Structure, content and document types

The Hunt Museum archives reflect the collecting interests and other projects undertaken by John Hunt, Senior, and Gertrude Hunt. The majority of the collection, presented in section A1, comprises files for objects held by The Hunt Museum. Section A2 contains files for objects acquired by the Hunts but not held by The Hunt Museum. Most of these objects now reside at Craggaunowen, county Clare. Some of the objects for which there are files in Section A, part of the Hunt Collection, may never have been transferred to The Hunt Museum. There is also a file pertaining to the Holderness Crucifix (HM/ARCH/A2/00027) bequeathed by Gertrude Hunt to The British Museum. All object files held by The Hunt Museum, regardless of whether the object is now held by the Museum, are described here. In order to convey as much information as possible about the contents of object files, the file-level descriptions treat of each document therein. It should be noted that not all objects have archival information connected to them.

The Hunt Museum uses up to five standard forms to record information about its objects. Typically, registration information about objects is recorded on documents named as ‘information cards’ or ‘object description sheets.’ They usually note object type or title, description, material, origin, date, attribution and dimensions. Provenance information is sometimes noted, as are the find details of archaeological objects. Either sketches or photographs of objects are often present. The object files contain photocopies of information cards and object description sheets, and are working documents, amended over time to reflect the acquisition of new information about objects. The originals of information cards and object description sheets are held in the Museum. ‘Hunt Museum collection survey forms’ record the state of preservation and conservation requirements of objects. ‘Acquisition sheets’ note information such as name of donor, value of object and date and method of acquisition. It seems that the use of the ‘Acquisition sheets’ began only very recently. Object files sometimes contain ‘Hunt Museum object comment sheets’ or similar documents. These interesting documents capture the sometimes diverging opinions of visiting experts about museum objects. For instance, visiting experts may attribute the same object to different geographical regions or time periods. The archives database seeks to capture the sometimes conflicting information that object files convey about museum objects. In this connection, it should be noted that while it is the function of the accompanying museum catalogue to describe objects in the collection, the purpose of the archives database is to describe, rather than interpret, documents and their contents. This approach is in accordance with standard archival practice. Therefore, there may be differences in information content between the archives and catalogue databases.

Object files often contain photocopies taken from relevant literature. These may be published references to the object in question in the sales catalogues of auction houses, scholarly works, journals and exhibition catalogues. Object files often contain material pertaining to objects in other collections which are similar to Hunt Museum objects. This has been amassed by Hunt Museum staff over time for the purpose of research. Again, this material is usually taken from the sources indicated above. In relation to photocopies taken from the catalogues of sale of auction houses, it is not always clear if it is Hunt Museum objects that are depicted or objects that are merely similar. Therefore, if available, it would be instructive to consult the archives of relevant auction houses.

It is evident that much of the material in object files is recent and has been collated by Hunt Museum staff rather than the Hunt family. However, there are also some documents which were created and received by John Hunt, Senior, and Gertrude Hunt. In this respect, the object files are a recent and ‘artificial’ creation, the archives of John Hunt, Senior, and Gertrude Hunt being broken up for administrative convenience and placed in the relevant object files. Such documents might be, for instance, notes in the hand of John Hunt, Senior, describing objects; letters to the Hunts written by various experts, usually in the United States or Europe, attempting to interpret objects; letters written to the Hunts in response to their attempts to trace the provenance of objects in their collection; and letters and other documents relating to the Hunts lending objects in their collection to various exhibitions. Where provenance information is given in documents it is noted. Unfortunately, few copy letters created by the Hunts are extant here so it is mostly incoming documents that survive. Further research into the Hunts’ activities may be carried out by ascertaining if their correspondents retained archives. There may also be more recent documents created and received by Hunt Museum staff resulting from research into the collection. Some of this research has been done by Hunt Museum docents (volunteer guides) and sometimes results in the writing of short research papers about objects.

The archives collection is divided into Sections A and B. As described above, Section A comprises object files. Section B contains more general files pertaining to the interests of the Hunt Family and includes little information that directly pertains to The Hunt Museum. The most substantial such information is contained in documents (HM/ARCH/B1c/00003) which list some objects given by Gertrude Hunt to the first incarnation of The Hunt Museum housed at the National Institute of Higher Education, Limerick, (now the University of Limerick) from 1978-1997.

Section B is divided into seven major sub-sections. The first of these pertains to projects in which John Hunt, Senior, was involved. In terms of extant documentation, the least significant section refers to his acting as interior design consultant for a renovation of the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis, county Clare (HM/ARCH/B1b/00001). The more significant projects are the restoration of Bunratty Castle, county Clare, and the Craggaunowen project, also county Clare. John Hunt, Senior, had purchased Craggaunowen Castle in 1970. The project was to restore the castle and build three new structures, a museum to house the Hunts’ collection and reconstructions of a crannóg (a lake-dwelling) and a ring-fort (an early farmstead). Documents extant here mostly refer to fund-raising for the project. It is possible that these documents were collated by officials of the Shannon Free Airport Development Company, in their capacity as project administrators, rather than the Hunts.

Bunratty Castle, county Clare, was purchased and restored by Robert Vereker, 7th Viscount Gort, during the 1950s. He was assisted in its restoration by John Hunt, Senior. Other agencies involved in the restoration project were the Office of Public Works and Bord Fáilte Éireann (Irish Tourist Board). The officials of these agencies are frequently mentioned in documents. Among the Bunratty archives, the most significant documents are the 170 letters written by Lord Gort to John Hunt, Senior, and Gertrude Hunt. They date from 1952 to 1965 and give great detail about Lord Gort’s plans for the castle. Many letters relate to building materials, particularly timber, and art objects and furniture Lord Gort planned to install in the castle.

A further sub-section contains documents connected with three publications of John Hunt, Senior. There are several hundred photographs connected with research for Irish Medieval Figure Sculpture (Irish University Press, 1974). Hunt wrote a paper entitled ‘A silver gilt casket, and the Thame ring’ published in ‘Sonderdruck aus Intuition und Kunstwissenschaft: Festschrift für Hanns Swarzenski ( Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1973). Copies of this paper are present as are some materials arising from Hunt’s background research. Finally, there are printer’s plates for a paper by Hunt entitled ‘The Limerick Mitre and Crozier’ (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis & Co., date unspecified). These objects are currently held by The Hunt Museum, on loan from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Limerick. A copy of this paper is held in the relevant object file (HM/ARCH/A1/00072).

A third sub-section of Section B comprises mostly photographs. Their subjects vary, and this is very likely an artificially rather than organically-created file, but are, for instance, photographs of members of the Hunt family; photographs taken at homes of the Hunt family, some of which include displays of objects in their collection; photographs and other material, typically clippings from The Connoisseur magazine, which treat of the art dealership of John Hunt, Senior, located at 30c Bury Street, London.

A fourth sub-section of Section B pertains to four private collectors, Doctor Philip Nelson, John Ball, Sir William Burrell and Lieutenant-General A.L.F. Pitt Rivers. It is evident from documents throughout the archives collection that objects formerly held by at least three of these persons (Nelson, Ball and Pitt Rivers) entered the Hunt Collection. The most interesting material in this section pertains to Nelson. He bequeathed some of the objects in his collection to John Hunt, Senior, and documents indicate that Nelson may have purchased some objects from Hunt when he was a dealer. Hunt acted for Sotheby’s to value Nelson’s collection after his death in 1953, at a time when many objects were purchased by Liverpool Museum. These catalogues or valuations of Nelson’s collection are extant here (HM/ARCH/B4a/00003). Liverpool Museum also acquired Nelson’s archives and scattered throughout The Hunt Museum’s archives collection are photocopies of relevant documents from the Nelson archive. Also extant here is a large number of letters from Samuel Caldwell, a stained glass artist, Blackfriars North, Canterbury, to Nelson, in relation to works Caldwell carried out for him (HM/ARCH/B4a/00001).

The next sub-section relates to attempts by John Hunt, Senior, to purchase some tombs of the Probert family in Britain in the 1955-56 period. This small section comprises several letters and photographs (HM/ARCH/B5/00001).

A further sub-section comprises material which was found enclosed in publications which belonged to John Hunt, Senior. Such documents might be letters, postcards, photographs and extracts from the sales catalogues of auction houses. This material is arranged with reference to the publication in which it was found. Some of the enclosures seem not to have any overt relationship with the publications in which they were found and this suggests that they were not placed there by particular design.

The final sub-section contains varied secondary reference material, which does include one paper written by John Hunt, Senior. It is entitled ‘Bishop Wellesley’s Tomb Carvings.’

Scope

The basis of The Hunt Museum archives collection, as presented here, is documents transferred by the Hunt family to the Museum. Close examination of the archives suggests that it is highly likely that further documents may have been lost, as is very common with collections of archives, or be extant elsewhere. For instance, it is considered probable that not all the letters Lord Gort wrote to John Hunt, Senior, and Gertrude Hunt are held by The Hunt Museum. The vast majority of the letters presented here date from the 1952-59 period, and several date from 1965. There are then, no letters from the 1960-64 period. This is a considerable time lapse given that Lord Gort was a frequent correspondent. Such lacunae may also exist in other parts of this archives collection. With this in mind, the collection has been structured, and the documents coded, in a manner that will permit future additions. Each document has been coded to allow for its identification and for security purposes.

The Hunt Museum also holds administrative files and it is planned that these files will be made available in the future.

With the exception of exact duplicates, documents, typically facsimiles, recorded on poor-quality thermal paper and library materials, all documents throughout the archives collection have been retained. It is standard archival practice to retain only photocopies of documents on thermal paper.

Stylistic notes

There are several points to note about the archives database and the documents described therein. Where used, square brackets denote either uncertainty or enclose information which has been inserted for clarity. For search purposes, apostrophes have been omitted except where documents are quoted from and where they are included in the titles of publications. This database was created using Microsoft Access. This software does not allow the selective italicization of text so instead, the titles of publications are enclosed in quotation marks. Many references to and photocopies from publications are encountered in the archives but many were not fully referenced in documents. Where possible, full bibliographical details are supplied but in some cases, publications were not traced. Also, because publications are not always fully referenced in documents it is possible that incorrect details have been supplied in this database. Unless otherwise stated all documents are written in English. An exception to this is that publications are generally written in the language suggested by their titles. After English, the language most frequently encountered is German and summary translations (completed by a Hunt Museum docent) for some of these documents are present. This is not an exhaustive list but other languages that appear in documents are French, Dutch, Irish and Italian. John Hunt, Senior, and his son, John Hunt, Junior, are denoted as such for the purpose of clarity. Gertrude Hunt was known to many people as ‘Putzel’ and some documents refer to her as ‘P. Hunt’ or variations on this. Descriptions of files in Section B tend to be summary descriptions which mention significant information rather than describing each document. This was done because of the large number of items in some files. Archives collections are usually arranged chronologically. This was not possible in the case of most sections in this collection, for instance, the object files in Section A, as so many documents are undated. On account of this, in order to give some indication of the dates of documents, the convention used is to note known dates rather than approximate covering dates.

Access

In order to ensure compliance with Ireland’s Data Protection Acts, 1988 and 2003, the personal information of private persons has usually not been published in the archives database. Personal information refers to names and addresses. Such persons are those who correspond with The Hunt Museum, for instance, visitors to the Museum, researchers, donors, private collectors, authors and visiting experts. In the case of the latter two, authors and visiting experts, only their private addresses are withheld. The names of Hunt Museum docents have been withheld except where they are the authors of research papers or similar documents about museum objects.

All other information throughout the collection is accessible to researchers with one exception. This is a portion of one letter in file HM/ARCH/A1/00917 conveying information which the author (a person unconnected with The Hunt Museum) requested not be disclosed.

Bernie Deasy BA DipArchSc
Archivist