COLL CC

COLL CC

Collections Committee

Series

Before 1966 the College's collections had not been looked at as a whole. There was a College Librarian, who by tradition was either a retired member of the teaching staff or the Vice-Provost, and Noel Blakiston, an OE who worked at the Public Records Office, had been cataloguing the archives in his spare time. Most queries about pictures seem to have ended up with the Provost, advised by another OE, Geoffrey Agnew. Provost Caccia decided that the collections needed to be better organised. The first step was the appointment in 1966 of Patrick Strong, an OE archivist, as Keeper of the College Collections. In 1967 a Collections Committee was set up, consisting mainly of outside advisers. A period of intense activity saw the restoration of College Library and the formation of the Brewhouse Gallery and in 1969 Patrick Devlin (PBD) joined the staff as a caretaker. It became apparent that there was too much work for one man and in 1972 Jeremy Potter was appointed as Assistant Librarian for three years, allowing Patrick Strong to devote more time to the archives. Potter was succeeded in 1976 by Paul Quarrie (PRQ). In 1979 Sub-committees of the main Collections Committee, one dealing with archives and the Library and the other with the rest of the collections, were set up, Paul Quarrie was appointed Librarian though responsible to Patrick Strong (PLS), who remained Keeper, and Patrick Devlin, who under Agnew's guidance had done almost all the work on the pictures and the new Gallery, was renamed Assistant Keeper of the Pictures. In 1983 PRQ became Keeper of the College Collections and PLS could devote his entire time to the archives, although he also took over from PRQ as Clerk to the Library and Archives Sub-Committee, as PRQ now became Clerk to the main Collections Committee. PLS retired in 1986 and after a year Penelope Hatfield (PCH) was appointed College Archivist. PBD retired in 1984 and Dr Louisa Connor was appointed part-time Keeper of Prints and Drawings. In 1987 the two Sub-Committees were abolished and all business came before the main Committee, on which distinguished outsiders continued to serve although with far less day to day input (particularly on the picture side) than formerly. PRQ left in 1994 and was succeeded as College Librarian by Michael Meredith, a master who had previously been School Librarian. The co-ordinating and budgetary functions of the Keeper of the College Collections were taken over by the Vice-Provost and Linda Fowler, previously PRQ's secretary, became Collections Administrator. The opportunity was taken to unite the special collections (mainly 19th and 20th century) that had been in School Library with the College Library holdings, and extensive building works provided a new home for these collections in Lupton's Tower and new offices for the staff on the upper floors of Penzance. In 1997 Philippa Grimstone joined the staff as Assistant Librarian.

1974 -