Magee has published more than 100 books for young readers – fiction, poetry, plays, picture books, and anthologies - and he is now another great name represented in our Collections. We recently acquired eight boxes of material relating to his work and these are currently being processed by our Conservator before we begin documentation. 

Aidan Chambers 

The biggest acquisition of 2016, and probably in Seven Stories history is that of the Aidan Chambers Collections.  A total of 129 boxes were delivered to our store.  We're very excited about this collection; with its representation of Aidan's work, Thimble Press and Signal it offers a fantastic insight into Children's Literature and will no doubt be a rich resource for researchers.  

Selection of shelving containing the Aidan Chambers collection as it arrived earlier this year.  Photograph © Seven Stories – The National Centre for Children’s Books.

Those of you who are counting may have noticed that not all eight acquisitions have been described here - we have a few exciting surprises up our sleeve so keep your eyes open!

Cataloguing
                   
Michael Morpurgo
The catalogue may not be available online yet but so far we have catalogued material relating to

• 39 Published titles
• 10 Picture books
• 24 different screenplays and adaptations
• and 277 notebooks                                                                                                                   

Beverley Naidoo

The original delivery and later accrual of Naidoo's collection is now fully repackaged and fully catalogued - it is awaiting a few minor adjustments before you can find it online.

Selection of material from the Beverley Naidoo Collection Photograph © Damien Wooton for Seven Stories – The National Centre for Children’s Books.

Exhibitions

The Michael Morpurgo Collection arrived at Seven Stories in 2015 and by July 2016 we opened the doors to our spectacular Michael Morpurgo: A Lifetime of Stories exhibition which you can see at our Visitor Centre. 

Michael Morpurgo at the opening of his exhibition Michael Morpurgo: A Lifetime of Stories. Photograph ©  Seven Stories – The National Centre for Children’s Books.

Outreach

We don't like our Collections to sit on shelves for too long so some of our Collecting Cultures acquisitions have already been used in educational white glove sessions.  Most notably was Shotton Hall Academy's Beverley Naidoo project in 2015 which worked so well that we're currently planning a similar event using the same material.

Over the year we have shown Wombles artwork, 'Azzi in Between' artwork and Michael Morpurgo and Beverley Naidoo papers to illustration students, budding child writers, academics and researchers. 

Volunteers

Three Seven Stories volunteers hard at work in our store. Photograph © Damien Wooton for Seven Stories – The National Centre for Children’s Books.

At the beginning of 2016 we had five volunteers working on our Collecting Cultures projects - they numbered documents, listed and helped to re-house collections into purpose-made folders. Some of the projects they worked on included the Michael Morpurgo, Beverley Naidoo, Clive King, Gillian Cross and Elisabeth Beresford collections.  Our volunteer Jonathan wrote us a blog post about his experience listing the Clive King papers. 

Currently we have a work placement student from Newcastle University who is helping to sort the Elisabeth Beresford Wombles material as part of her course. 


It has been a busy year for our Collections and Exhibitions team and we look forward to updating you all on our future achievements.  Keep your eyes and ears open for more exciting acquisition announcements!


If you have any questions please email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk or phone: 0191 495 2707 or comment on this blog.

The Clive King Collection

As part of our HLF Collecting Cultures project we recruited a team of  volunteers to help us list, repackage and number our new acquisitions.  One of these new and very exciting acquisitions which we haven't yet mentioned on the blog is our Clive King Collection.  King's collection came to us in 2015 and our hard working volunteer Jonathan Oscher has been creating detailed box lists of what we have. Here is  Jonathan's insight and overview of the collection so far: 

Clive King, author of the immortal Stig of the Dump, has left a collection of manuscripts, letters and cuttings to Seven Stories.  To classify and list the contents of all these boxes has been a long, though very absorbing, task with each box providing a new historical insights.  In fact the sheer volume of correspondence means that the archive provides a value over and above that of simply being a record of Clive King’s long literary career – impressive thought that is. 

First Edition of Clive King's Stig of the Dump with illustration by Edward Ardizzone. Photography © Seven Stories - The National Centre for Children's Books

It allows the reader or researcher a fascinating glimpse into the ebbs and flows of the literary world in the sixties, seventies and eighties.   Hence there are letters from legendary figures in or around the industry such as Lawrence Pollinger, Biddy Baxter and Kaye Webb.  There are the royalty and advance figures.  Even the procession of old letterheads and typefaces give a good history lesson.

 Selection of letters from Editors in the Clive King Collection. Photography © Seven Stories - The National Centre for Children's Books

One thing that becomes abundantly clear from a long reading of the contents of the archive is just how incredibly demanding publishers are (and seemingly have always been) with regard to the contents – particularly the factual contents – of children’s books.  In 1960 the American publishers Harper & Bros actually rejected Stig of the Dump because of the final chapter set on Midsummer’s night in which Barney and his sister Lou are transported back to Stig’s own time. Harper & Bros, clearly uncomfortable with the direct reference to time travel stated, in a letter, that here the story ‘grew weak, confused and unclear’.  That same chapter, however, is now an integral part of the book’s charm and appeal.

On the same topic, Kaye Webb – the legendary publishing brain behind the Puffin children’s label – writes to Clive King in 1965:

I really don’t think, Clive, that you, as a creative author, quite appreciate the amount of fussing over detail which has to be done with a child’s book.  ...  For instance an absolutely crackingly good book called THE CHILDREN was rejected out of hand in Australia because the author put a lyre bird in the wrong part of Australia and all the people who recommend children’s books ... took it off their lists because of this.

In December 1974, by the same token, Clive King received a letter from Patrick Hardy of Kestrel Books with no fewer than twenty suggestions for change in the book he had submitted for publication, Me and My Millions.   Point two of the twenty suggestions reads a little bizarrely : ‘I am a little unhappy about the transvestite element in the angels.’

Selection of Clive King's notebooks. Photography © Seven Stories - The National Centre for Children's Books

What makes the Clive King collection such a fascinating insight into the travails of being a children’s author is its warts-and-all quality, the feeling that the author has not carefully selected for the archive only the correspondence that is pleasing and flattering to himself.   This cannot help but add historical interest to the collection.  We become acquainted with the disappointments of authorship as well as the triumphs.

- Jonathan Oscher,
Seven Stories volunteer

Look out for further snippets of the Clive King Collection in later blog posts. 

If you'd like to find out more about the Seven Stories Collection, then 

email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk or phone: 0191 495 2707 or comment on this blog.

Seven Stories was able to support the acquisition of the Clive King collection through support from a Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Collecting Cultures’ grant. This has been awarded to Seven Stories in recognition of the museum’s national role in telling a comprehensive story of modern British children’s literature. For more information on our HLF Collecting Cultures project see:  http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/news/latestnews/hlf.

Beverley Naidoo Collection

Back in February something quite exciting happened at the Seven Stories archive. Late one evening, after a long drive, dozens upon dozens of crates and boxes found their way into our archive from Beverley Naidoo’s house. Beverley wrote about the experience in her blog, where you can see some of the collection in its natural habitat and can catch a glimpse of our Archivist, Kris, and Collections and Exhibitions Director, Sarah, preparing the files for their long journey to Gateshead. 

Since that day in February I have been sorting, re-packaging and cataloguing everything that Beverley gave us. The collection spans Beverley’s career from her academic work, to her first and most recent novels. Luckily for me, Beverley’s collection has been quite easy to catalogue; I can confirm that she is quite an organised author. Beverley labelled up a lot of her files in detail so I knew exactly where to start and how to order everything. All of the papers have been re-housed into archive boxes and I’ll be replacing her colourful folders  with acid-free (but cutting out and keeping all of her helpful labels).

Repackaging in progress; some of Beverley's originals files for The Other Side of Truth. 

Beverley’s collection gives a perfect snapshot into her writing process but also gives an insight into the impact of her novels.  Letters sent to Beverley from children (and adults) from all over the world span from the late eighties to 2014 and fill approximately six of our archive boxes;  these letters are fascinating, they offer an overview of attitudes to race and diversity over three decades and show just how moving and thought provoking Beverley’s novels are. 

The whole team at Seven Stories have been enthusiastic about Beverley’s collection and before I’d even managed to get everything unpacked and into archive boxes our education team were looking for original material to use in a school project with Shotton Hall Academy.  A lucky Year 8 Drama class developed a play about Beverley’s Journey to Jo’burg, and looking at the original drafts, illustration and research materials became part of their writing process. Our Learning Manager, Debbie, and I took a couple of boxes of Beverley's Journey to Jo’burg material to Shotten Hall and let the students look at and discuss the material. The students also had a chance to talk to Dave Temple who, as a local miner, was involved in anti-apartheid by supporting South African miners. It was great to see the students and Dave so engaged with the archive,  it created some great discussion points about the reality of the apartheid and human rights. I was even asked questions about archive conservation!

The big performance took place at the beginning of June and both Seven Stories and Shotton Hall were host to a very special guest.

Kris and I with Beverley and her collection in our store.

It seemed fitting that Beverley should visit our Collection team and see her archive in situ before heading to Durham to watch the play it inspired.  We spent the morning chatting to Beverley, her husband Nandha, and IBBY president for Palestine Jehan Helou, it was great to show them some material from other collections. They discovered familiar faces in photographs from the Elizabeth Laird collection and I think we managed to convince them that Beverley’s archive is in good company at Seven Stories.

Hopefully Beverley’s will be a collection that continues to grow. We see huge opportunities to use it in educational programmes and hopefully it will generate a lot of research interest. It has certainly sparked many discussions between our staff and volunteers. The whole experience has been a wonderful example of how our archive collections are currently expanding and how our collections can be used to inspire and educate.

The acquisition of Beverley's archive is part of our 'Collecting Cultures' programme and, over the coming months there will be news of other exciting additions to the Seven Stories Collections. 

If you'd like to find out more about the Seven Stories Collection, then 

email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk or phone: 0191 495 2707 or comment on this blog.

Seven Stories was able to support the acquisition of the Beverley Naidoo collection through support from a Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Collecting Cultures’ grant. This has been awarded to Seven Stories in recognition of the museum’s national role in telling a comprehensive story of modern British children’s literature. For more information on our HLF Collecting Cultures project see:  http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/news/latestnews/hlf.

Collecting Cultures update

Avid readers of the Seven Stories Collections Blog may have noticed that so far this year little mention has been made of any new acquisitions to our Collection. This is by no means a reflection of our collecting activity this year. On the contrary, we’re very happy to say that we’ve been making and planning some very exciting new acquisitions under the first part of our HLF Collecting Cultures project.

Photograph by Damian Wootten for Seven Stories, National Centre for Children's Books

Some of you may be aware that towards the end of last year we were delighted to announce that Seven Stories had been awarded a grant of £341,500 as part of the Heritage Lottery Fund Collecting Cultures programme – designed to enable a range of museums across the country to enhance their collections through the purchase of new material. This substantial grant will help us to build on our already internationally significant Collection of archives and books (you can read our original announcement here: http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/news/latestnews/hlf).

Photograph by Damian Wootten for Seven Stories, National Centre for Children's Books

In the 1990s, when Seven Stories (then known as the Centre for the Children’s Book) began collecting the archives of children’s authors and illustrators, our mission was simple – to protect Britain’s heritage of children’s books for this and future generations. At this time, manuscripts and illustrations of some of Britain’s most influential authors and illustrators were being sold overseas – dispersed among various institutions and private collections. Nowhere was there a place where the rich history of British children’s books could be celebrated, shared and explored. To rectify this, Seven Stories co-founders Elizabeth Hammill and Mary Briggs, with the help of many authors, illustrators, publishers, teachers and librarians, set out to establish an archive of British children’s literature.

Since then the Collection at Seven Stories has grown immensely and now represents one of the richest resources for the study of children’s literature in the world. The archive represents the work of over 180 authors, illustrators, editors, and publishers. Our book collection includes over 35,000 volumes, including numerous rare and unique titles.

Photograph by Damian Wootten for Seven Stories, National Centre for Children's Books

As the Seven Stories Collection has grown we have found ourselves faced with questions of how to ensure our Collection tells fully the story of British children’s literature. How should we go about building a Collection that represents all of the different elements and facets of such a diverse topic as writing for children? How can we try to ensure that the work of the many writers, illustrators, publishers and editors who have shaped childhood reading habits can be celebrated and shared? How do we make sure that the experiences of child readers over almost a century can be explored and understood?

Our generous Collecting Cultures grant offers us the very unique opportunity to strategically address these questions, building and strengthening our already world-class Collection, enhancing its scope and breadth, and acquiring material by yet more world class illustrators and writers. Throughout the project we will develop three specific areas in our Collection: poetry, picture books and children’s fiction from 1930 – 2000. We will also collect work which reflects social and cultural diversity.

Photograph by Damian Wootten for Seven Stories, National Centre for Children's Books

So far the Collecting Cultures project has brought some fantastic new collections to the Seven Stories archive and we have many very exciting acquisitions on the horizon. We’ll be announcing these over the coming months so keep an eye on the Collections blog for the latest news.