Research Director: Dr Melissa Hardie BA, PhD, FRSA, FLS, Hon Fellow, Exeter University
Research Associates: Donna Anton, Jane Gosney FRSA, FSLL, Tracey Gutteridge, Andrew Symons, Hilary Orange, David Philp, Peter Waverly

Bibliotheca Cornubiensis Femina
Women writing Cornwall, past & present

In process of formatting, but temporarily suspended due to lack of staff for sustaining the data input. This will be an on-line bibliography of women writers. Volunteer sought to complete considerable database already gathered. Data processing skill necessary in Penzance town area; expenses paid.

Launching in early spring: The on-line CORNISH ART ARCHIVE: fine art & artisans
Input form currently on-line at www.wcaa.org.uk (please visit!)

The Forbes Reading Room at Trevelyan House, Penzance, offers a large reference collection of books and records about artists and craftsmen who have worked in Cornwall, at some period in the past, or in the present day. Based initially on the collection of data gathered first for the Dictionary and Source-book, ARTISTS IN NEWLYN AND WEST CORNWALL 1880-1940 (2009 Art Dictionaries Ltd, Bristol), the new website will build up to include all artists & artisans creating and exhibiting in this county. You can read a comprehensive review of the book in Bristol Review of Books by clicking here and another on the Art Cornwall website by clicking here.

Files of artists' papers, cuttings, scrapbooks, exhibition catalogues, and the fine art auctions that follow suit, are available for researchers. The objective is to offer a central resource website both for academic researchers, students and family historians who want to know more about the 'Cornish experience' of artists they know, or can contribute knowledge, about 'time spent in the Cornish environs,' by their subjects.

Links are to the West Cornwall Art Archive, Penlee House, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, University College (Falmouth) & The Tate Gallery St Ives, the Royal Cornwall Museum in addition to other galleries, museums and historical archives in Cornwall. Open by appointment.
Editorial team: Nick Harpley, David Philp, Tim & Jean Jones, Tracey Gutteridge

Johns-Carrington Archive
A botanical & literary collection

Stemming from the research carried out for the book, A Passion for Nature, 19th-Century Naturalism in the Circle of Charles Alexander Johns (2008), a large collection of books and papers is gathering around the subjects of the Cornish natural environment, guidebooks, botanical illustration (Emily Stackhouse, Ann Catherine Johns, Emily Johns Carrington), photography and the men and women who have recorded the natural history of Cornwall in visual and literary ways. The Rev C A Johns, the author of A Week at the Lizard, and Flowers of the Field, both bestsellers of the 19th century passion for learning about the world around us, also gathered a large circle, including his family, of creative writers and artists around him, one of these the poet NT Carrington, the 'poet of Dartmoor'; Johns's sister Emily was also married to Carrington's son Henry, the editor, printer and publisher of the Bath Chronicle.

The collection will be catalogued, indexed and contribute to a natural history centre for students and visitors based on the Lizard (yet to be named) which is currently in its planning and developing stages.
Research team: Peter Kiernan (Coordinator), Clifford Evans (USA), Deirdre Dare, Melissa Hardie

In time & place: inspiration and practice
The Patten People

In a life-time, an individual may develop many passions, sometimes following this in a career path, other times as a side-line of interests. How to document that interest, and to be able to pass it on - in written words, images, or in teaching - and thereby contribute to the universal flow of inspired thought, is the task that all can share. The Patten People series of essays, was devised from 1980 by a circle of friends, sometimes in far-flung places, to document their own inspirations and practices in wide-ranging fields of the arts. The introducer of these essays, Melissa Hardie, remains intent upon publishing the final version of the twelve essays with their illustrations in the near future (date not yet confirmed & dependent upon funding possibilities) as a tribute to the times and places through which the authors have lived.

The authors involved in this project are the following: Mervyn Levy (art critic), Roy Lewis (printer & historian), Frances Partridge (diarist)*, E Lamorna Kerr (artist)*, Gerald Priestland (author), Annette Massie (theatre promoter), Colin Scott-Sutherland (collector & author), Ian Nalder (author & sportsman), Katherine Tait (author), Leslie Kerman (academic & artist), Jessica Mann (novelist), and Jane Gosney (lighting designer, author).
Editor: Melissa Hardie

* abstracted reprints have appeared elsewhere

A database of historical information about the town of Penzance, and the nearby villages in the West Cornwall area of Penwith, its purpose is to serve as a resource for enquirers on any and all subjects that have been taken up by local newspapers. Whether your interest is a specific person, an organization, a festival, or a murder, the database can give you a list of references to that event that you can research further in your own work. Available now by contacting the archivist (01736 366597).
Research officer & archivist: Peter Waverly