File: lectures and exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Scope and Content

File of correspondence and papers relating to lectures Strachan delivered at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and to exhibitions of material from his collection which were held at the Museum. This has been broken down into bundles as follows:

  • /1 Typescript draft of Strachan's 1963 lecture, 'The artist and the book in France, 1932-1963', along with a flyer advertising this and other forthcoming lectures, and a letter to Strachan from the Director of the Museum.
  • /2 Press notice issued by the Museum advertising Strachan's lecture 'The livre d'artiste', to be held on 4 October 1979.
  • /3 Notice displayed at the Museum in January 1983 relating to an exhibition of livres d'artiste from Strachan's collection; stored with a photocopy of a cutting (original dating from 1967); Geoffrey Strachan notes that both documents are misleading in that Walter Strachan was not rich enough to buy livres d'artiste in the 1940s and 1950s; rather he went to artists offering to write about their books, and encourage the Victoria and Albert Museum to buy them; he also asked them for pages of text and illustrations which he could study, show and reproduce.
  • /4 Bundle of papers relating to 'Jean Lurçat: man and artist, 1892-1966', Strachan's last public lecture, given at the Museum on 17 November 1990. Includes correspondence with Museum staff, letters from others who attended the lecture, Strachan's lecture notes; and publicity material.
  • /5 Bundle of papers relating to 'A parliament of owls: French graphic owls from the collection of Walter Strachan', an exhibition held at the Museum in 1991, and papers relating to the collection of 58 prints, drawings and paintings of owls which Strachan bequeathed to the Museum in 1993. Includes correspondence with Museum staff, publicity material, Strachan's notes, and cuttings and photocopies of articles dating from an earlier period but relating to Strachan's owl collection.
  • /6 Bundle of papers relating to 'Three masters of copper engraving: Roger Vieillard, Albert Flocon and Abram Krol', Strachan's last exhibition, held at the Museum in 1994. Geoffrey Strachan notes that his father wrote the exhibition catalogue, but was unable to visit the exhibition in person; he died on 14 March, two days before the exhibition opened. The material includes correspondence with Museum staff, a copy of the exhibition catalogue and some notes by Strachan.
  • /7 Bundle of correspondence between Strachan and Elizabeth Esteve-Coll, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, dating from 1989-1994.