Library wins grant for Herbert Read project

The National Archives have awarded an Archives Revealed grant to catalogue the Herbert Read archives.

Beginning in October, the year-long project will catalogue the materials in the Library’s Herbert Read collection alongside the large-scale creation of index records. This will allow us to build a representation of Read’s personal and intellectual networks to create meaningful entry points for researchers using our online visualisation tools.

Read, a poet, literary critic and writer on art, has collected an archive as varied as his many projects and interests – revealing the full extent of his influence on cultural development in the twentieth century.

The project is designed to engage academics, arts practitioners and the wider public. It aims to reposition Herbert Read as a focus of cultural study – transforming his currently inaccessible archive into a significant resource for future research.

The Archives Revealed programme, which is supported by The National Archives, The Pilgrim Trust and the Wolfson Foundation, transforms access to archives for a wide range of users. The cataloguing grant will allow access to collections that matter to researchers and communities, and will increase public engagement with the UK’s rich documentary heritage.