Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Letters of British dignitaries and professionals
Date (inclusive): 1756-1951
Number: 860525C
Creator/Collector:
Getty Research Institute. Research Library
Physical Description:
65.0 items
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The collection, assembled by the repository, comprises 65 letters from 43 correspondents. The senders are well-known people
in England, including physicians, politicians, directors of cultural institutions, and members of the peerage and the clergy.
The letters cover a wide variety of subjects, ranging from professional issues and public business to social activities, private
relationships, and family concerns.
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Language: Collection material is in
English
Administrative Information
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Letters of British dignitaries and professionals, 1756-1951, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Accession no.
860525C.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa860525c
Acquisition Information
Received in several acquisitions, 1983-1990.
Processing History
Processed and cataloged by Onica Busuioceanu. The items in this collection were formerly part of the British artists letters
collection (accession number 860525). They were separated when that collection was cataloged.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection comprises 65 letters from 43 correspondents. The letters are dated between 1756 and 1951, with the bulk from
the 1820s to the 1880s and the first decade of the 20th century. The senders are well-known people, such as the physician
Alison, the chemist Humphrey Davy, the pottery and porcelain manufacturer Herbert Minton, and directors of major cultural
institutions, such as the British Museum, the London National Gallery, the Royal Society, and the Tate Gallery, as well as
politicians and members of the peerage or the clergy. The letters cover a large variety of subjects ranging from professional
issues and public business to social activities, private relationships and family concerns.
Among the most relevant are the letters of the physician William Pulteney Alison (3), Thomas Philip De Grey, lord lieutenant
of Ireland (2), Dugald Sutherland MacColl, keeper of the Tate Gallery (2), Sir Henry Ellis, Librarian of the British Museum
(7), Sir William Henry Gregory, trustee of the National Gallery (4), Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick, antiquarian and collector (1),
Herbert Minton, pottery and porcelain manufacturer (1), Sir John Rothenstein, Director of the Tate Gallery (1), Sir Robert
Thomas Wilson, son of Benjamin Wilson (3), and a long letter from Lady Jane Davy, socialite, to the poet Robert Pearse Gillies
(1). The collection was assembled by the repository.
Arrangement note
Arranged alphabetically in one series.
Indexing Terms
Subjects - Names
Alison, William Pulteney, 1790-1859
Davy, Humphry, Sir, 1778-1829
Davy, Jane, Lady, 1780-1855
De Grey, Thomas Philip De Grey, Earl, 1781-1859
Ellis, Henry, Sir, 1777-1869
Gillies, R. P. (Robert Pearse), 1788-1858
Gregory, William Henry, Sir, 1817-1892
MacColl, D. S. (Dugald Sutherland), 1859-1948
Meyrick, Samuel Rush, Sir, 1783-1848
Minton, Herbert, 1793-1858
Rothenstein, John, 1901-1992
Wilson, Robert Thomas, Sir, 1777-1849
Genres and Forms of Material
Correspondence