Costume and Set Designs
Props
Photographs
The Avery Hill Nativity Play 1952
The University Christmas Card: A history
Avery Hill – 1906-1916
Not necessarily a Christmas Card, but our only one from Avery Hill College. Sometime between 1906, and 1916 when the Southwood Halls were completed, and Bronte, Fry, Grey, Sommerville, and Roper (Southwood House) students dined in their own hall. Mansion, and Eliot (day-students) moved to the old mansion dining room.
Woolwich Polytechnic – 1917
This image in the January 1917 Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine shows the Christmas card sent to staff and former students serving in WW1. We do not have a copy of the original card as it was sent by the Athletics Club which was equivalent to the Students Union; different only in that students could remain as members after they had left.
Woolwich Polytechnic – College of Engineering and Science
Thames Polytechnic – undated
University of Greenwich – undated
University of Greenwich – Digital Card
International Women’s Day 2021
Sadly the Annual Archive Lecture ‘The Women Who Made Avery Hill’ has again had to be cancelled. Lecture IV 2021 was to be about the teaching staff and their own HE.
Instead here are the imges of staff which were to be used in the lecture.
ARCHIVE REMEMBER: Doomed Youth
On November 11th 1998, the 80th anniversary of the Armistice, a new University War Memorial was dedicated in the Woolwich Island Site buildings; it is now in the south entrance to the Dreadnought Building. It was deigned by Peter Doyle, a member of University staff after painstaking research to recreate the three lost memorials for Woolwich Polytechnic and Polytechnic Secondary Schools students and staff, and members of the Athletic Club. To mark the Centenary, in National Archives week, we have produced a memorial poster for each of the lost.
ARCHIVE REMEMBERED – Armistice 100
Using the poster produced by the Nation Archives we have commemorated the centenary of the Armistice with a collection of images and text from records in the University Archive relating to the First World War. The posters are on display in the Mansion Library at Avery Hill and the exhibition space in Stockwell Street.
Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine – Christmas in the trenches 1915
Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine – The Sturton brothers
Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine – Arthur Illtyd Wates Horlock
Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine – ‘To Absent Ones’ Christmas Card
Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine – Pro Patria
Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine – Editorial Notes
Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine – News from the trenches
Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine – Christmas Day 1915
Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine – A letter from Picardy
Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine – A letter from the trenches
Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine – Pro Patria
Avery Hill – Groundsmen and Gardeners enlisted
Avery Hill – Southwood Hospital
Avery Hill – Captain Arthur North
World Theatre Day
World Theatre Day was established 55 years ago today, showcasing the performing arts and promoting all the varied forms of theatre . To coincide with this the University of Greenwich would like to share some exclusive behind the scenes photographs of The Critic: or, a Tragedy Rehearsed by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. First performed in 1779, and was recreated by students in November 1960 at Avery Hill College. These photographs show the creation of the set, costume making and even the students putting make-up on before the show.
The archive holds a lot of photographs of plays performed at Avery Hill College, so we rarely see these behind the scenes shots. From many of the former students testimonials, they all state how much they enjoyed the plays and mentioned how it was one of the best things to take part in at Avery Hill College.
The Show must go on:
In Honour of Rachel McMillan
Today not only marks Rachel McMillan’s 158th birthday, but it is also the centenary of her death. Our very first blog post was about the woman who campaigned for better health and educational standards for children, along with her sister Margaret, so we would like to share some more treasures of her life that the Archive holds. The reason the McMillan sisters are fondly remembered is because they helped children by taking them out of the slums to improve their health and education through outdoor rehabilitation. They believed that fresh air and play were the best things to improve a child’s health, so their nursery had open-air shelters for the children to learn and rest. Each child also had their own hair and toothbrush at the nursery.
Rachel’s reputation is remembered due to her sister, Margaret, naming the school the Rachel McMillan Nursery School after she had died , which is still continuing her legacy today on McMillan street in Deptford. She also went on to write a biogoraphy on Rachel in 1927 entitled The Life of Rachel McMillan.
We would like to share some photographs that the archive holds of Rachel’s life and the amazing work she carried out, as this is one of the biggest collections the University of Greenwich holds. From her childhood portraits with her sister, to Evelyn House and the daily life of the children who resided there which included outdoor play and drilling with the occasional celebrity visitor. The McMillan collection at the University of Greenwich is one of the most requested collections to look at in our archives, showing that her work is still relevant and inspiring to this day.
International Women’s Day: The Education of Women and Girls at Woolwich Polytechnic, Day Schools For Girls
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, we here at Greenwich Archives have decided to write a blog post about the Needham sisters who attended Day School For Girls At Woolwich Polytechnic from 1922 to 1927.
The Woolwich Polytechnic School was very unique in that it was the only School to run mixed-gendered classes. The Girls’ Technical School was established in 1906, after much opposition, but only to teach Dress Making and Domestic Science which included courses such as Cookery, Laundry Work, and Housewifery. The school was opened to girls between 13½ and 15½ years of age. The Dress Making course extended for two years and all girls who entered for that full period were then awarded with certificates at the end.
The family of the Needham sisters gave a collection of fashion designs and needlework samples done by Irene and Nona to the Greenwich Archive; this is one of our most visually interesting collections in the Archive. The collection contains their original lesson notes for the Dress Making Course. The lesson notes appears to have been categorized into three parts; (1) Design (2) History of Fashion from Ancient Egyptian through to the 19th century (3) Student’s own designs.
Here are some of Irene Needham’s scanned examples from the sheets.
Here are some scanned examples of Nona Needham’s work.
World Wildlife Day
World Wildlife Day is dedicated to spreading awareness about the world’s wild animals and plants and the theme this year is ‘Listen to the Young Voices’. We would like to celebrate by sharing some incredible illustrations created by a former student at Avery Hill College which can be found in our archive. Ada Lightowlers attended Avery Hill College in 1921-23, she studied Biology and Nature Study whilst training to become a teacher. In her workbook she notes that Nature Study goes far beyond flora and fauna and that children should be taught more about the ‘natural phenomena’ and its dependence on the climate. One main problem the world faces today is the conservation of these ‘phenomena’, which is something that archives can also relate to in the wonders found within them.
Her workbooks range from Birds and Butterflies to Insects and flowers and are all incredibly detailed with lengthy descriptions of each species. She even goes as far as detailing the differences between a Moth and Butterfly. These illustrations are incredibly meticulous, however her teacher can be seen commenting on Ms. Lightowlers work questioning the scale of her drawings.
PALLADIO’S I QVATTRO LIBRE DELL’ ARCHITETTURA (The Four Books of Architecture)
To commemorate it being World Book Day I will be posting up a blog presenting pictures from an old and rare book written by Italian Architect Andrea Palladio called ‘I QVATTRO LIBRE DELL’ ARCHITETTURA’ (The Four Books of Architecture), which was published in 1570.
The original copies are written in Italian and Latin, however there are English translations of this book which where published in 1716 in Britain. This book has remarkable artwork with a detailed front page to the book (the first picture below) and clear illustrations of buildings and the inner structure of such complicated and exquisite architecture.
It is easy to tell that this book was very informative for its time with such detail to its illustrations and its various translations over the years, making this book that much more fascinating. (The copy available to us is written in Latin by the way)
