Wheelwright © Bodleian Library, University of Oxford: John Johnson Collection

The VADS website has been used in research this month for the History e-Learning Project led by Kingston University in partnership with The London Grid for Learning. The project is developing a history online learning resource for primary schools. Pupils will be able to reinforce curriculum requirements by looking at the ‘Victorians’ and comparing how they lived then to how we live now.

The project has chosen this image to use as a colourful illustration of a wheelwright, for 7-11 year olds, because the vast majority of them will not have come into contact with anyone working in this profession. Dr Heidi Topman, researcher for the Project said, “I chose this image because it is one of the few good quality images of a wheelwright, which I’ve managed to locate. The cartoon like, colourful nature, of the picture will also appeal to children.”

The Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) and the London College of Fashion announced a collaboration today that will see the photographic archives of three important cosmetics companies made accessible online for the first time.

Gala Lip Line lipstick. © London College of Fashion

The archives of Gala, Miner’s and Crystal, three prominent cosmetics companies operating during and after the Second World War, are held at London College of Fashion and have been digitised and made freely accessible through the VADS website.

The archives are a valuable resource for the study of the history of cosmetics, advertising photography, fashion promotion and women in the Second World War.

During the War when silk was needed for parachutes and stockings disappeared from the shops, Miner’s had particular success with its leg make-up, Miners Liquid Stockings, which many women used to paint their legs and even drew black lines down the back of their legs to simulate the seams. Gala of London was also the first company to introduce lip stick in a tube when they introduced their Lip Line in 1957.

Model drawing a seam line down her leg with Miner’s seam stick, 1941. © London College of Fashion

Showcard for Miner’s Liquid Stockings alongside bottle of Miner’s Liquid Stockings in shade of Grape Mist, 1941 © London College of Fashion

Katherine Baird, Manager of Archives and Special Collections at the London College of Fashion said: “The history of cosmetics is a subject area poorly served by archives to date, and this archive is a valuable addition.”

“The war and immediate aftermath, was an important period for the development of package design and also for the development of women’s economic independence and consequently their image. The photographs in this collection provide a rich resource charting the development of designs and promotion of cosmetic products and images of women using them.”

Leigh Garrett, Director of VADS, said “We are delighted to have worked with London College of Fashion to make these unique archives accessible to a wider learning community than ever before.”

“Through our partnerships with university and museum collections across the UK, VADS has already made a wide range of visual arts image collections available online freely for educational use. This latest project will bring another valuable collection to wider recognition and use by scholars, researchers and students as well as members of the public.”

The three cosmetics archives have been digitised by the London College of Fashion and made available online through the ‘Enhancing VADS’ project, funded as part of the Enriching Digital Resources programme from JISC.

The collection is available at http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/LCFGALA

The Paper Patterns Collection on VADS was recently used by MA Fashion Curation students at London College of Fashion for Occupying Spaces: The White Dress Project, exhibited at the Carnaby Gallery.  The collection was used to source a pattern which was then reproduced to make 12 identical white dresses, which were each displayed in different ways.  The intention of the project was to reveal how context and meaning are inextricably entwined.

Simplicity Pattern 1969. © London College of Fashion

The project team says “This particular design was selected as, to our eyes, it resonated with 1960s Carnaby Street fashion, whilst its very neutrality could simultaneously be situated within international contexts. Although archival records document the pattern as being in poor condition, some 40 years later it still served its original function. The pattern envelope features five illustrations indicating how this one design can achieve five – of possibly endless – distinctive ‘looks’ and could serve as a metaphor for the curatorial dilemma.”

The VADS website has been used in research for a new exhibition Super Contemporary which opened at the Design Museum in London last week.  Super Contemporary celebrates the creative magnetism of London and its enduring reputation as a beacon of design, and showcases 12 new commissions from designers such as Paul Smith.

The exhibition also includes a timeline of London’s design history from the 1960s to the present day, charting the city’s defining creative moments in architecture, fashion, product design and communication. It features a number of design classics available on the VADS site, including work from the Tom Eckersley Collection held at University of the Arts London.

Concorde poster by Tom Eckersley, 1976. © BAA. The design was reproduced on a wall at Heathrow Central Airport.

Kenneth Grange’s Brownie Vecta has also been included as an innovative approach to camera design – its vertical format was, and still is, unusual in its approach. Grange noticed that most amateur photography tended to be of people rather than landscapes, and he felt that the vertical format was better suited for portraiture.

Brownie Vecta’ camera made by Kodak Ltd. and designed in consultation with Kenneth Grange © Design Council Slide Collection

Other notable products of the era featured in the exhibition include Robin Day’s polypropylene chair, which is one of the very few chairs still in production after over 40 years, and Peter Murdoch’s fibreboard chair.

The exhibition runs until 4 October 2009 at the Design Museum in London.

Polypropylene chair, Hille International, designed by Robin Day © Frederick Parker Foundation

‘Those Things’ childrens table, chair and stool in fibreboard, designed by Peter Murdoch © Design Council Slide Collection

Song of the perfect cure, music cover by Concanen & Lee, showing performer J H Stead, 1861 © Reading University Library

This Victorian music cover portrays the performer James Henry Stead in the song which he made famous. Stead’s performance of the song with its accompanying dance was extraordinary. He was really a dancer, and after singing the verse and chorus, he would leap up and down over 400 times with both feet at once. According to ‘Household Words’, a contemporary magazine, Stead could actually perform this jump an astonishing 1,600 times in succession.

The original lithographic music cover was printed in three colours. The costume consisted of plain red and white vertical stripes with the usual brownish lithotint background. The design was very simple, and yet very striking. The stark figure of Stead suspended in mid-air rivets the attention of the viewer, and the conical hat makes Stead appear ten feet tall.

During his short career Stead, like so many music-hall artistes, appeared at three or four theatres in one evening, performing the same act at each. This must have required superhuman physical endurance for Stead. The song was advertised as ‘sung for upwards of nine hundred nights with unbounded success’ at Weston’s Music Hall in Holborn, London. For a short time Stead achieved great fame with his performance of ‘Song of the Perfect Cure’, but his reputation dwindled into obscurity soon afterwards, and in 1886 he died in an attic a poor man.

This music cover was produced in 1861 by the prolific lithographer Alfred Concanen (1835-1886) who portrayed many figures of the Victorian theatre and the London streets in his music cover work, capturing the liveliness and eccentricity of the mid-Victorian theatre and music-hall scene for posterity.

Text by Fiona Melhuish, Rare Books Librarian, Special Collections Services, University of Reading.

View the Spellman Collection of Victorian Music Covers

The VADS image collections have been contributed to the service by a number of expert curators, museum managers, librarians, and archivists based at universities and arts institutions across the UK. These expert curators have begun sharing some of the fruits of their research on the VADS blog. Curators’ Choice is a new feature on the blog which will provide fascinating insights into the history and context of items from the VADS collections.

In conjunction with the Curators’ Choice, VADS will be launching ‘Your Pick’, which will showcase images that you are using in research, publications, exhibitions, or other projects.   We would like to hear from you about the ways in which you are using the VADS site – tell us at info@vads.ac.uk or 01252 892723.