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The Whitechapel Gallery’s archives hold records generated by the Gallery in the course of its activities since its founding in 1901. The holdings include rare documents, artist’s letters, photographs, graphic works, press records, exhibition and installation plans, publications, recordings on tape and videos of artists, critics and curators. These materials are organised into several categories and researchers may click on a collection’s unique reference number to access the records’ description on the online catalogue.
The Catalogue is available here.
Below is a list of contents held by the Whitechapel Gallery Archive.
(WAG/EAR) Pre-1947 Gallery accounts including records related to the Gallery’s establishment 1893 – 1901 (WAG/EAR/1), directors’ and secretaries’ correspondence (WAG/EAR/2), financial accounts (WAG/EAR/3) and records of our first exhibition (WAG/EAR/4).
Please see the Highlights of our early records collection here.
The Catalogue is available here.
(WAG/DIR) Spanning the period 1947 to present, this series contains the personal files of Whitechapel Gallery directors. These provide an overview of the thinking behind exhibition planning, fundraising and the organisation’s identity. They include files of unrealised exhibitions, administration, finance and unique correspondence with artists. These papers are organized chronologically by directors: Hugh Scrutton, 1947 – 1952, Bryan Robertson, 1952 – 1969, Mark Glazebrook 1969 – 1971, Jennie Stein 1971 – 1974, Jasia Reichardt 1974 – 1976 and Nicholas Serota 1976 – 1988, Catherine Lampert 1988 – 2001, Iwona Blazwick 2001 – 2022, Gilane Tawadros 2022 – present.
Directors’ papers contain more personal records of the Whitechapel gallery directors, sometimes their diaries and agendas, and correspondence with the artists. Mostly these papers cover unrealised exhibitions or projects not directly related to the exhibitions. For the period 1901-1948, such papers are included in the ‘Early Records’. The documents produced from 1948 to the present and related to the realized exhibitions have been mostly moved to the ‘Exhibition files’. The documents related to the educational activity, community projects, different art awards, and committees for 1948-1979 are kept here, in the Directors’ papers. Since the creation of the Education Department in 1979, part of them, but not all, are kept with ‘Education Files’.
The Catalogue is available here.
The exhibition files have been maintained systematically and date from 1947 – to present (WAG/EXH/2). They typically contain correspondence with artists, galleries, owners of works, records on hanging, catalogues, transport, sponsorship, insurance and condition reports. The Exhibition Files also contain the sub-category of Tape/Slide Production (WAG/EXH/3) which includes correspondence and scripts regarding the production of the tapes/slides which are housed within the Audio-visual Materials.
Please see the Highlights of our exhibition files here.
The Catalogue is available here.
(WAG/PHOT) The main series of photographic records begins in 1900 and contains photographs of exhibitions and artworks, press, building shots as well as photographs from private views and other Whitechapel events.
Please see the Highlights of our photography collection here.
The principal series is the exhibition catalogues from 1882 (WAG/PUB/1) including the Director’s bound set (WAG/PUB/1/D).
The posters for exhibitions from 1956 (WAG/PUB/2).
Please see the Highlights of our poster collection here.
The press cuttings maintained intermittently from 1897 and systematically from 1948 (WAG/PUB/4).
Our collection of press cuttings covers the whole history of the Whitechapel Gallery, from the very beginning, even before the present-day building was opened in 1901. Almost every exhibition was reviewed on the pages of the contemporary press, along with other events, such as the great painting robbery or the arrival of ‘Guernica’ by Pablo Picasso.
The guard books maintained from 1949, containing ephemera and printed publicity from each exhibition (WAG/PUB/5).
The relevant Catalogue is available here.
This series begins in 1979 when the Education Department was formally founded and contains mainly individual artists’ projects with local schools and recent records of other education events and projects (WAG/EDU).
Education Files reflects the history of the now Participation Department at the Whitechapel Gallery. Different directions were taken from the beginning, namely, Community and Youth programmes, School-related activities, such as lectures, workshops, talks, and walks, artists in schools, artists in residence, and many more.
There are other, earlier documents on the education activity, which are distributed in other Collections, such as ‘Early Records’ for 1901-1948, ‘Directors Papers’ and ‘Exhibition Files’ for 1948-1979. Some other traces can be even seen in the ‘Trustee files’ and in the Education part of the ‘Photography’ collection.
See parts of the catalogue here.
The collection of audio-visual material includes recordings of talks, conferences and other events held at the Whitechapel Gallery, interviews with artists and curators and audio-visual documentation of past exhibitions. As the cataloguing is currently in progress we may not be able to make the full volume of these records available to researchers. Please note that all material dating from 2009 onwards is in a digital format and fully accessible.
Please see the highlights of the collection here.
The Catalogue is not available yet. The records are being updated.
This series of records (WAG/TRU) includes the minutes and correspondence of the Whitechapel Gallery Trustees, the minutes of the Finance subcommittee, the minutes and correspondence of the Whitechapel Art Gallery Foundation trustees and the annual reports and accounts. The Whitechapel Art Gallery is governed by a trust scheme which provides for a board of sixteen trustees. The first chair of the gallery trustees was Canon Barnett who was also the founder of the Whitechapel Art Gallery.
Some highlights of Trustees files in the collection are available here.
The Catalogue is available here.
(WAG/GAL), 1898 – 1995 contain files on the management of the building as well as architects’ plan series for the original 1901 building, the Colquhoun-Miller rebuild of 1983 as well as the 2009 development of the former Edward Passmore Library building.
The Catalogue is available here.
(WAG/SOC) running from 1948 – 1987 these records relate to the activities of The Whitechapel Gallery Society which was formed in Feb 1948 to support the gallery financially through private and business subscription and to serve as an opinion forming body on gallery policy. The Society became less active in the 1960s, was relaunched in 1970 and finally dissolved in 1978.
The Catalogue is available here.
