Dame Barbara Hepworth 1903–1975, from a Volume of sculpture records, 1962. TGA 7247/32 © Bowness, Hepworth Estate
The Tate has begun to digitise its archives of British artists. These objects, which include letters, drawings, diaries, and photographs are now available to everyone to view on the Tate’s website. It also seems like much (or even all) of the material has been released under a non-commercial, non-derivative Collective Commons license.
From the Tate press release
Tate announced today that intimate love letters from Paul Nash to his wife, touching family photographs of Jacob Epstein, unpublished images revealing Eduardo Paolozzi’s playful nature, 45 volumes of Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture records and correspondence from William Nicholson to his son Ben are among the first batch of items to be made available on Tate’s website for a world-wide audience as part of the Archives and Access project.
The project draws on the world’s largest archive of British Art - Tate Archive - and brings it together online with Tate’s art collection, making this one of the richest and most comprehensive digital art and archival resources in Europe. It is generously supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund with a grant of £2 million.
These items from Tate Archive can now be viewed online and include sketchbooks, drawings, family photographs, personal letters and intimate diaries, giving unprecedented access to original and rarely-seen material. The publicly-available items reveal fascinating insights into the lives and work of some of the most important figures in British art.
You can search the online database here: http://www.tate.org.uk/research/archive/online-archive-catalogue