Collection: Ursula Clark Collection

Description

The collection contains nearly 20,000 black and white negatives taken by professional photographer Ursula Clark (1940-2000). The negatives were mainly taken to illustrate a series of architectural publications written by architectural historian Bruce Allsopp (1912-2000) and published by Oriel Press of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

The negatives cover historic and modern buildings in the UK and Europe and were taken between about 1955 and 1980. They include extensive coverage of Brighton, Leeds, Newcastle and the counties of Northumberland, Durham and Tyne & Wear.

The collection contains two printed books featuring photography by Ursula Clark. They are: 'Modern Architecture of Northern England', ed. Bruce Allsopp (Newcastle upon Tyne: Oriel Press, 1969) and 'English Architecture', Bruce Allsopp and Ursula Clark (Newcastle upon Tyne: Oriel Press, 1979).

A handlist of the collection, a spreadsheet index of the photographs of England, a card index to the collection, and a set of negative record books are available. The indexes give reference numbers to negatives in the collection. They either have a 35 (for 35mm negatives), 120 (for 120mm negatives) or 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 (for 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch negatives) prefix and relate to the negatives series described on the handlist.

c.2000 negatives from the collection have been scanned and catalogued, and divided into two sections: UXC01/01/01, which catalogues 1885 35mm negatives, and UXC01/01/02, cataloguing 100 120mm negatives. They were selected after looking at the card index and negatives by location, and focus on under-represented architecture and themes, such as modern and Brutalist architecture in urban areas, the fast-paced architectural changes in towns and cities, and pub interiors. The majority of the selected c2000 also show the north-east of England, another area of under-representation.

Archival History

The collection was acquired by the NMR in 2001.

Ursula Clark was born at Gosforth in 1940 and studied photography at the Department of Photography at Newcastle University. She worked as an architectural photographer and as an architectural historian. Her works included 'Historic Architecture of County Durham' (with Neville Whittaker), 'The Great Tradition of Western Architecture' (with Brian Allsopp and Harold Booton), and the 'Architecture of France' and the 'Architecture of Italy' (both with Brian Allsopp).

Content

Rights

© Historic England Archive