Where

Where to see Caldecott's work

Here are some places to see work by Randolph Caldecott. A separate page mentions places where he is remembered by plaques or memorials.

Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England

The Museum has five of Randolph's Sculptures, plus a large Collection of Randolph's pictures. 259 pictures and 7 Sketchbooks are held in the Print Rooms. For example:

"The Jackdaw and the Doves" (drawing and watercolour, 1883; a monochrome version was published in "Aesop's Fables".)
Watercolour sketch for "A Frog he would a-wooing go" (1883): click here.
See also Randolph's last picture: click here.

	Address: Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London SW7
	Print Rooms opening hours: Tues-Sat, 10:00-16:30 (but last requests must be made by 15:45). Even when open normally, they are closed throughout September & 1st week in Oct each year for stock-taking.
	Admission charge to Museum: currently (at Oct 2003) free. Some exhibitions and events carry a separate charge: see their main Website (below) for latest rates & concessions.
	Phone (General Recorded info): (020) 7942 2528
	Phone (Museums Recorded info): (020) 7942 2531
	Phone (Main switchboard): (020) 7942 2000
	Nearest Tube: South Kensington
	Main Web-site: www.vam.ac.uk
	Print Rooms URL: www.vam.ac.uk/resources/printrooms/?section=printrooms
	Excellent "Copying Caldecott" Exhibition held at V&A Jan-April 2003, showing how Beatrix Potter copied Randolph: online version: www.nal.vam.ac.uk/exhibits/caldecott/index.html
	Most of the older catalogues of the Prints & Drawings collections are now available online, at www.vam.ac.uk/pdcatalogues . They're PDF versions of the card catalogues, and thus have limited search facilities. It's quickest to do a global search for CALDECOTT (including the asterisk as a truncation symbol before and after). You should then see entries for drawings & watercolours, prints, etc. Click on these to see the PDFs (17 pages for drawings & watercolours, 32 for prints, etc). The works themselves are available via the Prints & Drawings Study Room. (Our thanks to Douglas Dodds, Head of Central Services, Word & Image Department, V&A, for this info - Jan 2006.)
	For Caldecott items in the National Art Library, go to http://catalogue.nal.vam.ac.uk and search by Name for "Caldecott, Randolph".
	Children's Book Collection URL: www.vam.ac.uk/collections/prints_books/childrens_literature/index.html Some items may be at a different address: the Beatrix Potter Study Room, Book Trust, 45 East Hill, Wandsworth, London. See Website for opening times and access details.
	For Supplementary Catalogue of Caldecott items in the V&A's Renier Collection, click here.

Heritage Centre, Whitchurch, Shropshire, England

Randolph Caldecott worked as a Bank Clerk in Whitchurch before devoting himself fully to Art. The Heritage Centre has an excellent display about him, with some of his works, interactive exhibits and prints for sale. Admission is free.

	Open: Mon-Thu 9:00-17:00, Fri 9:00-16:30, Sat 10:00-17:00. Closed Sundays.
	Address: 12 St Mary's Street, Whitchurch, Shropshire SY13 1QY
	Phone: (01948) 665 432 or 664 577.

Also at Whitchurch is St. Alkmund's Church, visible in the background of Randolph's picture of Whitchurch High Street in the Picture Book The Great Panjandrum Himself. Some High Street shops are in the "She-Bear" picture from the same book: click here.

About a mile from Whitchurch is Hinton Old Hall, depicted by Randolph in "Caldecott's Collection of Pictures and Songs". Also close to Whitchurch is Wirswall, where Randolph lodged while working for the Whitchurch & Ellesmere Bank in Whitchurch.

The British Museum, London, England

The British Museum holds a Collection of over 183 drawings and other items by Randolph Caldecott. These are not listed in their online Database, so we have obtained their permission to publish a list of titles on this Website. To see this list, click here. (Note: their printout shows 183 distinct entries. Some, eg nos 13 & 34, include more than one drawing; others, eg nos 182 & 183, are complete original and unpublished Sketch Books.)

	Example: "Ceremony of removing a piece of sculpture from the British Museum" (drawing, black chalk). Shows two workmen carrying a litter, in which a small marble fragment lies on a cushion, watched over by an official (Sir C T Newton, KCB), who walks beside down a corridor of mocking statues. Bought by the British Museum in 1886.
	These drawings are not on view, but can be examined in the Students' Room.
	This reopened on 22 Jan 2001. Opening hours thereafter: Mon-Fri: 10:00-13:00 & 14:15-16:00; Sat 10:00-13:00.
	Admission: free, but donations welcomed.
	Address: Great Russell Street, London WC1
	Nearest Tube station: Russell Square (Piccadilly Line) or Tottenham Court Road (Central & Northern Lines)
	Phone (general enquiries): (020) 7323 8000
	Website: www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk

(Sources of info: Jenny Ramkalawon, Curator, Prints Dept, Jan 2001; Martin Royalton-Kisch, Senior Curator, Oct 2003).

Birmingham City Museum & Art Gallery, England

One or more of the illustrations to "John Gilpin". [More details of items held are being sought.]

	Address: Chamberlain Square, Birmingham B3 3DH, England
	Open: Mon-Thu & Sat 10:00-17:00; Fri 10:30-17:00; Sun 12:30-17:00
	Phone: (0121) 303 2834.

Aberdeen City Art Gallery and Museums, Scotland

Self portrait by Randolph Caldecott. One of a Collection of self-portraits by successful artists, donated to the Gallery by Lord McDonald.

	Address: Schoolhill, ABERDEEN, Scotland, AB9 1FQ
	Phone: (01224) 523 700
	Web site: www.aagm.co.uk/

(This picture is reproduced with the Gallery's permission from a transparency taken by them but commissioned by the Society in Sept 2001.)

Worcester City Museum & Art Gallery, England

A significant Collection of Randolph Caldecott's works and papers is held at this Museum, but most items are not currently on display. To see or study them, contact the Curator before visiting.

	Address: Foregate Street, WORCESTER, WR1, England
	Phone: (01905) 25371
	Don't confuse this with "Worcester Art Museum" in Massachusetts, USA!

London, England: St. Bride Institute and Printing Library

They hold the original Printing Blocks of "The Milkmaid", plus 24 items relating to Edmund Evans, the engraver and printer of so many of Randolph Caldecott's best-known works - including Evans's "reminiscences".

	Address: Bride Lane, Fleet Street, London EC4Y 8EQ, England
	Tel (Institute): 020 7353 3331, Fax: 020 7353 1547 Tel (Library): 020 7353 4660, Fax: 020 7583 7073
	Library Hours: Tuesday 12.00–5.30pm, Wednesday 12.00–9.00pm, Thursday 12.00–5.30pm.
	Websites: www.stbrideinstitute.org , Library www.stbride.org
	To email the Library: use the form on their website.

Manchester, England: Whitworth Art Gallery

Of Randolph's works, this Gallery has:
his oil painting of John Gilpin's Ride (for picture, click here);
The Farmer's Boy; The Three Jovial Huntsmen;
Randolph Caldecott's Last 'Graphic' Pictures;
The Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book; and
Plate from "The House that Jack built".

	Address: The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M15 6ER England
	Phone (recorded info): (0161) 275 7452
	Web site (with Database of works held): http://www.whitworth.man.ac.uk

Manchester, England: City Art Gallery

Of Randolph's paintings, this Gallery has:
a very small one (21 x 30 cm) called The Girl I Left Behind Me.
(The title and subject matter is that of a Song which was well known in Victorian Britain.)
This Gallery had a Christmas Exhibition about Randolph Caldecott, with examples of his work, 13 Dec 1977 - 28 Jan 1978. This Exhibition included a rare appearance of Randolph's sculpted cat, loaned from the V&A. Also shown were in-situ pictures of decorative panels painted by Randolph for Mr Renshaw's house in Buxton, Derbyshire: sadly, since the Exhibition these have been sold and we don't know their whereabouts today. Copies of the Catalogue, though long out of print, may still surface occasionally.

	Address: Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester M2 3JL, England
	Opening hours: Tues-Sun 10:00-17:00. Closed Mondays except Bank Hols.
	Admission: Free.
	Phone: (0161) 235 8888
	Web site: www.manchestergalleries.org/collections/Display.php?irn=108&QueryPage=%2Fcollections%2FIntro.php
	Another web site with some info: http://www.speel.demon.co.uk/other/manch.htm

Museum & Art Gallery, Worthing, West Sussex, England

The Colin Mears Collection includes a number of Randolph Caldecott's books, including Jack and the Beanstalk by Hallam Tennyson, illustrated by Randolph Caldecott.

	Address: Chapel Road, Worthing, West Sussex BN11 1HP
	Phone: (01903) 239 999
	Email: worthing_museum@breathemail.net

National Register of Archives (NRA), UK

The NRA is part of the Historical Manuscripts Commission:

www.hmc.gov.uk/sheets/intro.htm

The NRA "is a central point for the collection and dissemination of information about the nature and location of manuscripts relating to British history. It currently consists of some 43,000 unpublished lists and catalogues that describe archival holdings in the United Kingdom and abroad." It has five online indexes: the business index, the organisations index, the personal index, the families and estates index and the diaries and papers index. Major figures who appear in the Directory of National Biography (including Randolph Caldecott) are included under the personal index. The entry for "Caldecott, Randolph" has the 5 records shown below:

GB/NNAF/P4555
Caldecott, Randolph (1846-1886) Artist
Explain this entry

1867-85 : letters (21) to John Numerley, some illustrated with drawings (12), also biographical information
      Victoria & Albert Museum, National Art Library
      Reference : MS.L.1980/38
      NRA 38891 V & A Museum
       APR Comments (see below): Access by appointment only
c1870-86 : corresp, sketchbooks, etc
      Harvard University: Houghton Library
      Reference : MS Eng 784
      NRA 20129 Harvard Univ MSS

1878-1885 : letters (36) to Frederick Locker-Lampson
      Harvard University: Houghton Library
      see See NRA 12288, Appendix II
      APR Comments (see below): Access by appointment only

correspondence with Juliana Ewing, the author, nd (c1870s)
      Sheffield Archives
      Reference : 63 [link to online catalogue]
      NRA 217 Hunter Soc
      APR Comments (see below): Access by appointment only

1884-85 : letters (4) to Stapleton Caldecott (his cousin)
      Cheshire and Chester Archives and Local Studies
      Reference : CR625
      NRA 25024 CCRO misc
      [The APR (see below) says these date from 1877 to 1896 - but by 1896 Randolph had been dead 10 years!]

The separate "Artists' Papers Registry" (APR) includes all these, plus a further 7 records,
and helpfully indicates date last updated, 7 Nov 2002:

Artists' files (11), 20th C
Held at: Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Document reference: Artists' Files (Prints and Drawings Dept)

Artists' file containing correspondence, newspaper cuttings, catalogues and other ephemera relating to Caldecott, a Chester-born artist, 1961-1993
Held at: Grosvenor Museum, 27 Grosvenor Street, Chester, Tel: 01244 402008
Document reference: Artists' Files A-Z
[Note: these are not letters to or from Randolph himself, but just papers of recent correspondence about him by the Museum, which produced an Exhibition for the 150th anniversary of his birth in 1996.]

Illustrated letters (5), 1864-1873
Held at: Shropshire Records and Research Centre
Document reference: 6000/19560-64
Comments: Access by appointment

Letter from Walter Crane to Isidore Spielmann, concerning his work with illustrators Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, 1905
Held at: Victoria & Albert Museum, National Art Library
Document reference: L.4250-1970
Comments: Access by appointment

Letter from, to Sir James Linton; also letter from, to Agnews, 1885; 1883
Held at: Victoria & Albert Museum, National Art Library
Document reference: MSL/1980/1/36; MSL/1980/24/23
Comments: Access by appointment

Letters (3) from, to various, 1874, 1883, 1884
Held at: Victoria & Albert Museum, National Art Library
Document reference: MSL/1934/4195/3; MSL/1979/7461/74; MSL/1913/2322
Comments: Access by appointment

Memorials

- see next page: click here or on the "Memorials" button below.

This list is not comprehensive, but will be added-to. If you know of other relevant exhibits or places, please Email us with details at the address at the bottom of this page.

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