Family papers of Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), comprising correspondence, copies, printed pieces and photographs. Included are manuscript recollections of India, and 34 letters, 1881-1933, from Kipling to his parents John Lockwood and Alice Kipling, and to Edith Plowden, a family friend.
Search FNL grants since 1931
75 pencil ink and watercolour sketches, mainly of Shropshire houses and scenes, by David Parkes (1763-1833). Parkes was a prolific artist and antiquarian, and his work documents changes and alterations to many important Shropshire buildings and churches in the late 18th-mid19th centuries.
A collection of the published works of Edwin Morgan (b.1920) assembled by Hamish Whyte, his friend, publisher and bibliographer over thirty years. Appointed Scots Makar by the Scottish Parliament in 2004, Morgan was a major Scottish poet of the later 20th century.
Literary, private and personal papers of Professor Douglas Dunn (b. 1942), Professor of English at St Andrew's since 1991 and one of Scotland's most eminent contemporary poets.
A presentation album of drawings by Samuel Wyatt (1737-1807), in their original binding, for a proposed rebuilding of Mere Hall, Cheshire. The house had been rebuilt in 1670 for Sir Peter Brooke, whose descendant Peter Brooke (1723-83) married an heiress.
A rare example of an architectural design by Sir James Thornhill (1675-1734), History Painter in Ordinary and Serjeant Painter to George I, and the leading decorative painter of his day. The drawing relates to a little-known commission by Thornhill for which apparently no other drawings survive.
The collection includes a contemporary copyist's manuscript of the Missa de Spiritu Sancto by Samuel Wesley (1766-1837), composed in 1784, with a dedication to Pope Pius VI; a copy of a keyboard fugue in D Major by his daughter Eliza (1819-95); and a copy by her brother, Samuel Sebastian Wes
The bulk of this large family archive consists of deeds of the family estates, centered on Warwick and Lillington, dating from the 12-19th centuries.
The records of a Warwickshire landed family extending over 800 years, comprising a large number of medieval deeds, including significant numbers for the estates of Bordesley Abbey; estate and household account books from 1662 to the 20th century; and over 2,000 items of correspondence, including
Family and business records of John Shaw and Sons, woollen manufacturers, of Brookroyd Mills, Stainland.