Where
In the Templeman Library at the University of Kent, Canterbury.
What
"We are the major national collection of British cartoons of political and social comment," says Nick Hiley, the head of the British Cartoon Archive. "We have 140,000 drawings, 85,000 cuttings and a research library of books, newspapers and magazines."
Opened
1973, by a group of academics at Kent who realised that newspapers and artists had large collections of cartoons and artwork that were at risk of loss or destruction.
Collection
Some 350 different cartoonists are represented in the collection and a further 20 in the online catalogue. "Essentially the collection of artwork goes back to 1903, when the first staff cartoonist was appointed to a British newspaper. This was William Haselden and the paper was the Daily Mirror.
Haselden started as a political cartoonist and turned eventually to lighter social commentary. In the last decade, we have been digitising the collection; 120,000 images are now freely available online."
Help at hand
Hiley, who also lectures at Kent in British media history, and an assistant work full-time at the archive, which also has a full-time archivist funded for two years. "Otherwise we have a lot of project funding for posts," Hiley says. "In recent years the projects have been built around digitisation."
Budget
Other than fixed salary costs, none. The archive does receive project funding and also grants from academic funding bodies such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Joint Information Systems Committee.
Annual visits
In 2008, about 2,000 visitors came to the gallery and 15,000 to various off-site exhibitions. Online visitors numbered 150,000.
Highlights
"The richest collection we have is the Giles archive. It is vast. It covers not only his artwork, but the entire contents of his studio. Personally, I am very fond of the Steve Bells and the 300 Ralph Steadmans we have. And I was pleased to find all Bill Tidy's Fosdyke Saga strips from the 1970s recently."
Survival tip
"Outside exhibitions keep you on your toes, but inviting people to use the collection in different ways is key," says Hiley.
Sticky moment
"Disasters always occur on bank holidays and have something to do with burst pipes. But, in having to move large parts of the collection out of the way of the water, it is possible to reacquaint oneself with what's in the boxes."
Current project
"We hope to digitise the director of public prosecutions' collection of prosecuted seaside postcards. These were slightly saucy ones of the type made by Bamforth and Constance. We are just waiting to clear the copyright on these." Hiley would also like to organise a major exhibition on the British art of cartooning. It's about time there was one, he says.
In the Templeman Library at the University of Kent, Canterbury.
What
"We are the major national collection of British cartoons of political and social comment," says Nick Hiley, the head of the British Cartoon Archive. "We have 140,000 drawings, 85,000 cuttings and a research library of books, newspapers and magazines."
Opened
1973, by a group of academics at Kent who realised that newspapers and artists had large collections of cartoons and artwork that were at risk of loss or destruction.
Collection
Some 350 different cartoonists are represented in the collection and a further 20 in the online catalogue. "Essentially the collection of artwork goes back to 1903, when the first staff cartoonist was appointed to a British newspaper. This was William Haselden and the paper was the Daily Mirror.
Haselden started as a political cartoonist and turned eventually to lighter social commentary. In the last decade, we have been digitising the collection; 120,000 images are now freely available online."
Help at hand
Hiley, who also lectures at Kent in British media history, and an assistant work full-time at the archive, which also has a full-time archivist funded for two years. "Otherwise we have a lot of project funding for posts," Hiley says. "In recent years the projects have been built around digitisation."
Budget
Other than fixed salary costs, none. The archive does receive project funding and also grants from academic funding bodies such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Joint Information Systems Committee.
Annual visits
In 2008, about 2,000 visitors came to the gallery and 15,000 to various off-site exhibitions. Online visitors numbered 150,000.
Highlights
"The richest collection we have is the Giles archive. It is vast. It covers not only his artwork, but the entire contents of his studio. Personally, I am very fond of the Steve Bells and the 300 Ralph Steadmans we have. And I was pleased to find all Bill Tidy's Fosdyke Saga strips from the 1970s recently."
Survival tip
"Outside exhibitions keep you on your toes, but inviting people to use the collection in different ways is key," says Hiley.
Sticky moment
"Disasters always occur on bank holidays and have something to do with burst pipes. But, in having to move large parts of the collection out of the way of the water, it is possible to reacquaint oneself with what's in the boxes."
Current project
"We hope to digitise the director of public prosecutions' collection of prosecuted seaside postcards. These were slightly saucy ones of the type made by Bamforth and Constance. We are just waiting to clear the copyright on these." Hiley would also like to organise a major exhibition on the British art of cartooning. It's about time there was one, he says.