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Brotherton-Ratcliffe Collection

Archive Collection: MS 2240 Contains records with digital media

Details

Type of record: Archive

Title: Brotherton-Ratcliffe Collection

Level: Collection

Classmark: MS 2240

Related People: Bertram Ratcliffe(Personal name); Victor Ratcliffe(Personal name)

Creator(s): Brotherton, Edward Allen Brotherton 1st baron (1856-1930); Ratcliffe, Dorothy Una (1887-1967)

Date(s): 1579-2010

Size and medium: 110 boxes, 55 oversize items

Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/663205

Description

Industrialist and politician Lord Brotherton of Wakefield (1856-1930) is one of the University Library's most significant benefactors. In the 1920s, assisted by his niece-in-law, the writer and activist Dorothy Una Ratcliffe (known as DUR), he amassed a vast collection of rare books and manuscripts that he left to the University upon his death, along with an endowment to ensure the collection continued to grow.

The Brotherton-Ratcliffe archive contains papers of Lord Brotherton and DUR, as well as material relating to members of their wider family, including Lord Brotherton's nephews Bertram and Alfred Victor Ratcliffe, who saw action in the First World War, and dancer Ludmila Mlada, DUR’s niece, born Rosemary Young. It also contains papers donated by various individuals and organisations connected to the family, including The Library Association, DUR’s biographer Wilfrid Halliday and collector T. J. Wise.

The collection mostly consists of archival material, from family photograph albums to Brotherton Collection inventories, but also contains objects including framed paintings, keys and medals. There is a significant amount of material relating to the opening of the Brotherton Library in the 1930s and its ongoing preservation – deeds, press cuttings, catalogues etc. - as well as personal, social, civic and political papers of Lord Brotherton and DUR, plus some of DUR’s writings.

Provenance

As part of the cataloguing project in 2019-2020, this collection was created to bring together a succession of historic deposits by various family members relating to Lord Brotherton and his extended family and their descendants. For older deposits, accession records may not exist/be complete. In 2013 a Survey record was created for what was believed to be separate deposits. Where these exist they will be listed as an Original Reference.

The catalogue has been arranged to reflect the role of these different depositors.

At this time, a decision was made to integrate items relating to Lord Brotherton’s nephew, Alfred Victor Ratcliffe into an existing collection listed in the Liddle Collection [please see related items].

System of arrangement

The archive has been arranged by the archivist into the following sub-collections:

1) Papers and items of Lord Brotherton

2) Papers and items of Dorothy Una Ratcliffe (first wife of Lord Brotherton's nephew Charles Frederick (Ratcliffe) Brotherton)

3) Papers and items of Ludmila Mlada (niece of Dorothy Una Ratcliffe).


These reflect the provenance of separate deposits. It is worth noting that this also reflects a line of inheritance for some items (e.g. with items in the Ludmila Mlada sub-collection having passed from Lord Brotherton to Dorothy Una Ratcliffe and then to Ludmila Mlada).

Access and usage

Access

This collection is currently being worked on by the Special Collections team and therefore may not always be readily available for users to consult. Please contact staff in advance if you would like to access the material.

Collection hierarchy

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