Henry Moore library
The Henry Moore library is housed in 'Elmwood' on the Perry Green estate. It is the world's premier resource for Henry Moore studies, providing a large range of published and manuscript material from the early twentieth century to the present and covering every aspect of the artist's life.
Holdings
Moore took a keen interest in publications related to his work and was an avid collector of books on art in general. In 1976 he commissioned Alexander Davis to assemble and catalogue all the known references to his work, the end result being the monumental Henry Moore Bibliography published between 1992 and 1995. This not only brought together books from various locations on the Perry Green estate, but was the impetus to collect and house - as far as possible - everything published on the artist worldwide. This remains the rationale of the library today, with weekly acquisitions arriving from a diverse range of sources.
More than twenty thousand items relating to Henry Moore can be found in the library. These range from the artist's early, and influential, collection of books - many of them signed by their authors - to monographs on the artist himself, volumes containing references to either himself or his work, solo and mixed exhibition catalogues and a range of periodicals. The library also maintains a comprehensive run of press cuttings from 1928 (when Moore began to collect them) to the present day, and a large collection of miscellanea relating to his life and output. In addition there are sales catalogues, a strong museums and galleries reference section and numerous useful general-purpose art historical titles. Over five hundred audio, video and dvd recordings are also available. Publications of the Foundation itself may be purchased from stock.
Letters archive
Moore kept up a lively, sometimes prolific correspondence with family, friends, fellow artists and business associates throughout his long career and from 1957 employed a very efficient secretary, Betty Tinsley, who normally retained copies of his dictated letters. A vast amount of this material, ranging from the 1920's to his death in 1986, forms the basis of his archive. The archive today consists of a large and, as yet, unspecified quantity of material, probably in the region of 100,000 items, still in the process of being sorted and catalogued. Early letters are not plentiful, but tend to be the most interesting and include engaging correspondence from such luminaries as Eric Gill, Jacob Epstein and William Rothenstein. Significant bodies of letters over many years exist between Moore and, for example, Kenneth Clark, Herbert Read and Stephen Spender and there are manuscript originals of many of his early writings on art. Much of the post-war material consists of exhibition and business dealings but a wealth of personal correspondence and ephemera also remains, particularly from the artist's admirers around the globe. An on-going scanning programme means that many of the contents will be available in digital form in due course.
Locations, facilities and visits
Elmwood library is situated at the Foundation's headquarters in Perry Green. The library has seating for six visitors, including one computer terminal. There are good photocopying facilities and a camera stand is available if required. Video and audio equipment may also be used. The library is open by appointment to all bona fide researchers. ‘A'-level students will normally be asked to provide a reference.