Collections of Digitised Archive Items

Ian Breakwell
*‘Dancing Strangers’, a booklet of photographs and captions put together by Ian Breakwell for his work, ‘Ghost Dance (aka Dancing Strangers)’*
Tate Archive
© The estate of Ian Breakwell

Tate Archive contains more than one million items on artists, art world figures and art organisations in Britain documenting the history of fine art practice in the UK. This includes letters, writings, sketchbooks, audio-visual material, photographs, ephemera, press cuttings and objects.

More than 75,000 of these, including material by artists such as Francis Bacon, Felicia Browne, Aubrey Williams, Ithell Colquhoun, and Paul Nash, can now be viewed online.

You can browse the collections below, or search for specific artists, themes, or subjects in the search bar. To narrow down your results, use quotation marks around a particular search interest (e.g. "Manchester", or '"Barbara Ker-Seymer" theatre')

As well as browsing the collections online, you can:

Learn about the stories behind Tate’s archives with this video series
Consult material in person by visiting the Reading Rooms at Tate Britain

You can find out more about our approach to archive digitisation by referring to our online toolkit produced as part of the HLF funded Archives & Access project (2012–2017).

Collections of Digitised Archive Items

Archive collections

Showing 1–100 of 105 digitised collections

Personal papers and artworks of Robert Adams

Sketchbooks of Jankel Adler

Correspondence and small art works from Paul Nash and general correspondence to Eileen Agar

Photograph collection belonging to Eileen Agar

Personal papers of and artworks by Eileen Agar

The personal papers of Kenneth Armitage

Personal papers of Kenneth Armitage

Self-portraits Commissioned by Art News and Review

Material relating to works by Conrad Atkinson

Material relating to William Furlong’s Audio Arts Magazine

Papers of Michael Ayrton

Drawings and notes about paintings by Francis Bacon

Papers, photographs and correspondence of John Banting

The papers of Anita Bartle

Photograph albums and negatives by Vanessa Bell

Seventy five drawings and sketchbooks by James Boswell, the graphic artist, illustrator and painter

Personal Papers of Ian Breakwell

Forty one sketches, prints and one unfinished oil painting by Dorothy Brett

Personal papers of Stuart Brisley

Drawings and papers of Felicia Browne

Papers of Edward Burra

Correspondence and other papers relating to Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell, Clive Bell, Duncan Grant and others

Papers of Kenneth Clark

The archives of Prunella Clough

Diary and photographs belonging to Prunella Clough

Cecil Collins papers

Papers of Cecil and Elisabeth Collins

Papers of Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988)

Personal papers and artwork of Alan Durst

Papers of Margot Eates and E.H. Ramsden

Letters from Jacob Epstein to Peggy Jean and Norman Hornstein

Correspondence between Jacob Epstein and his family with photographs of the artist, his family, his studio and his works

Letters from Jacob Epstein, Benno Elkan, Margaret Epstein and Kathleen Garman to Mr and Mrs Samuels

Papers of Richard Eurich

Printed cards from the Wild Hawthorn Press

Papers of Stanhope Alexander Forbes (1857-1947)

Twenty-six drawings, designs for posters, book illustrations, covers and cartoons by the cartoonist Fougasse

Letters from Barbara Hepworth to Margaret Gardiner

Sketchbooks of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska

Papers relating to the work of Stephen Gilbert

Twelve signed and dated drawings by Stephen Gilbert

Personal papers of Duncan Grant

Records of the Hanover Gallery

The personal papers of Nigel Graeme Henderson (1917-1985)

Further papers of Nigel Graeme Henderson (1917-1985)

Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture records comprising photographs and notes compiled under the sculptor’s supervision

The remaining personal papers of Barbara Hepworth

Twenty-three designs, notes and swatches for Sir Michael Tippett’s opera, ‘The Midsummer Marriage’, and two drawings for Sophocles’ ‘Electra’ at the Old Vic, 1950, by the artist Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975)

Sketchbooks, notebooks and working papers of the artist Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975)

Plaster maquette, ‘Model for Monumental Stela’

One hundred and fifty nine drawings and watercolours by Josef Herman

Personal papers of Josef Herman

Small collection of letters, documents and photographs relating to Kurt Schwitters, Edith Thomas, Sylvia Bartholomew and Klaus Hinrichsen

Folders of writings and talks by Klaus Hinrichsen as well as research material collected by Hinrichsen and correspondence relating to Kurt Schwitters and other émigré and interned artists.

Preparatory sketches, drawings and photographs relating to the mural painted by Ivon Hitchens in Cecil Sharp House

A small collection of six items relating to Ivon Hitchens’s art, including two documents and letters to Alan Bowness and two undated photocopied statements prepared for someone else

Drawings, gouaches and watercolours by Frances Hodgkins

Papers of Josef Paul Hodin

Drawings and watercolours by David Jones, photographs of his work and source material

Correspondence from Henry Moore to Gustav and Elisabeth Kahnweiler, works of art, photographs and presscuttings

Wood engravings and drawings by Charles Keene

Additional wood engravings and drawings by Charles Keene

The papers of Barbara Ker-Seymer

Personal and professional papers of Jacques Lipchitz

Drawings by L.S. Lowry

Personal papers of Eileen Mayo

Additional papers of David Mayor

Photocopies of a thesis by Louisa Buck, ‘F.E. McWilliam and British Surrealism’, and a transcript of an interview between Louisa Buck and F.E. McWilliam for the Irish Arts Series

One exhibition catalogue, ten private view cards and sixty-six press cuttings relating to F.E. McWilliam

The papers of Robert Medley

Additional papers of Robert Medley

Personal and financial papers; artworks; writings; correspondence; photographs; publications; and press cuttings relating to Bernard Meninsky and his second wife, Nora (née Barczinsky)

Sketches and notes of Bernard Meninsky

Papers of Ronald Moody

Personal papers of Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines

Papers and correspondence of John Nash

Negatives of 1267 photographs taken by Paul Nash