Friday’s library snapshot …

Just recently we had a display in Special Collections; the books were noted because of their covers and dust jackets; Barnett Freedman was one of the illustrators featured.

Barnett Freedman (1901-1958)  was born in London to a poor Jewish family who had recently emigrated from Russia. He studied part-time at St.Martin’s School of Art and went on to  to study and teach at the Royal College of Art between 1922-1925. 
Freedman was an official war artist during World War II and to this day considered amongst one of the greatest graphic artists and book illustrators of his time.
We recently acquired a mighty and expensive tome to complement our rich collection of books and archives of Barnett Freedman and other contemporary graphic artists and illustrators.

Tone, texture, light and shade ; a Freedman Barnett picture album by Ian Rogerson. It contains wonderful examples of ephemera, photographs of his posters on hoardings and on display in Lyons Corner Houses, paintings in public ownership and student work from the early 1920s when at the third attempt he gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Art.+

To decorate Lyons Tea Shop 1953

Family Scene c1925

London Transport Poster 1936

Book Cover

The Window Box 1955

Woodland Garden 1925