School of Ruskin

Project Lead: Professor Sandra Kemp

Ruskin’s spectacular public lectures were equal parts verbal and visual, enhanced by hand-crafted models, casts and lecture diagrams - some of which haven’t been seen since Ruskin himself used them on stage. This ongoing research and curatorial project centres on conservation and display of John Ruskin’s large-scale lecture diagrams, used as visual aids for his lectures between 1853 to 1885. These works comprise an essential counterpoint to the manuscript and published versions of his lectures. Drawn by Ruskin and his assistants (including the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais) on paper backed by canvas, in a range of media - including graphite, ink and gouache - these diagrams represent an unparalleled documentary of the development of Ruskin’s ideas through his public speaking career. Their rarity makes them nationally significant examples of material that has otherwise been lost because of its treatment as ephemera. In Ruskin’s lifetime the diagrams were rolled up and left in storage. Today, they constitute one of the largest collections of such materials in the world and requested for the purposes of research and exhibition by scholars and curators.

A programme of conservation funded by the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust in 2020 (Grant Number 19-10) enabled The Ruskin to conserve, digitise, document and research a number of the Lecture Diagrams in The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection, working with the Scottish Conservation Studio and the National Conservation Trust.

Of the 45 lecture diagrams in The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection, 10 large-scale diagrams of botanical and architectural subjects were selected for priority remedial conservation. The project was delayed during the Covid lockdowns and again subsequently due to the move of the collection to temporary storage for the refurbishment of The Ruskin’s museum building.