IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0103 MS ADD 72
Held at: University College London
Title: Wellington Memorial Fund Correspondence
Date(s): 1891-1894
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 1 folder
Name of creator(s): Wellington Memorial Fund
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The artist Alfred Stevens (1818-1875) in 1856 entered a competition to design a monument to Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), Duke of Wellington, for St Paul's Cathedral. Although his design was placed only sixth in the competition in 1857, it proved to be the only one fit for the proposed site and consequently execution of the monument was entrusted to him. Partly through his procrastination, but chiefly owing to bureaucratic and financial hindrances, the work was unfinished at his death and remained for many years standing in an unfavourable position in the consistory court of St Paul's. In 1892, owing to the recommendation of the artist Sir Frederic (afterwards Lord) Leighton (1830-1896), who raised and contributed to a fund for the purpose, it was moved to the position originally intended. It consisted of a sarcophagus supporting a recumbent bronze effigy of the Duke, surmounted by an arched canopy of late Renaissance style, flanked by large bronze allegorical groups. An equestrian statue of the Duke, designed to surmount the canopy, was never executed.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Letters to Lord Leighton on the Wellington memorial in St Paul's Cathedral.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
Open.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Normal copyright restrictions apply.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Card index to names of correspondents at University College London Special Collections.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Unknown.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Source: Dictionary of National Biography entry for Alfred Stevens.
Date(s) of descriptions: 1999, revised Jul 2001