V&A Blythe House

Today the class visited the V&A Blythe House.  This is where the archives are stored and viewed in the reading room.  The Blythe House will be sold within the next five years and the collections will be moved to the Kensington location.  The V&A Archives holds 10,000 items, including the Children's Book Collection.  It is open to the public, therefore it has a reading room since it is a public insitution.

Most of the collections are in good condition and most of the pictures are mounted which is the best way to store them.  Many of the collections are not catalouged because many collections were given before computer systems were brought in.  The V&A Blythe House is known for its Beatrix Potter collection.  We were shown a lot of Beatrix Potter items which I enjoyed but it would have been neat to see other items from other collections.

While at the V&A Blythe House, we met Andrew Wiltshire who is a member of the Beatrix Potter  Society in England.  This group was founded in 1980 and work with the various museums and archives to ensure that Beatrix Potter materials are preserved and protected.  Andrew Wiltshire authored a book about Lesile Linder who broke the code on Beatrix Potter's journal.