IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0505 PP56
Held at: Royal Holloway, University of London
Title: TILLOTSON, Professors Kathleen and Geoffrey
Date(s): 1690-2001
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 228 boxes, 2 photograph boxes, 1 oversize box
Name of creator(s): Tillotson | Professor | Kathleen Mary | 1906-2001 | Professor of English Literature
Tillotson | Geoffrey | 1905-1969 | Professor of English Literature
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Kathleen Tillotson: born 1905; educated at Ackworth School, Yorkshire; The Mount School, York and Somerville College, Oxford; gained BLitt in 1929. Part-time assistant in English Department at Bedford College 1929-1933; became junior lecturer in 1933 and lecturer in 1937; full-time lecturer in 1939; Senior Lecturer then Reader in 1947; Hildred Carlile Professor of English Literature 1958 til retirement in 1971. Died 2001.
Geoffrey Tillotson: born 1905; educated at Glusburn Elementary School; Keighley Trade and Grammar School; Balliol College, and BLitt at Oxford. Lectured in English at College of Technology, Leicester, 1928-1929; Sub-Librarian if English Schools library in Oxford, 1930-1931; Assistant Lecturer at University College London 1931-1934; Lecturer there 1934-1940, then Assistant Principal in the Ministry of Aircraft Production, 1940-1945. Granted Readership in Absentia from University of London 1942; then Professor of English Language and Literature at Birkbeck College, 1944-1969. Visiting Professor at Harvard, 1948. Died 1969.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers relating to the careers of Kathleen and Geoffrey Tillotson, 1690-2001 comprise Records of Kathleen Tillotson (KT)'s teaching and administration in the English Department at Bedford College 1929-1971, with correspondence with members of staff and former students 1935-1994; records of her research and writing, including relations with publishing houses, 1932-1995; records of her work as specialist adviser to Government, the British Academy, the British Federation of University Women and others on honours and awards, to universities on appointments and promotions, to publishers on proposed works, etc, 1955-1995; correspondence with and references for fellow scholars, 1929-2001; records of her work with literary societies including the Wordsworth Trust and the Tennyson Society, 1961-2000; personal records including diaries, 1920, 1930s, 1961-2001, correspondence with friends and family, [c.1916]-2001; records, memorabilia and reminiscences of her upbringing and education, in Berwick-upon-Tweed and at Quaker Schools in Yorkshire.
Records of Geoffrey Tillotson (GT)'s teaching at University College, London, 1931-1941, and Birkbeck College, London, 1940s-1960s; records of his academic research and writing, 1932-1969, including notes and drafts for his Victorian volume of the 'Oxford History of English Literature'; poems and short stories; personal records including diaries, 1916-1969, correspondence with friends and family, 1930s-1960s; reminiscences and correspondence from the writing of the British Academy memoir of him by Mary Lascelles.
Kathleen Tillotson's 'old family papers', letters, journals and photographs, 1776-1916, inherited from her father's family, the Lambs of Belfast, and her mother's family, the Davidsons of Fritchley, Derbyshire, including copies of documents relating to history of the Society of Friends, such as Joseph Haughton's account of the 'preservation' of Quakers during the 1798 uprising in Ireland.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: Records are in English unless otherwise stated.
System of arrangement:
A box list of the original deposit was compiled in 2000 by Rebecca Wire, a graduate of Royal Holloway and Bedford New College. Labels on some of the bundles may have indicated the location of items in the flat when packed up for transfer, but some material, especially correspondence, was found in disorder, some filed by subject, some packaged up by date, some by author, and some simply stray among other papers. A logical arrangement has been attempted, and much ephemeral material kept as illuminating to the periods or protagonists, but items whose author or subject could not be identified were disposed of, as were letters from former neighbours.
Conditions governing access:
All records are open subject to the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. All records containing personal information about individuals are subject to the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the College Archivist.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Calaogue on CALM at http://calm.rhul.ac.uk/ Hard copy list in Reading room at Royal Holloway, University of London.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
The family retained GT's letters from eminent poets and writers, which are to be given to the College after the death of Edmund Tillotson; and letters to KT from Professor Margaret Blom of the University of British Columbia in Canada, which they wished to destroy.
Accruals:
See above
Archival history:
Notes found on and with the files indicate that the papers were sorted and weeded from time to time, principally on Geoffrey Tillotson's death and on Kathleen Tillotson's retirement.
The great majority of the papers which remained at her death were transferred directly from Professor Tillotson's home in Hampstead to the custody of Royal Holloway Archives in 1997. Six further boxes of material, cleared by the family from her room in Guiness Court Residential Care Home, were delivered to the Archives in 2004.
Immediate source of acquisition:
The Tillotson family.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note:
Collection catalogued by Shirley Dixon, freelance archivist, 2005-2007.
Date(s) of descriptions: 2005-2007