Archiving the Life and Works of Alan Ayckbourn

Photograph copyright of Scarborough Theatre 
Trust/Stephen Joseph Theatre

For two years now, the Borthwick Institute for Archives has been holding the library of Alan Ayckbourn. As the author of over seventy plays, Ayckbourn is one of Britain’s most successful and prolific playwrights. But, whilst Ayckbourn is primarily a writer, he is also known for his work as an educator, a businessman and for many in the arts, as a friend. Over the next eight weeks, we will be delving into personal correspondence, drafted plays and interview transcripts in order to better understand this colossus of the theatre. And indeed, in amongst the audition notes, scribbled stage directions and countless fan letters, we have already begun unearthing surprises that have started to sketch the outline of the life and works on Alan Ayckbourn.

Ayckbourn’s first play ‘The Square Cat’ premiered in 1959 and was followed by over half a century of work during a long and exciting career. A notoriously busy man, Ayckbourn has spent the last fifty years of his professional life dividing his time between the bright lights of London’s West End and the sea-mist drenched cobbles of Scarborough, where he held the position of artistic director at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. But far from epitomising the lonely lot of a playwright, shut up in isolation and feverishly scribbling away, Ayckbourn has proven himself a writer of the people. Within his seventy-something plays there inhabit the voices of countless characters; ink and paper creations that, sharpened with the biting wit of a playwright unafraid to look beneath the covers, have continuously taught their audiences undeniable truth about themselves. Be it negotiating the delicate power balance of marriage, or navigating the comic intricacies of farce, his work has continually reached high acclaim and is not devoid of even the most challenging material. Alan Ayckbourn’s work will often give the members of its audience a slap around the face that will draw laughter and tears in one sitting and inevitably send the tingle of uncomfortable familiarity down their collective spine. 

 For the Borthwick, perhaps the most exciting aspect of archiving the writing of Alan Ayckbourn is that he is still living and writing. With his latest play premiering in Scarborough next month, Ayckbourn’s vast career is a testament to the growth and development of his own writing craft. Over fifty years in theatre has produced creative partnerships with colleagues such as Andrew Lloyd Webber, Michael Gambon and Prunella Scales, to name but a few. Ayckbourn’s work also extends to the support of children’s theatre, with the playwright linked to youth groups and having written several plays aimed at an underage audience. With an archive as rich in social and contextual history as it is in professional insight, the works of Alan Ayckbourn are already highlighting new and exciting stories from one of Britain’s most revered writers.

 This post was written by Maddy Pelling, Ayckbourn Intern. 

You can read more about Maddy's work with Alan Ayckbourn's archive in her post Answering the Critics with Laughter, Shakespeare and Toilet Paper: The Comedy of Alan Ayckbourn.

 

 

   

Anna, Alice, Wendy… introducing the Aero Girls

 

Paintings in an archive? I was surprised to find 17 portraits of young women nestling in Rowntree’s archive here at the Borthwick Institute.  I previously worked for Tate Gallery, organising art exhibitions, and joined the archives sector expecting to be immersed in a landscape of mostly paper and parchment documents.  It’s been intriguing to encounter fine art objects in a context where they can function both as Rowntree’s business records and as autonomous artworks.

  

Anthony Devas, Art Student, c1950, oil on canvas, 14 x 10 inches. Ref: R/Aero girls
With kind permission of Nestlé UK 

Aero Advert, 1951. Ref: R/Guardbooks/S10. With kind permission of Nestlé UK

We call these paintings the Aero Girls and they form a somewhat mysterious collection of portraits commissioned by Rowntree’s for use in Aero chocolate advertising, 1951-1957 both in print and on national TV. Advertising firm J. W. Thompson ran the campaign, selecting esteemed portrait painters and illustrators of the day such as Anthony Devas,  Henry Marvell Carr, Vasco Lazzolo (aka Victor Lazzola),  Norman Hepple and Fleetwood Walker  among others to create “large illustrations of girls heads” in oil paint. As Emma Robertson states in her exploration of Chocolate, Women and Empire, “images of women tended to predominate in Aero marketing, drawing on and further maintaining the links between women, chocolate and sex.”

Aero advert, 1955. Ref: R/Guardbooks/S10

Aero television advert, Portrait – The milk chocolate that's different, That's nice (1955) B&W, 1955. With kind permission of Yorkshire Film Archive

Probably more interesting is the use of the oil painting form as a marketing device within the context of Rowntree’s Aero campaign. By the 1950s the photographic image was as abundant in chocolate advertising as it was in everyday life. The oil painted portrait casts us back to an era before the mechanical reproduction of photography, and alludes to an experience that is special, unique and cannot be repeated elsewhere. The campaign slogan underlines this by proclaiming “For her-AERO the-milk-chocolate that’s different!” [to the arch rival Cadbury’s Dairy Milk].

Aero campaign statement from Rowntree’s advertising guardbook, 1951. Ref: R/Guardbooks/S10

Seen together the paintings are striking in their disparity of both style and subject. Several paintings by Devas depict young modern women wearing simple blouses, sporting gamine haircuts; others by Hepple present more aristocratic sorts. Although the print campaign ran for at least six years, it is difficult to trace insightful links between the portraits. Perhaps this is why the campaign was not a particularly successful one. Indeed much of Aero’s sales success during this post-war period can be attributed to a renewed appetite for consumer goods and the end of rationing after 1954.

Anthony Devas, Untitled, c1950, oil on canvas,
17 x 13 inches. Ref: R/Aero girls.

Anthony Devas, Anna, c1950, oil on canvas,
16 x 12 inches. Ref: R/Aero girls

So who were the Aero Girls? Anna. Alice. Wendy. Audrey. Avril. Nancy. Mary. Yvonne. The Country Girl. The Art Student. These names are sketchily written in pencil on the back of the canvas stretchers. The History of Advertising Trust informs me that a family historian whose mother was one of the women depicted in the campaign “suspected that Devas sketched his mother, as a young woman, on a bus and then created a portrait from the drawing.” I also spoke to Alex Hutchinson, Nestle heritage officer, to ask if any of the sitters might have been female factory workers at the Cocoa Works factory in York, where these paintings had previously been on display. Alex replied that in fact “little is known about the sitters,” and so the mystery remains.

If you know who any of the the Aero girls are we’d love to hear from you.

This blog post was written by Kerstin Doble, National Archives Trainee.

The Tuke Work Experience Project, Part 3: Views of York

We are finishing off the series of Tuke work experience blog posts with an entry from Alex and Martha who looked at some views of York, and the Tuke house.

We start with some views of York from Alex:

One of the most interesting items I have had the opportunity of handling this past week has been a collection of 10 photographs of the City of York c.1860. Seeing photos of instantly recognizable sites dated over 150 years ago is absorbing. The collection of photographs had been selected to be included in the memoir of Samuel Tuke, 1784-1857. It is of great interest that these particular images were chosen to best represent York and Samuel Tuke’s life, suggesting they were just as important to the local area then as they are now.  Samuel was heavily involved in The Retreat, a mental health hospital in York that still survives today, just 5 minutes from The Borthwick Archives. The Retreat was established by Samuel’s grandfather William Tuke, and the Borthwick holds most of their records.

Collection - Tuke 79 – TUKE/2/2/6/3/6

Above we can see a photograph of Micklegate Bar, a photograph of a print of Ouse Bridge, a photograph of 8 figures in front of Ackworth School, a photograph of the south side of York Minster, a photograph of a print of Walmgate Bar, a photograph of Lindley Murray's house in Holdgate, a photograph of a print of Chichester Cross, a photograph of the tomb of Archbishop de Gray in York Minster, a photograph of a sketch of the Shambles in York, and a carte de visite photograph of Samuel Tuke.

Martha found some photographs of the Tuke's house in Lawrence Street:

Whilst going through the Tuke archives one of the most fascinating things I discovered was in the photography collection. The pictures show where the Tukes used to live in York, and the family’s house was located on Lawrence Street. It is a shame that the house has not been preserved, as it is now surrounded by a busy road, and the beautiful gardens attached to the house have since been filled with an industrial estate. It is sad to think that the many people, who pass the house every day, are unaware of the rich history that it holds.

The pictures show the house and garden in there former glory taken in the 1850s, and we can see members of the Tuke family in the pictures. 

Tuke 85 -  photograph of the front of the Tuke's house in Lawrence Street, 1850s Reference TUKE/2/4/1/19/1.

Tuke 85- Esther Tuke in the Tuke's garden at Lawrence Street, ?1850s Reference TUKE/2/4/1/19/3

To read more about our student volunteers' work with the Tuke archive, please see Growing Up Tuke and Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr Bonaparte?

‘An end and a beginning’: York County Hospital and the NHS

Today marks the 65^th anniversary of the National Health Service. During the Second World War, concerns for the sustainability of voluntary hospitals (already subsidised by the government before 1945) contributed to the proposal of a comprehensive health service, open to all members of the community and free at the point of use.

One of these voluntary institutions was the York County Hospital, which opened in 1740. The following images are taken from the hospital’s Final Report (reference: YCH 1/2/21), published on the eve of its transfer into the NHS on 5^th July 1948.

The report also includes some group photographs of the nursing staff, administrative team and the medical board – as well as a picture of its royal patron, HRH The Princess Royal!

Although the report begins with reflections on the work of the hospital as a voluntary organisation, it ends on a note of hope, looking forward to a future within the National Health Service.

Happy birthday, NHS!

Health archives at the Borthwick Institute

We hold a large number of records relating to health, comprising the archives of the hospitals and other services managed by the NHS in York, running from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day. As well as the archive of York County Hospital, we also hold records for the many smaller hospitals which were inherited by the NHS after 1948.

Alongside these, we house the archives of Bootham Park Hospital, Clifton Hospital and the York Hospital Management Committees. Further information on the archive of York County Hospital can be found on on our online catalogue Borthcat.

This blog post was written by Lydia Dean, Archives Assistant.