Catalogue description The Ladies of Miller's: records of the Byng, Stamper, Byng-Stamper, and Byng-Lucas families, and of Miller's Gallery and Press 134 High Street, Lewes

The records listed below relate to Miller's Gallery, its founders Frances Byng-Stamper and her sister Caroline Byng-Lucas, and to their families. Miller's was opened, at 134 High Street, Lewes, in July 1941, with the express aim of promoting the arts in Sussex, particularly painting, and disseminating, in the words of their original publicity pamphlet, those spiritual vitamins which the arts provide. The first exhibition included works by Pissarro, Cezanne, Matisse and Augustus John, and during the next five years the Ladies of Miller's organised nearly fifty exhibitions, lectures and recitals, gaining the gallery a considerable reputation. At the end of the war the sisters established the Miller's Press, also in Lewes, and set about encouraging a revival of lithography. Success led to the establishment of the Society of London Painter-Printers, and the dissemination of work to the Continent and the Commonwealth. Also present in this group are records relating to abortive attempts to establish a theatre in the Tabernacle Congregational Church, Lewes, and letters from Henry Moore and Vanessa Bell

However, by the mid-1950s old age forced the disbanding of Miller's Press, and with the deaths of Caroline Byng-Lucas in 1967 and Frances Byng-Stamper in 1968, the gallery was demolished. Few records of their wide-ranging ventures survived, and it is clear that these documents represent a fraction of what was once a considerable archive - it is known that damp and mouldy correspondence' was destroyed soon after the death of Frances. Memories of the eccentric pair have also been preserved, and a candid account of them can be found in Diana Crook's article Bloomsbury in Sussex, Country Life, 16 Apr 1987 (AMS6333/33)

A copy of Diana Crook's book The Ladies of Miller's (1996) is available in the searchroom library

Deposited with the Sussex Archaeological Society on 19 Jul 1971 (SAS ACC 1296) and 10 Aug 1971 (SAS ACC 1299). Transferred to the East Sussex Record Office on 21 Jun 1982 (ACC 3469, 3595)