| Description | The papers of the Liverpool School of Art - also known as the City School of Art, the Liverpool College of Art, the College of Art and Crafts, the Regional College of Art for Liverpool, and originally the Mechanics' Arts School - contains the records of one of LJMU's oldest historic colleges. The collection includes: administrative papers of the School; records of the Principal's Office including the papers of Henry P Huggill and William L Stevenson OBE; records on the governance of the School; buildings and estates papers including building plans for the School of Art buildings; Student Records such as student registers, examination records, awards and degrees, individual student papers, student work and artwork, records of degree shows and dress parades, photographs of students, and publications produced by students; Staff Records; Teaching and Reference Materials; the papers of the adjoining Liverpool County Secondary School of Art; and Ephemera.
Significant records include:
LJMUH/SA/2/2 The papers of Henry P Huggill, Principal of the Liverpool School of Art
LJMUH/SA/2/3 The papers of William L Stevenson OBE, Principal of the Liverpool School of Art
LJMUH/SA/4/1 Building plans for the School of Art.
LJMUH/SA/5/3 The Student Personal Papers of alumni from the School, including Harcourt M Doyle, Laurence Henderson Bradshaw, Joan Hollingworth, Shirley Hughes, Celia Mortimer, Alan Swerdlow, and more.
LJMUH/SA/5/4/1 The Comet student magazine 1910-1913
LJMUH/SA/5/4/2 Maze student magazine 1951-1953
LJMUH/SA/5/5 Student work and works of art. Copyright holders have yet to be identified for most of this artwork.
LJMUH/SA/5/6 Showcases, exhibitions, and competitions featuring student artwork including the annual Degree Shows and Dress Parades and photographs of these.
LJMUH/SA/5/7 Photographs of students at the School of Art, c.1900-1970. |
| AdminHistory | The Liverpool School of Art evolved from the earliest iteration of LJMU history, the Mechanics' and Apprentices' Library which was established in 1823. This led to the establishment of a mechanics' institution in 1825, the Mechanics' School of Arts as it was originally known. It was the earliest English School of Art outside of London. At that time, the only real instruction in drawing was a Ship Drafting class, as most of the instruction was concerned with the sciences. By 1828 however, this branched off into a wider variety of classes offered such as landscape and life drawing. In 1832, the school was renamed the Liverpool Mechanics' Institution and the School of Art became a department of the Liverpool Institute. From this split onwards, women were permitted visit the Art library and to pay 1 shilling to attend any lecture, but were not yet permitted to attend classes of instruction until the 1850s, which remained mostly single sex Ladies' classes. Emma Gammage was the only female student in 1857, and became an Art Pupil Teacher in 1858.
In 1837 the School of Art moved to its new Mount Street premises, its first permanent home after having previously occupied an old chapel on Sir Thomas Street, a school room on Parker Street, and a room above the Union News Room at the corner of Duke Street and Slater Street. In 1840 the Collegiate Institution was established in competition and became the North Liverpool School of Art. This, combined with the general depression in trade, brought about a difficult financial period. Early Art tutors included Ephraim Pugh; John Litherland Williamson; William J Bishop; William Gawin Herdman; and John Wright Oakes.
Richard Norbury was the Head of School from 1843-1855. Within the first three weeks of Norbury's residence in post, Oakes had handed in his resignation on grounds of 'alleged incompetency of his principal,' which sparked a series of protests from students in favour of Mr Oakes, leading to the expulsion of the student John Denton. From 1855 onwards, the Principals of the Liverpool School of Art were: John Finnie (1855-1896); Fred Burridge (1896-1910); George Marples (1910-1930); Henry P Huggill (1930-1951); William Lennie Stevenson (1951-1959); and Walter J Norman (1960-1976). Norman was also the Assistant Rector to Gerald Bulmer at the Liverpool Polytechnic 1970-1976. For a more detailed administrative history of Henry P Huggill and William L Stevenson, see the top-level record for their papers within this collection: LJMUH/SA/2/2 and LJMUH/SA/2/3.
In 1883 a new building was erected at Mount Street next to the Liverpool Institute to be filled with the School of Art students, numbering 393 for that year. In 1905 the Liverpool School of Art was amalgamated with the Applied Art Section allied to the Chair of Architecture at Liverpool University to form a single City School of Art not connected to the Liverpool Institute. Rebel students from the University of Liverpool formed an independent Art School in Sandon Terrace, which eventually moved to the Old Bluecoat School and grew into the Sandon Studios Society. In 1910 a new extension with a main entrance at Hope Street was completed and the School of Art moved into this as its new premises, with students numbering 653 that year.
In 1913, a Students' Union was formed with permission from Principal George Marples out of the earlier Students' Guild. One of the issues the Union campaigned for was a Joint Sex (gender neutral) Common Room for 'promoting social intercourse... for meals in common, for meetings and debates [and] for music,' as well as for life classes in common. This was not granted until under Henry P Huggill in 1939 within the first few months of World War Two, as recollected by former student and later tutor Nancy Price who commented that once the male students had been given permission to share the Ladies' Common Room, 'they came in and just stood there, and didn't know what to do!' (C. Morris, 1985. 'The History of the Liverpool Regional College of Art 1825-1970,' Liverpool Polytechnic). The School of Art experienced a serious decline in students during both World Wars, with numbers dropping below 200 in 1918 during the last year of the First World War.
During Huggill's time as Principal, he established several experimental courses such as 'Window Display and Salesmanship for the Tailoring Trades,' 'Tailor's Garment Cutting,' and 'Fashion Drawing.' In 1938 Hairdressing courses were also transferred to the School from the City Technical College, although these were transferred away again to the City Technical College for Women in 1956. In 1934, the School had record-breaking numbers of over 1,000 for the first time, in part due to Huggill's policy of accepting as many fee-paying students as possible, although this put strain on tutors for over-subscribed classes. During World War Two, Huggill responded to damage from the Blitz through the skylight of Studio 67 by offering free tuition in certain classes to any member of the armed forced stationed in Liverpool, and by forming a Fire Watching group and rota. The School also enrolled their first two students who were German Jewish refugees in 1939. In late 1942, pre-apprenticeship training in Printing & Allied Trades was introduced by Huggill to pupils aged 13 to fill as many places in the School as possible, in anticipation of possible demands by the Ministry of Works & Planning to commandeer an entire building from the School of Art for supply distribution. This was run alongside the Junior Art Department, and the Ministry ended up using the Walker Art Gallery instead.
Although the School of Art had provided tuition to school-age pupils (of all genders) much earlier, the Junior Art Department was formed in 1925 and the Teacher Training Department formed in 1928 to provide courses for students to obtain an Art Teacher's Diploma (ATD). In 1947 the Junior Art Department at the Liverpool School of Art became constituted as the Liverpool County Secondary School of Art. Due to congestion in the main building, the Secondary School moved to 11-12 Gambier Terrace, specifically acquired for the purpose of developing general education work alongside access to specialist studios and equipment. The Teacher Training Department which taught the ATD course was also transferred to Gambier Terrace. Junior Art classes had an entrance age of 13 and over, and adopted the Grammar School transfer examinations as an entrance exam in 1950. The Junior Art courses lasted for 3 years and led to the adoption of the Art GCE. The School severed from the College of Art in 1960 with 120 pupils at the time and became an independent unit in the Liverpool City Council's secondary school sector with its own Headmaster. It was closed in 1966 after luxury specialist equipment was deemed inappropriate for modern-day educational needs.
In 1949 the School was given Ministry of Education approval to assume the title of Regional College of Art for Liverpool. The College applied for membership to the Liverpool Institute of Education in 1951, for effect from the academic session of 1952-1953, and students who successfully completed the Art Teachers Diploma (ATD) course from 1955 onwards would receive a diploma from the University of Liverpool.
In September 1951, William L Stevenson took up the office of Principal at the School of Art. Under his direction, traditional forms of artistic study such as Antique classes were dropped in favour of a more dynamic curriculum. Stevenson was also a vocal advocate for expanding the Department of Teacher Training, and participated in many conferences and groups devoted to it. This included developing the School's offering in Art History and promoting more fluent written and spoken communication. This was taught by Winifred Pullen who came in on a special post in January 1951.
Another notable person from this time was William Charles Penn (Will C Penn), the Vice Principal who in 1942 at 68 years old was requested to carry on working to accommodate the large numbers of ex-servicemen returning and anticipating to return from service in World War Two. He worked at the School from 1911 until 1946. Stevenson's office was apparently below the room which John Lennon used for music practice with Paul McCartney. He announced his resignation in November 1959, although he did not actually depart until Spring 1960. He left at least partially out of frustration, 'by too many members of the teaching staff proving unwilling to pursue his more radical ideas,' such as a fourth term beginning in August (Ibid.: 152).
It was around this time that John Moores began to take an interest in the College of Art, and this relationship brought an invitation for Stevenson to become a manager of the Building Department of the John Moores organisation, for whom he would design the first welded-steel structure in the UK. From 1957-1960, new extensions were built to the main building to house the Printing Department of around 700 students. To cater for increased numbers of students (over 200) in Painting and Decorating, the Department was moved to F L Calder College's premises on Myrtle Street, which it shared with the College of Crafts and Catering and the Mount Street Evening Institute. By 1960 the School had around 2,000 students enrolled.
In 1963, the College of Art was approved for the new degree-equivalent Diploma in Art and Design. Photography courses were transferred from the Liverpool Institute to the College of Art in order to extend these studies to the degree courses.
In 1970, the Liverpool Regional College of Art was absorbed into the newly-formed Liverpool Polytechnic, and became the Faculty of Art and Design, which went on to become the School of Art and Design at LJMU post-1992. To see an administrative history of these two predecessors of the Liverpool School of Art, see LJMUH/LP and LJMUH/LJMU respectively.
Other notable individuals associated with the Liverpool School of Art include: John Lennon; Ronald William Josh Kirby; June Furlong; Shirley Hughes; Celia Mortimer; Arthur Ballard; Norman Thelwell; Kay Anderson; Margaret Blundell; Dorothy Bradford; Mary Louise Greville Cooksey; Edith Edmonds; Jane Greenwood; Don McKinlay; Stanley Reed; Phoebe Stabler; Pat Jourdan; Cynthia Powell [Cynthia Lennon]; June Burnett; George Adamson; Margaret Chapman; Helen Clapcott; Maurice Cockrill; Ruth Duckworth; Bill Harry; Roy Holt; John Francis Kavanagh; Edward Kelly; Clive Langer; John Meirion Morris; Steve Lindsay; Alexander Mckenzie; Lilian Rathmell; Isabel Rawsthorne; Sidney Sime; Stuart Sutcliffe; Ray Walker; Geoffrey Heath Wedgwood; John Wood; Sir James Stirling; Alan Swerdlow; and Alison Appleton.
For more detailed historical overviews of the Liverpool School of Art, see:
Charles W Hale, 1977. 'A Short History of the Origins of Art and Design Further Education in Liverpool.' Available via LJMU Special Collections using Dewey code 707.11 HAL.
Colin Morris, 1985. PhD Thesis submitted to Liverpool Polytechnic 'History of Liverpool Regional College of Art 1825-1970. Morris' thesis includes interviews conducted with: John Keats, Principal Lecturer; Arthur Ballard, Head of Foundation Studies; William L Stevenson OBE, Principal; James K H Graham, Chairman, Faculty of Art & Design, Liverpool Polytechnic; Nancy J Price, Tutor on the Art Teachers Diploma course; Dr Peter MacKarell, Head of the Art Teachers Certificate course at Goldsmiths' College, London; Norman Thelwell, ex-student; and Walter John Norman, Principal and later Assistant Rector at Liverpool Polytechnic.
Webster, R., and Wilkie, S., 2017. The Making of a Modern University: Liverpool John Moores University (London: Third Millenium Publishing), pp.36-45. A copy of this can be made available via LJMU Special Collections & Archives. |
| CustodialHistory | The Liverpool School of Art papers were mostly kept by the predecessors of the School of Art, within the Liverpool Polytechnic Faculty of Art and LJMU's current School of Art. Most of these papers were deposited to LJMU SCA in 2008, with another large deposit in 2010 following the School's move from Myrtle Street to the new John Lennon Art & Design building. In the 1960s the Polytechnic Faculty of Art & Design unfortunately sent a large quantity of potentially valuable archival material to the dustbins. Some of the student personal papers were deposited separately by their family members. It is possible there are still some more papers held at LJMU's current School of Art which have not yet been deposited. |