Paul Mellon Centre

This sub-collection comprises records created and compiled by Simpson which relate to collections and sales. It includes:

-published material

-photographs

-correspondence

-notes

-index cards

Open for research. Readers must fill in an 'Reader Agreement Form' which outlines the reading room rules and conditions concerning privacy and Data Protection

In 1970, Ellis Waterhouse was appointed Director of the newly reconstituted Paul Mellon Centre for British Art in London (Ltd). A year later, and following the closure of M. Knoedler & Co.'s London office, Simpson commenced employment as Librarian at the Centre, a role he kept until his retirement in 1976.

In the early 1970s, it was decided to increase the library's holdings to make it a resource for visiting scholars. Simpson therefore began buying recently published books on British Art, and exhibition and sale catalogues. In addition, he established several series of information files on artists, exhibiting societies, the Royal Academy, and ephemera; he created a series of collection files in which he integrated some of the records he had acquired whilst working at M. Knoedler & Co. with new research undertaken by him and other members of Centre staff; he recorded information about collections and sales using index cards; and he acquired photocopies of early sale catalogues.

During the process of cataloguing, it was decided to integrate the Centre's Library Collection files with this sub-collection because of its similarity with Simpson's research on collections, which was acquired from The Barber Institute of Fine Arts in 2013.