My name is Zoe and I am an Assistant Archivist. I joined UAL in August 2022 to catalogue the Katharine Hamnett Sustainable Fabric Archive at London College of Fashion. Katharine Hamnett is a fashion designer and activist. She was an early advocate for sustainability in the fashion industry. The archive includes over 1000 sustainable fabric samples from the 1990s to 2010s that she used in her research and her designs.
The Barbara Sawyer archive
After finishing the Katherine Hamnett project, the Archives and Special Collections Centre invited me to catalogue the Barbara Sawyer Archive. Barbara Sawyer was a textile artist. She taught at Camberwell College of Arts from the 1950s until her death in 1982. The archive spans her life and career. It contains artworks and documents from her time as a student, as a teacher and as an artist.
After Sawyer died, the College gave the contents of her office to Camberwell’s BA Conservation course. Students used the archive to learn how treat and care for works of art. This intervention with the archive has become part of its story. It expresses the spirit of Sawyer’s teaching. She often used notes and work from her time as a student later as teaching material.
The cataloguing process
Katherine Hamnett’s and Barbara Sawyer’s archives have many similarities. The main are that they are both textile-based and were previously uncatalogued.
What is an uncatalogued archive? It means that the process of arranging or describing the collection is not complete.
Archives are created organically, as evidence of an individual’s or an organisation’s activity. This is different to a 'special collection' which is a curated group of objects.
A main priority for archivists is to preserve as much of the original order of an archive while making it accessible. We do this through the cataloguing process. This involves ordering, numbering, and making the records visible through an online platform.
Boxing up
Archivists also box objects to reflect the numbering given during cataloguing. Boxing objects properly is important for conservation because it stops damage from light, pests and other environmental factors.
Often, when archives first come under institutional care they have not been looked after in a way which prevents damage. This is because their creator never intended for their objects or documents to become an archive or have historical longevity.
Conservation challenges in textile collections
Over the past two projects I have dealt with two conservation issues. In the Katharine Hamnett Sustainable Fabric Archive, two of the fabric samples had unknown deposits on them. In this case a specialist conservator undertook work to remove the damage. On inspecting the Barbara Sawyer Archive I found possible evidence of insects. Pests which eat textiles can cause a lot of damage. I arranged for the samples to be frozen. Freezing archive objects comes with its own risks. You must take care not to trap air in the sealed bags with the objects in. If moisture in the air inside the bag freezes to the fibres of the artwork, it could damage the object.
Detective work
I always enjoy working with uncatalogued archives, despite the occasional conservation issues. Every time I open a box, I never know what I will find.
There is also detective work which goes into cataloguing an archive. You need to investigate it contents and its arrangement to understand the creator's activity and intentions. It can feel like solving a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. These aspects of archival work appeal to those people with an inquisitive mind and desire for every day to be different.
Accessing the collection
If you have any questions about accessing the Barbara Sawyer Archive, please contact us at archive-enquiries@arts.ac.uk.