Special Collection (re-do): Collections

Archives of The Sheffield School of Art

Established in 1843 as the Government School of Design, the School changed names and locations several times until becoming part of Sheffield Polytechnic and subsequently Sheffield Hallam University. The School is now known as the Sheffield Institute of Arts.

The archive includes annual reports, prospectuses, student records, correspondence, photographs and examples of student work, as well as books, cuttings etc. on former students; for example, C. S. Jagger, Frederick Varley, Arthur Lismer, Omar Ramsden, Godfrey Sykes, John Hoyland and George Fullard.

The Festival of Britain

In 1947 King George VI's Government decided that the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851 should be marked by national displays in the Arts, Architecture, Science, Technology, and Industrial Design.

The 1951 Festival of Britain was a showcase of British contributions to art, design and industry and a chance to celebrate and raise the nation's spirits after the austerity of the war years.

In the 1970s we acquired a box of Festival items. These included press releases, letters, and some official guides. Building on this, the library began to acquire a wider range of Festival literature and commemorative ephemera - such as posters, postcards, teapots, toys, glassware, and medals. The collection now comprises about 2000 items covering not only the main South Bank exhibition but also numerous regional events as well.

2021 marks the 70th anniversary of the Exhibition.

You can view more images of the Festival of Britain and a selection of items from our collection on SHIMMER.

The Sheffield School of Art Library

This collection is the remainder of the library salvaged from the School of Art building, then on Arundel Street when it was struck by an incendiary bomb in the Sheffield blitz of December 1940.

It represents the holdings of a typical art college library of that time.

Highlights of the collection include catalogues from the Great Exhibition of 1851 where the school had won a number of prizes, a number of volumes of engravings by Piranesi including Vedute di Roma and Carceri d'invenzione. A 1766 edition of George Stubbs' The Anatomy of the Horse, 138 plates from Eadweard Muybridge's Animal Locomotion published by the University of Pennsylvania, 1887. Sir William Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum and The History of St. Paul's Cathedral as well as publications by Palladio and Robert Adam.

The oldest item in the collection is part of a Latin Dictionary, dating back to 1561 -  Dictionarium latinae lingust. Vol.3. (1561) by lexicographer Ambrogio Calepino, an Italian Augustinian monk.

David Morgan Rees Collection

David Morgan Rees worked in Industry before he became an academic lecturing in PR Studies. As a photographer and freelance writer, he concentrates on rural subjects. He has contributed to BBC Radio and publications such as 'Yorkshire Life', 'The Dalesman' and 'Yorkshire Journal'.

Yorkshire crafts and craftspeople

This collection of photographs of Yorkshire craftsmen and women were taken during the 70s to create a visual record of traditional skills before they were forgotten.

It comprises 50 framed photographs as well as negatives, contact prints, information boards and leaflets about the archive. A selection of David's photographs has been exhibited under the title: 'Privileged people' in several venues across Yorkshire.

Some of the photographs from this series are on permanent display in the Quiet Study Area on Level 4 of the Adsetts Library.

More information about David and this collection can be found on the Yorkshire crafts and craftspeople website.

In the Palm of a Dale

This is a collection of photographs and negatives from David’s book and subsequent exhibition - In the Palm of a Dale: A Portrait in Words and Pictures of a Yorkshire Dales Village.

George Fullard

George Fullard was born in Darnall, Sheffield in 1923. As a teenager he enrolled at the Sheffield School of Art where he studied until he was eighteen. He then enlisted in the army and was seriously wounded fighting in Italy. He never fully recovered his health and died in 1973, just as he was gaining a substantial reputation as an artist.

Before leaving the School, he completed a portfolio of drawings which were inspired by the scenes around him in the aftermath of the Sheffield Blitz of December 1940. The work consists of a series of 17 completed drawings and a large sketchbook. This was part of his application for a place at the Royal College of Art in London, which he took up after the war. The value of the drawings as a precursor of Fullard's later work is clear and the form of much of his sculptures can be traced back to these youthful sketches.

You can access more images of Fullard's work in Sheffield City Centre by selecting this link.

Undermined?: Britain and the miners' strike

Photographs by Martin Jenkinson, John Harris and John Sturrock (1994). 43 photographs, catalogues and captions originally forming an exhibition shown at The Crucible and then Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield.

Readerships and literary cultures 1900 - 1950

Sheffield Hallam University has established a collection of books which reflects the wide range of literary tastes during the period 1900-1950. The collection consists of over 1200 novels, most in early editions, by 240 different authors. They are rarely preserved systematically elsewhere: university libraries have never collected this type of fiction, while public libraries disposed of such books once they fell out of fashion.

More information about the collection can be found on the Middlebrow Network website.

The collection can be found on level 2 of the Adsetts Library. You can search the collection through the library catalogue.

Penguin Specials

The collection can be found on level 2 of the Adsetts Library. You can search the collection through the library catalogue.