Back to the classroom: the Central Saint Martins Museum & Study Collection and Central Lettering Record (CLR)

Abstract:

The museum at the college has its origins in a teaching collection set up in 1895 by London’s Technical education board under the direction of W R Lethaby, the founding principal of the Central school of arts & crafts (the Central). Holdings relevant to graphic design and typography students include manuscripts, printed books from the C15 onwards, and original works by alumni and staff such as Edward Johnston, Eric Gill, and others.

The Central lettering record (CLR) is a collection of images and artefacts about all aspects of lettering begun by Nicholas Biddulph with photographs by James Mosley in c.1963. The collection was developed by Biddulph and Nicolete Gray, and now also includes photographs by Alan Bartram as well as the current curators Phil Baines & Catherine Dixon.

After a period of time locked away in the Library the CLR is, through the determined efforts of Baines & Dixon, once again located within the studio environment and a working part of the Graphic communication programme’s resource. Along with the Museum & study collection it is actively used to support teaching, learning and research at the college, and through both collections it is possible to offer a view of the development of writing, lettering and type design from Roman lettering, through illuminated manuscripts, incunabula and early printed books to the development of the private presses in the 20th century and to the current digital era.