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Catalogue description Tate Gallery: Directors: Papers and Correspondence
This record is held by Tate Gallery Archive
| Reference: | TG 2 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Tate Gallery: Directors: Papers and Correspondence |
| Description: |
Records of the Directors and Keepers of the Tate Gallery comprising:
The minutes of Board of Trustees meetings before 1917 consist of extracts copied from the National Gallery Board minutes. There are few acquisition files or other records from this period. Although runs of files do start in the 1920s, many of these were either damaged of destroyed in the flood of 1928. Because of the early lack of specialisation of the staff the earliest extant administrative files are labelled general correspondence and miscellaneous correspondence. These cover matters such as purchases declined, loans, copyright, general enquiries and bequests. Subject files dealing with topics such as the war and opening hours were also kept. Records held at the Tate Gallery are catalogued more fully in its online catalogue (reference TG 2). Online descriptions of some individual records can also be viewed on Discovery, The National Archives' online catalogue, see TG 2. |
| Date: | 1912-1987 |
| Arrangement: |
By the early 1990s it was recognised that the records of the Director's Office needed to be re-organised and a system was put in place which classed records into five core areas: statutory and official bodies; individuals; UK museums and galleries; foreign museum and galleries; institutions. These classes have been used to form the basis of the archival arrangement of the Director's Office records. |
| Related material: |
For staff records of individual directors see TG 15 |
| Held by: | Tate Gallery Archive, not available at The National Archives |
| Legal status: | Public Record(s) |
| Language: | English |
| Physical description: | 196 file(s) |
| Access conditions: | Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated |
| Immediate source of acquisition: |
The records are held by the central registry and passed directly into the Public Records once they reach thirty years of age. |
| Administrative / biographical background: |
There have been eight Directors and Keepers of the Tate since its foundation in 1897. The post was originally held by a Keeper who was under the authority of the Director of the National Gallery. The establishment of a separate Board of Trustees for the Tate in 1917 was accompanied by an upgrading of the post to Director. The Director became the accounting officer for the Gallery following the National Gallery and Tate Gallery Act 1954. The Director's office formed the core of the Gallery's administration for much of its early history. Prior to 1917 the Tate's records were the responsibility of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The staff of the Gallery in its early years was very small. In 1897 it consisted, apart from attendants and police, of the Keeper and his clerk. In 1921 an additional assistant was appointed. After 1941 the administrative staff of the Gallery reverted to the Director and one administrative assistant. By 1954 it had grown to include the Director, two deputy keepers, two assistant keepers, an executive officer and a librarian. The Publications Department, run as a separate concern by the Trustees, financed another three junior administrative posts in the Gallery. Many of the tasks initially undertaken by the Director's Office have now passed to other departments, e.g. bequests now form part of the Collections filing. Keepers:
Directors:
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