England Occupations Art and Amusement (National Institute)

Visual Arts
Similarly much exists on the visual arts, and is easily found in libraries. A few of the less well-known are:


 * A general source on Artists, including painters, sculptors, designers, craftspeople, design groups and studios is the Artists Papers Register.


 * The art of engraving is covered by Hurley (The Book of Trades or Library of the Useful Arts. Vol II. Wiltshire Family History Society, 1991).


 * Hurley (The Book of Trades or Library of the Useful Arts. Vol II. Wiltshire Family History Society, 1991) also describes painting, and Dixon (A Heritage of Anglian Crafts. Minimax Books, Peterborough, Northamptonshire, 1981) covers the decoration of articles called lovage. Hurst (Maritime Pictures. Family Tree Magazine Vol 10 #8, page 3-4) deals with tracing maritime painters.


 * Photography has been here since 1840; Hannavy’s books (Shire Publications) on Victorian photographers and the pioneer Fox Talbot are well worth reading, as is Moffat (Victorian Photographers in the Family. Family Tree Magazine Vol 10 #3, page 16-17). Pritchard’s Directory of London Photographers 1841-1908 is a valuable source for photographers as well as the history of photography and he helpfully lists similar publications for other cities.


 * Slate etching is a novel craft described by Dixon (A Heritage of Anglian Crafts. Minimax Books, Peterborough, Northamptonshire).


 * Stained glass making is covered by Dixon (A Heritage of Anglian Crafts. Minimax Books, Peterborough, Northamptonshire), Wymer (English Town Crafts. A Survey of Their Development from Early Times to the Present Day. Batsford, London, 1949), and Harries and Hicks (Discovering Stained Glass. Shire Publications).


 * The sculptor or statuary’s work is covered by Hurley (The Book of Trades or Library of the Useful Arts. Vol II. Wiltshire Family History Society, 1991).


 * Artistic straw products are described by Staniforth (Straw and Straw Craftsmen. Shire Publications, 1981).

Writing
Biographies of authors can be found in the usual biographical dictionaries. An unusual source which is available on microfilm, (starting at film 1473489 and indexed at the end of the film run), is the case files and minutes of the archives of the Royal Literary Fund 1790-1918. They contain applications, supported by all kinds of fascinating documentation, for financial help from authors, their widows or dependents. These are not just literary authors but include explorers, scientists, clergymen, politicians, lawyers and others who had been published. Some examples from the minutes of the Literary Fund Committee are shown below.

CHART: Examples from Royal Literary Fund Minutes

One can then refer to the Case Files, and in is that for Mrs. Jean Burns, widow of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. The list of contents below and the items themselves contain considerable detail about the family.

CHART: Jean Burns File from Royal Literary Fund

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