Month 3 (September 2011)
This month I have been mostly... Looking at the pictures
As well as carrying on with cataloguing, I’ve been thinking about how we can use the Butler Collection for educational and outreach activities. As well as making contact with local schools, I’ve been designing some resources to use in workshops when school groups visit the Library, or which I can take out to schools. The photographic collection has loads of potential for inspiring creativity, and I’ve been using some of Butler's extraordinary snapshots to develop a creative writing activity that's suitable for all ages (adults included!).
Goat stealing horse's food, Athens, 1895
I’ve also spent a few days hunting round St John’s for Samuel Butler’s paintings, as the College’s picture collection was being photographed. Difficulty in finding a number of the pictures we knew we had was finally resolved with the discovery that Butler had a habit of putting his pictures in double-sided frames – which means one is always hidden against the wall! Still, it's nice to think how many of his paintings are on permanent display in rooms around St John's, and I'm hoping that I'll have enough time within the project to create an online gallery of at least some of Butler's pictures, so that anyone can see them just by visiting the website. [You can now access the online gallery here.]
Wassen, 1901, a watercolour by Samuel Butler