ARCHIVES

by Catherine Smith (Oxford)

Carved in stone in his office: Non Dormit Qui Custodit’ - ‘He who looks after things doesn’t sleep.’ He captures and catalogues the paper-trail that writers leave; from Medieval manuscripts to recent emails.

This place was hi-tech in 1615; now the building’s being redeveloped; technology’s leaping forward. So much unpublished, virgin material; waiting for eager researchers to locate the missing part of the jigsaw puzzle.

Winifred Gill, model to Roger Fry, Secretary to the Omega Workshop, and artist; here‘s one of her little boxes. It opens out, through painted lips, to show grinning devils clinging to the epiglottis.

In cardboard boxes, letters sent by Samuel Palmer; My dear Redgrave, I have just forwarded the proofs of my etchings…. Illustrated letters from John Betjemen; a Christmas card; a faded telegram.

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What Catherine Smith says about ARCHIVES:

Inspired by a visit to the Head of Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library