Papers of Margot Eates and E.H. Ramsden

The collection consists of both professional and personal papers with correspondence, photographs, research notes and writings.

The correspondence includes correspondence with artists and figures in the art history world. Particularly notable are 70 letters from Barbara Hepworth (1939-1954), 161 letters from Ben Nicholson (1939-1969) and correspondence relating to Ramsden's writings on contemporary and Renaissance art and sculpture.

The photographs are mainly of sculpture, Renaissance art and plates from Ramsden's publications although there are also personal photographs of Margot Eates, E.H. Ramsden, their families and friends as well as photographs of 'found objects', photo-collages and object collages by Paul Nash.

There are research notes and drafts of Ramsden's writings on contemporary art (including articles on Paul Nash, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Henry Moore) and Renaissance art as well as papers relating to 'Eidos', the arts journal that Eates and Ramsden founded and edited in 1950.

There are also personal and family papers, correspondence and photographs and papers relating to Margot Eates' archeological and museum career Ruth Clark's collection of Paul and John Nash works as Margot Eates was a friend of Ruth Clark's and tasked with the disposal of her Nash collection.

Collection Owners

Hartley Ramsden 1904 – 1993
Margot Eates 1913 – 1994

Collection

Tate Archive

Acquisition

Letters from Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth as well as magazines and a file on modern sculpture and painting were presented to Tate Archive by Margot Eates and E.H. Ramsden, May 1993 in order to assist with research for Tate's exhibition on Ben Nicholson. A further 10 boxes of personal papers were presented by Brian Griffin and Jennifer Spark, Margot Eates and E.H. Ramsden's executors in 1995. A further two boxes and two box files of papers relating to Ramsden's writing was presented by her literary executor Angela Sutton in 1996.

Reference

TGA 9310