Design Research Unit (DRU)

Description

This file contains correspondence, meeting minutes and associated material relating to the Design Research Unit (DRU).


Herbert Read was the first Director of the DRU upon its foundation in 1943, Director of DRU Ireland from 1954 and remained associated with the organisation until his death in 1968.


Correspondence includes letters to/from Herbert Read from/to Marcus Brumwell, co-founder of the DRU; Milner Gray, co-founder of the DRU; Misha Black, co-founder of the DRU; Dorothy Goslett, Business Manager of the DRU; Kenneth Bayes, architect at the DRU; Mateo Lettunich, Secretary for the Design Committee of the Kaufmann International Design Award and John E. Blake, Editor of ‘Design’, discussing such topics as the foundation and running of the DRU, the DRU Design Award, the British Aluminium Design Award, the Kaufmann International Design Award and the possibility of Read writing a foreword for a book to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the DRU in 1968.


The file also includes meeting minutes of the DRU from 1949 – 1968 and accounts information and balance sheets from 1954 – 1968.


The file also contains 1 signed typescript letter to Herbert Read from Kenneth Bayes, architect at the DRU, dated 7 Nov 1963, 1f. In the letter Bayes asks Read to become a patron for the Peredur Appeal which aimed to raise funds for a new school building for emotionally disturbed children in East Grinstead, Sussex (later named the Peredur Home School). Attached to the letter is a typescript note titled ‘Peredur Appeal’ which explains the project, 1f. Read agrees to become a patron in his carbon copy response dated 8 Nov 1963, 1f, noting his ‘detached interest in Steiner’s methods of education’.

Access and usage

Access

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