Heinz Archive and Library, National Portrait Gallery

Title: Heinz Archive and Library, National Portrait Gallery

Description: The National Portrait Gallery's Heinz Archive and Library is the primary centre for research in the field of British portraiture. Its public study room is open by appointment to those who need to study some aspect of British portraiture and cannot find their material elsewhere. The Archive and Library also provides a telephone and written enquiry service for those who are unable to come to the study room to pursue their own research.

The Archive contains extensive files of engravings, photographs and other reproductions of portraits held in collections world-wide, arranged by sitter and artist. It also houses the muniments of the Gallery and the records of the Primary Collection of portraits.

The Library contains a reference collection of some 35,000 volumes relating to portraiture and also holds a number of special collections, including several artists' sitters books, autograph letters and sketchbooks. The Photography collection comprises more than 150,000 original prints and negatives of historical and contemporary portraits.

The Heinz Archive and Library seeks to document the history and iconography of British portraiture in all its manifestations regardless of decent or origin. Using the online database at http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/ images of eminent British men and women can be accessed by individual personal name (artist or sitter).
Some examples of image files from the NPG collections that are pertinent to Black and Asian history in the UK include information on the actor Ira Aldridge (1804-1867), the musical composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), the writer Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780), the anti-slavery campaigner Olaudah Equiano (c.1745-1797), Maharaja Duleep Singh (1838-1893), Maharajah of the Punjab, Britain's first Asian MP Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1916), and Baroness Shreela Flather (1934-), the first Asian woman in the House of Lords, as listed below:

• NPG 2307 - Debate on the Indian Council Cotton Duties (includes images of Joseph Chamberlain; George Goschen, 1st Viscount Goschen; Sir William Vernon Harcourt; Henry James, 1st Baron James; Sir Frank Lockwood; John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn; Dudabhai Naoroji...), by Sydney Prior Hall - pencil, published in The Graphic 2 March 1895
• NPG 2329 - Dudabhai Naoroji, by Sydney Prior Hall - pencil
• NPG 5724 - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, by Walter Wallis - oil on canvas, 1881
• NPG D3581 - Ignatius Sancho, by Francesco Bartolozzi, after Thomas Gainsborough - stipple engraving, published 1802
• NPG D3912 - Maharaja Duleep Singh, by Sir Leslie Ward - lithograph, published 1882
• NPG D7311 - Ira Aldridge, by Barabas Festen - lithograph, 1853
• NPG D8546 - Olaudah Equiano ('G. Vassa'), by Daniel Orme, after W. Denton - stipple engraving, published 1789
• NPG D10941 - Maharaja Duleep Singh, by D.J. Pound, after John Jabez Edwin Mayall - line and stipple engraving
• NPG P563(15) - Shreela Flather (Baroness Flather), by Nick Sinclair - bromide print, 1992.

Strengths: Information on the history of British portraiture

Size:

Catalogue: National Portrait Gallery Online Database

Catalogue URL: http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/

Main URL: http://www.npg.org.uk/live/archive.asp

Access: The Heinz Archive & Library is open by appointment to those who need to study some aspect of British portraiture and cannot readily find their material elsewhere. Please telephone the Public Study Room on +44 (0)207 306 0055 (extension 257) to make an appointment.

Acquisition dates: 1856 - present

Note:

Interest: Asian, Black

Complete: Complete

Subjects

Iconography

Art history

Personal/Corporate names

National Portrait Gallery

Singh, Duleep, 1838-1893

Sancho, Ignatius, 1729-1780

Naoroji, Dadabhai, 1825-1916

Flather, Shreela, 1934-

Equiano, Olaudah, c.1745-1797

Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel, 1875-1912

Aldridge, Ira, 1804-1867

Places