Catalogue description Tate Gallery: Tate Publishing: Correspondence and Publications

Records in this series were produced by the Tate Publishing Department and comprise:
Publications Sub-Committee, 1955-1966
Correspondence, 1928-1960
Print production, 1897-1970s

Archive catalogue page is available via the Tate website

Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated

The records have either been deposited in the archives via the Director's Office or had previously been transferred to Gallery Records or its predecessors.

Two copies of each Tate publication are held in the Tate Library.

• Museums and galleries

The Publications Department was established in 1931 as an independent publishing and trading body. It was accountable to the Board of Trustees who were responsible for its policy and finances and was governed on their behalf by the Publications Sub-Committee. The operation was originally financed out of the AH Benson Trust Fund. Since repaying its founding capital to the Gallery in 1955, the operation has financed itself out of profits generated from its activities. On 1 April 1996 Tate Gallery Publishing was incorporated as a company limited by share, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery with its own Board of Directors. TGPL has the status of an exempt charity, supporting the educational objects of the Gallery, and all profits generated by the company are covenanted to the Gallery. In 2001 TGPL became part of Tate Enterprises.

Tate Publishing encompasses shops, publishing activities, licensing, the picture library; internet sales, joint ventures and product development, all in support of the Gallery's programme of exhibitions and displays, and in its wider fields of interest.