A big welcome from Special Collections at the Philip Robinson Library, archives and rare books in the heart of the Newcastle University campus.
What will you be looking at in three years time?!
The first day of one of the most well-known battles of the Great War, the Battle of the Somme, saw tremendous losses for the allied forces. The 1st July, 1916 is documented as the day when the highest number of casualties in Britain’s military history took place. This day gravely affected the Tyneside Irish and the Tyneside Scottish battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers, who suffered some of the highest casualties, amounting to around 8,000 in total.
During my second year of my History and Archaeology course at Newcastle University, I applied for a research scheme that the university runs which takes place over the summer vacation before the final year of daunting dissertations. Students have to come up with their own project idea in which they are to research independently over a period of either 6 or 8 weeks.
Due to the centenary of the First World War, in which commemorations began in 2014, I wanted to make my own contribution to the fallen that Britain will be remembering over the next three years. Therefore, my supervisor Dr. Jane Webster and I, came up with the idea of contributing to the ‘University’s at War’ project which looks into the soldiers that are commemorated on the Armstrong War Memorial. On the memorial there are 222 names. This in itself is a mammoth task to complete detailed research on each individual in 7 weeks; therefore I have narrowed my work down to focus on those who fought for the Northumberland Fusiliers, amounting to 67 men.
The day I began my research, my second supervisor, Ian Johnson (an archivist in Newcastle University’s Special Collections and one of the founders of the ‘Universities at War’ project) showed me which materials I would be using to complete my research. These included archives such as the Durham University Journals, Roll of Service and the vast scope of the census records, military records and medal rolls which the Ancestry website provides.
Probably the most exciting archive material I looked at was the Durham University Journal. It wasn’t so much the articles in the journal that was interesting, but the advertisements for things such as medical equipment (with Durham University having its own medical school). The adverts were for shops and stores on well-known streets in Newcastle, such as Northumberland Street and Blackett Street. It made me go back in time and imagine what our bustling Geordie city centre would have looked like 100 years ago, with the vast array of marvellous merchandise for sale; a world away from what we see today.
William Nixon – (136) – Image 1 – Source Durham University Gazette, Vol II, 1912-1929
When it came to exploring the individuals of the Northumberland Fusiliers from Durham and our very own University (formerly part of Durham University and known as Armstrong College) I found that there were a total of five men who all died on the same day, the 1st July, 1916. These individuals were John Macfarlan Charlton (whose only sibling died only six days before he did), Henry Sibbit, Arthur Cecil Young, Patrick Austin Murray and William Nixon. When I searched the date of the 1st July 1916, I found that it was the very first day of one of the most famous battles of the War, the Battle of the Somme. Further reading highlighted to me that this was one of, if not the most devastating days in Britain’s history, in terms of the casualties sustained in battle.
Percival William Murray
Regarding the stories of our University’s fallen comrades, John Macfarlan Charlton is the only man where there are specific details about his death. On his 25th birthday, John was killed by a bullet through the head while leading his company near La Boiselle, France. We also know that William Nixon was killed during the first wave of the attacks on the 1st, but unfortunately all we know for the remaining three men is they were killed in action on this disastrous day.
Thank you to our ‘Universities at War’ Volunteer Rosie Setford for this piece of reseasrch.
Universities at War – The Newcastle University Digital Memory Book
The 1st July marks the 100 anniversary of first day of the Battle of the Somme. Lasting from the 1 July to the 18 November 1916 it was the largest battle of the First World War on the Western Front. More than one million men were wounded or killed.
Here we remember John Charlton who died on the 1st day of the Somme, and his brother Hugh who was also killed in action in the same year. Both brothers were former students of Armstrong College (later to become part of the University of Newcastle).
John Macfarlan Charlton and Hugh Vaughn Charlton
Captain John Macfarlan Charlton was killed on July 1st 1916, on the 1st of July, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He was 25 years old. Seven days earlier is elder brother Hugh had also been killed in action.
John Macfarlan Charlton. Image kindly provided by Alice Barrigan and available at northyorkshirehistory.blogspot.co.uk
Both brothers were talented ornithologists and artists and after their death the magazine British Birds published a heartfelt obituary for both brothers, writing that:
“The writer deeply deplores their untimely death, a feeling that is shared by all who knew them, and lovers of natural history will regret that ornithology has lost two students of great promise.”
Their father John was an artist and renowned painter of rural life and many of his paintings are still held by galleries in the local area. Both sons went on to develop their own artistic careers and also to share their father’s love of the natural world. At the outbreak of World War One John Charlton Snr he completed two paintings recording the early days of the war, French Artillery Crossing the Flooded Aisne (1915 – owned by Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne) and Retreat from the Marne (1915 – owned by Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead). Shortly after his sons’ deaths however, on the 10th November 1917, he himself died at the age of 68. “He felt the loss of his two sons profoundly,” read his obituary in The Graphic.
French Artillery Crossing the Flooded Aisne and Saving the Guns,
John Charlton (Snr), 1915, Laing Art Gallery Collection
John was a Captain in the Northumberland Fusiliers, 21st Battalion (2nd Tyneside Scottish), enlisting on 11th November 1914. Hugh meanwhile received his commission in August 1915 as Second Lieutenant in the Northumberland Fusiliers, 7th Battalion and entered France on 13th March 1916. Hugh was killed in action on 24th June 1916 aged 32 in West-Vlaanderen, Heuvelland, Belgium. He was struck by a bomb from a trench mortar near Whychaate. Seven days later, John was killed in action, on his 25th Birthday.
Family Memorial
Thank you to our ‘Universities at War’ volunteer Sam Mitchell for researching the Charlton brothers for this project.
Universities at War – The Newcastle University Digital Memory Book
On 30th June, 1859, Jean François Gravelet made his name as ‘Chevalier Blondin’ when he became the first person to walk across the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope suspended 160 feet (50 metres) above the water, watched by 10,000 people. This impressive yet foolhardy feat is one that he would go on to perform 17 times, each time becoming more daring.
The American Falls Daguerréotype, Niagara (DAG/2)
Blondin’s career began at just six years old when he was sent to the École de Gymnase in Lyon and performed, from age nine, under the name ‘The Little Wonder’. Later, he would take the name ‘Blondin’ from the owner of the circus, owing to his fair hair and skin. Travelling with the Ravel family of acrobats he toured in Europe before arriving in the USA and appeared in New York, in Barnum’s Greatest Show on Earth. It was a visit to Niagara as a tourist that gave him the ambition to cross the waters and his exploit made him a sensation. Capitalising on his new-found fame he toured Europe during the winter of 1859-60.
He made his first UK appearance on Saturday 1st June, 1861, at the Crystal Palace, dressed in a light-coloured, tight-fitting costume that was ornamented with beads and a large cap bedecked with a plume of ostrich feathers. This time, his rope stretched the whole length of the central transept, 180 feet (55 metres) above the concrete floor. He used a balance pole that was 28 feet (8.5 metres) long and weighed 60 pounds (27 kilograms). The incline on which he made his descent was about 1 in 15 and Blondin looked a bit shaky at first. Soon, he gained confidence and practically ran across the rope only to retrace his steps, backwards. He held a series of elegant poses and turned various somersaults, sat sideways and then astride the rope, rising on one leg. The Illustrated London News reported that at one point he was blindfolded and had a bag put over his head that reached down to his knees. On attempting to walk the tightrope his left foot slipped after a few paces. He recovered his balance. Then, his right foot slipped and there was great apprehension in the crowd but this was nothing more than “feints” to build up dramatic tension. At the end of the show “the universal verdict was that the performance was the most extraordinary and exciting of the kind that had ever been witnessed in London”.
Blondin and the rope he needed for performances at the Crystal Palace from: Illustrated London News, June 8, 1861
By this time, Blondin was handsomely paid and guaranteed to draw audiences (half-expectant of imminent accident or death). He was paid £1,200 for 12 performances at the Crystal Palace – roughly speaking, £52,000 in today’s spending worth.
Advertisement for Blondin’s shows at the Crystal Palace from: Illustrated London News, September 14, 1861
He went on to tour in the UK and continued to perform until his death (at home, in bed), aged 72.
Blondin was emulated by other funambulists: ‘The Great Farini’ carried a washerwoman along a tightrope across Niagara Falls in 1860; Maria Spelterini was the first woman to walk a tightrope across the gorge, in 1876; some others sadly died in their attempts. In August 1860, Selina Young, walked along a 600 metre- (1968 feet-) long tightrope above the River Thames, from Battersea to Cremorne. Selina was dubbed ‘The Female Blondin’.
The Female Blondin crossing the Thames from Battersea to Cremorne on a tight rope from: Illustrated London News, August 24, 1861
If you are interested in coming into the reading room to see volumes from Illustrated London News and others from the collection…
# Images seen within this blog are held within Illustrated London News as part of the 19th Century Collection with reference code 19TH C. Coll 030 ILL
# You can place your order by linking to our request form. The reference code and title will be 19th C. Coll 030 ILL – Illustrated London News (followed by a volume number)
What is an OTC?
The OTC, or Officer Training Corps, was established in 1908 to ‘attract’ young men into the British army. The Corps also laid the foundation for these young men to become fully commissioned officers, which the Army sorely needed. The OTCs operated throughout the war and were vital in providing officer candidates for selection. In fact, these training corps became so critical that in 1916 new military instruction was implemented which stated that temporary commissions could only be granted if a man had been through an Officer Cadet unit.
But how did the Corps come to be?
A committee under the chairmanship of Sir Edward Ward, then permanent under secretary of state for war, was tasked with reviewing the issue of low officer recruitment numbers. He and the committee then presented a report to the British government with the following proposals:
(a) To create a system of military instruction for prospective officers, existing School 11 and University Corps should be reorganized into an “Officers Training Corps.”
(b) A selected staff should be created in the department of the War Office to supervise the organization, instruction, and examination for certificates of the Officers Training Corps.
According to Edward M. Spiers, author of COMEC OCCASIONAL PAPER. No 4: ‘The corps was to be divided into a Junior Division for public schools and a Senior Division for universities.’ These programmes trained cadets to for Certificate A and B examinations; however, only university cadets could take the latter. The examinations were divided into written and theoretical parts. Exam B was much more rigorous, with compulsory papers in elementary tactics, military law and administration as well as practical and written papers in special-to-arms training. There was also an optional paper in military history and strategy. The requirements to take Certificate B were also much more rigorous. Cadets could only take the examination if they had proved their efficiency over a two year period with mandatory attendance of special events and training camps. Possession of a Certificate B was the rough equivalent of 6 months’ residence at the Royal Military College in Sandhurst.
Was the OTC successful?
Initially, no. While thousands of University students participated, relatively few went on to earn their Certificate B status. Even fewer went on to become fully commissioned officers in the British Army.
It wasn’t until 1914 that the OTC had a measurable impact. An appeal from the British government, (published on 10 August), urgently requested for 2,000 young men to come forward and take temporary commissions in the regular army. This appeal was directed specifically towards men who were, or had been, cadets in the ‘University Training Corps’. In 1914, the university students knew what was expected of them patriotically and allegedly volunteered in such numbers that the Army struggled to find them all commissions.
Spiers claimed that ‘the military contribution of the Universities’ OTCs can be assessed as 2,298 officers gazetted as officers, including regular officers, before the outbreak of war; 9,402 commissioned from August 1914 to February 1915; and another 3,278 serving in the ranks during this period.’
University Archives – Newcastle Gazette – Vol. XV, February 1915, no. 2
The Sad Plight of Jones caught my eye while I was scanning archived copies of Newcastle University’s magazines for the WWI archival project. While humorous, it seemed to me that the cartoon could be interpreted in a rather dark manner given the date of this particular issue.
A far cry from the boyish, carefree attitude of the OTC’s beginnings, the OTC of 1915 would have likely been suffused with feelings of the impending realities of service on the front lines. The cartoon takes the reader on a quick journey through Jones and his ‘plight’: a young man sees a beautiful woman on the arm of a uniformed soldier and thus joins the OTC. As a cadet, he is expected to ‘swot’ or study hard for his examinations, but is ‘haunted’ by visions of being shelled.
If we assume the shelling is freak mishap of a summer training camp scenario gone wrong, the cartoon is rather funny indeed. But if instead it is a reference to Cadet Jones being distracted from pretty young women and his studies by visions of being shelled on the front lines of a world war… the cartoon becomes quite bleak. As a student at Newcastle University myself, I can’t help but consider my own worries in a different perspective if the latter theory is true.
How disconnected and separate must these cadets have felt from their other university peers? It certainly leads one to wonder at the degree of patriotic duty these young men must have felt to have still continued with their cadet training despite these misgivings. I feel it is important to stress that the OTC in 1915 was not contractual. Once these cadets joined, there was no legal obligation to continue… yet thousands did.
Jessica Thomas is a student at Newcastle University and a volunteer on the ‘Universities at War’ project within the Newcastle University Robinson Library Archives.
May 2016 marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Newcastle has played host to the bard’s plays ever since – in more recent times, the Royal Shakespeare Company performed almost annually at the Theatre Royal by the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1977. Unfortunately, they will not be returning in 2016.
Our Theatre Royal Playbills (RB 792 (4282) – NEW) feature many notices for performances of Shakespeare at the old Theatre Royal on Mosley Street between 1770 and 1820, including this one by a Georgian/Victorian theatre sensation and her two sisters.
King Richard The Third playbilll (RB 792 (4282)–NEW).
Clara Fisher (b.14 July 1811, London, died 12 November 1898, Jersey, U.S.) was an Anglo-American actress who inspired an enormous following in the United States. She made her stage debut in 1817, at the age of six, in a children’s adaptation of David Garrick’s Lilliput at the Drury Lane Theatre in London. Her performance in that and in excerpts from Richard III captivated the audience. She then began a 10-year period of touring up and down Great Britain, winning popular acclaim in a variety of child’s and adult’s roles.
By the time she and her sisters Amelia and Caroline started their three-night engagement at the Newcastle Theatre Royal on 17 May 1819, Clara would have been only seven years old. On the opening night, she played the leading role in ‘Shakespeare’s Historical Tragedy, called KING RICHARD THE THIRD; Or, The Battle of Bosworth Field. Clara was known for her ‘breeches parts’ (men’s roles), including Hamlet on at least one occasion. At the Theatre Royal, her sister Amelia was Henry VI, and Henry, Earl of Richmond, was played by Caroline Fisher.
On the second night, she played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, and then, on a lighter note, performed ‘A COMIC SONG. (IN CHARACTER)’.
The third, and supposedly final, night was Shakespeare-free.
Such was the success of the Fisher girls’ engagement that they were held over for an extra performance on Friday 21 May, 1819, performing ‘some of the best scenes from the most popular Plays . . .’. This included acts four and five of King Richard the Third, with the sisters reprising their ‘breeches parts’ of the previous Monday.
Fisher went to the United States in 1827 and made her debut in New York City that same year. She was a sensation – her name was given to babies, racehorses, stagecoaches, and steamboats – and she was regarded as America’s leading stage actress. Her last performance was in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1889.
This performance, and about 240 others, is promoted by notices in one volume of our Theatre Royal Playbills collection, a bound collection of ‘posters’ for the ‘old’ Newcastle Theatre Royal in Mosley Street. The bills were printed in 1819 and 1820, and are typical of the early nineteenth century – i.e. very small compared to the modern-day concept of ‘posters’ – and utilising revolutionary display typefaces which had begun to be manufactured in about 1810 for advertising.
Fittingly, the bill was printed by Edward Humble, at the Shakespeare Press. Humble was a respected local printer, and a proprietor of the County Durham Advertiser.
If you are interested in coming into the reading room to see playbill and others from the collection…
# This item is held within a volume of our Theatre Royal Playbills (Ref Code RB792(4282) NEW.
# You can place your order by linking to our request form. The reference code and title will be RB 792 (4282) – NEW – Theatre Royal Playbills.’
Newcastle University are offering over £1million in PhD funding through the Research Excellence Academy scheme for students to start a full-time PhD in autumn 2016. The University’s Children’s Literature Unit would particularly welcome applications for this funding to study our children’s literature collections.
Newcastle University’s Research Excellence Academy PhD Studentships
Each studentship covers tuition fees and living expenses for the three years of your PhD studies. There are two schemes available:
Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences: This scheme covers a number of academic subjects, including English Literature. This funding would particularly suit cross-disciplinary research proposals. The deadline for applications is 30th April 2016. See: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/funding/sources/allstudents/hrea16.html
School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics: There are a number of studentships available and your main supervisor will be based within the School of English. The department are also offering extra support to international applicants. The deadline for applications is 5pm on 16th May 2016. See: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/elll/study/postgraduate/funding/reastudentshipslitandcw.htm
Our Children’s Literature Collections
Our children’s literature collections hold great potential for academic research. As well as the Booktrust collection of contemporary children’s books, we hold a number of Special Collections children’s literature.
Britnell Collection A collection of late 19th and early 20th Century children’s literature, focusing on literacy, language, and moral instruction.
Burnett Collection A collection of children’s books and annuals published in the early to mid-20th century. Includes Timothy’s Quest (1900) and Girl’s Fun Annual (1952).
Butler Collection Includes 18th century pamphlets, books by the likes of Daniel Defoe and J.M. Barrie and titles illustrated by Randolph Caldecott.
Davin Collection Contemporary editions of popular children’s literature largely from the early 20th Century. Also includes catalogues and critical responses to children’s literature.
Chorley Collection Children’s literature chiefly from the 19th century. Includes Kate Greenaway’s Almanack for 1884, R. M. Ballantyne’s The Coral Island and the work of Randolph Caldecott.
Meade Collection Around 180 books by L.T. Meade which were published between 1878 and 2003. Titles include: The Autocrat of the Nursery, Kitty O’Donovan and The Scamp Family.
If you are considering applying for either of Newcastle University’s Research Excellence Academy studentship opportunities in children’s literature, please contact Dr. Lucy Pearson, lucy.pearson@newcastle.ac.uk / +44 (0) 191 208 3894.
To find out more about our holdings please refer to the Collections Guide. To discover how you can consult materials see Using our collections.
Research Tip # 1: Primary → Secondary → Primary
OK so this is slightly against normal advice, which is to start with your secondary sources before you move to your primary sources, but I promise I have a reason! You don’t have an unlimited amount of time to complete this dissertation … there is some danger in deciding on a very specific topic and trying to find evidence to prove a specific point: you may draw conclusions that are not supported by the sources, or miss more important or interesting information, and perhaps most importantly waste a lot of time looking for something very specific which simply does not exist, or which does exist but which can only be accessed in person in Australia, not that convenient…
So:
Research Tip # 2: Finding Rare Books
Our rare book collections here at Newcastle University have been entered onto the library catalogue, so that can often be the best way to start your topic search. Subject search terms work as they would for modern books, and then refining your search using ‘date of publication’ or ‘location’ (“Special Collections”) will get you to those rare and unique, old or limited print run titles. To locate rare books beyond the Newcastle region, the best place to start is the Copac website, where you can search the rare book catalogues of 90 specialist research libraries in the UK.
Research Tip # 3 Finding Archives
Archives are business records, diaries, letters, email threads, photographs, research notes, government publications, annual reports, web pages… They are not published books and they are not stored and catalogued in the same way that books are. All those great tricks for finding books, which you have got really good at over the last few years, will not necessarily help you to find archive records. Don’t panic! You just need to learn some new tricks.
Subject searches sometimes work, but not always. Why? Imagine someone’s diaries. They might have written about your topic once, on the 3rd of April, a long and fascinating account perhaps, but it is unlikely that anyone has subject indexed every single page of every single diary. So how will you find this precious page?
Well what do you know? Imagine you are interested in an event held in Newcastle and you are interested in the public response and reaction.
So that’s the general idea, don’t rely on search terms, think things like:
And if you are new to this type of search process, remember that the staff in Special Collections are happy to give advice.
Good luck and here are some collections held here at Newcastle University to get you thinking.
I’ve always found this letter fascinating. If anyone fancies doing some further research on this letter, do let us know what your results are!
This letter of reference is an intriguing insight into the mathematics behind the construction of Newcastle’s famous ‘Turbinia’ steamship, which can still be seen in the Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne. Who is this (female) mathematician, who seems to get little mention in the history of the Turbinia? Perhaps as a sign of the times, this letter, which appears to be a reference, is addressed to her father and does not refer personally to her by name at all. Dr G Johnstone Stoney had three daughters (who led fascinating lives in their own right in the fields of science and medicine), I would love to know which one came to Newcastle and made such an important contribution to this part of North East history.
GB186/MSA/2/22
The Turbina was an experimental vessel built by Charles Parsons to demonstrate the benefits of his revolutionary new design of steam turbines. Built by the firm of Brown and Hood, based at Wallsend on Tyne it started to undergo speed trials in 1896 and the results were pretty spectacular. By December an average speed of 29.6 knots had been reached over the measured mile whilst, with further improved propellers, 32.76 knots was achieved by April of the following year. Eventually, maximum speeds of over 34 knots were recorded. At the time it was easily the fastest ship in the world.
Obviously with a great eye for publicity, Parsons caused quite a stir when the Turbina appeared at Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Naval Review at Spithead, apparently racing between the two lines of navy ships and steaming up and down in front of the crowd. Popular legend had her appearance as unannounced; it would seem that Parsons did have permission, although perhaps the organisers did not expect such a dramatic entry!
If you are interested in coming into the reading room to see this letter …
# This item is held within the Manuscript Album (Ref Code GB186/MSA).
# You can place your order by linking to our request form. The reference code and title will be ‘GB186/MSA/2/22 Letter from Charles Algernon Parsons to George Johnstone Stoney concerning mathematical work undertaken by one of Stoney’s daughters.’
To see the ship (and its turbines!) and much more …
The Discovery Museum is close to Newcastle upon Tyne rail station and has many gems https://discoverymuseum.org.uk/
Thanks to the Discovery Museum for providing the backstory of the Turbina, http://www.webcitation.org/5xujimKGb
‘The characteristic appearance of no district in the world is more strikingly marked than is that of the North of England, the peculiar features of which are its collieries and their necessary adjuncts. The face of the country is thickly studded with the engine -houses and coal-heaps attached to respective pits… The fields and roads are crossed are crossed and intersected in every direction by the “waggon-ways” connecting the pits with their respective places of shipment… The margins of our noble rivers are fringed with the staiths and machinery, often constructed on a gigantic scale, necessary for effecting for effecting the shipment of the jetty treasure… The sea itself is blackened with our fleets of colliers, bearing the precious source of warmth and comfort to distant districts and countries, and thus diffusing wealth and happiness around…’.
Part of the opening remarks of M. Ross’ ‘Preliminary Essay on Coal and the Coal Trade’, in T.H. Hair’s A Series of Views of the Collieries in the Counties of Northumberland and Durham (1844). The quote from the title comes from the same.
Old Pit, Burdon Main, by Thomas Hair. Date unknown.
The art of Thomas Hair provides a valuable and unique visual record of the region’s mining history. Although the landscape remains scarred by the industry, and other physical remnants of the pits have survived, much more has been lost due to the process of industrialisation and the passage of time. Hair’s work affords us a contemporary view of the pits that shaped our communities and the lives of those dependant on them.
Little is known about Hair’s life. He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne around 1810, and his working life began when he trained with local engraver and lithographer Mark Lambert. Hair moved to London at some time in the late 1830s, and exhibited his work at the Suffolk Street Gallery from 1838, and several times at the Royal Academy during the 1840s. Although based in London, Hair maintained a strong affinity with the North East and continued to produce work inspired by the region during his time in the capital.
Percy Pit, Percy Main Colliery, by Thomas Hair. Date unknown.
Hair travelled the ‘Great Northern Coalfield’ of Durham and Northumberland during the early nineteenth century, sketching and painting many of the different scenes of mining life. The paintings were then taken back to his studio, where they could be turned into etched engravings, either by Hair himself or another engraver he was associated with. Much of his work relating to the coalfield was published in Sketches of the Coal Mines in Northumberland and Durham; A Series of Views of the Collieries in the Counties of Northumberland and Durham, in 1844. Frank Atkinson, who wrote the ‘Preface’ to the 1969 edition of Hair’s Sketches and Views, has commented on the technical accuracy of Hair’s depictions, as well as his ability to pick up the small details that capture the essence of the scene.
The B Pit, Fawdon Colliery, 1848, by Thomas Hair.
If a criticism can be made of Hair’s work, it is that it does not reflect the struggles and ‘everyday life’ of the miners and their communities. As Hair scholar Douglas Glendinning has noted, although miners are often pictured outside in Hair’s panoramic views of the pits, few of his depictions show the hazardous working conditions and danger involved in coal mining. However, Glendinning emphasises that many other artists also ignored the grim reality of the Industrial Revolution in order for their art to sell. Hair should therefore not be judged on this, and his work appreciated for the scenes it does portray.
Crane for Loading the Rollies, by Thomas Hair. Date unknown. This is one of the few illustrations by Hair that shows the subterranean conditions of the pit.
Although Hair had already published his artwork in Scenes and Views, his illustrations were pirated by William Fordyce, who had produced his own survey on the region’s mining industry. Fordyce’s Coal and Iron, published in 1860, used Hair’s work extensively with no credit given to the artist. Some of the illustrations were also altered to make them accurately reflect technological advances in the industry since Hair’s time. This is most obviously seen in Fordyce’s Bottom of Pit Shaft, which is a clearly altered version of Hair’s Bottom of the Shaft, Walbottle Colliery.
Bottom of the Shaft, Walbottle Colliery, 1844, by Thomas Hair.
Bottom of Pit Shaft, from Fordyce’s Coal and Iron, 1860. Note the addition of a cage on the left hand side, which replaced the corves in Hair’s original. Most prominent is the removal of the rollies and their replacement with the wheeled tubs carrying coal.
Hair died in Newcastle on 11 August 1875, and was buried in an unmarked grave in All Saints Cemetery. Although we know little about the artist himself, his art gives us an invaluable insight into the ‘The Scenery of our Native North’.
The Hair Prints- Special Collections. The prints have been digitised and can be viewed on our Collections Captured portal.
The above images have been digitised from the Hair Prints and are currently uncatalogued. Please contact lib-specenq@ncl.ac.uk for further details.
Further Reading
T.H. Hair and M. Ross, Sketches of the Coal Mines in Northumberland and Durham (1839)- Special Collections Rare Books (RB 622.09428 HAI )
T.H. Hair and M. Ross (with an introduction by Frank Atkinson), Sketches of the Coal Mines in Northumberland and Durham; A Series of Views of the Collieries in the Counties of Northumberland and Durham (1969)- Special Collections Edwin Clarke Local (Clarke 1999)
William Fordyce, Coal and Iron (1860)- Special Collections Robert White (W622.33 FOR Folio)
Douglas Glendinning, The Art of Mining; Thomas Hair’s Watercolours of the Great Northern Coalfield (Newcastle: Tyne Bridge Publishing, 2000)- Robinson Library 709.42HAI (Gle)