THE WITT LIBRARY

10-Year Update 1981-1991

The Witt Library 10-Year Update 1981-1991

The Witt Library is an immense collection of photographs, reproductions and cuttings of paintings, drawings and engravings of Western Art from c1200 to the present day.  Its unique range, depth of coverage and accessibility is recognised internationally.

The Library was founded by Sir Robert Witt.  Started in the 1890s when both Witt and his wife, Mary, were undergraduates at Oxford, it was built up by them and was located in their London home at 32 Portman Square.  In 1932 Sir Robert decided to will his Library to the recently formed Courtauld Institute of Art, to which it moved after his death in 1952.

By 1978 the collection had grown to 1.2 million items with about 50,000 artists represented.  In that year A Checklist of Artists… was published, following the earlier catalogues which Witt had produced in 1920 and 1925.  Also in the same year a microfiche programme was started to photograph the whole of the Witt Library, including both images and text.  This was completed in 1981.

During the 1980s the Witt Library increased by more than 30,000 items a year and it was always intended from 1981 to produce a ten year microfiche update or supplement to cover all the new additions.  In order to achieve this aim, an agreement was made between the Witt Library and Emmett Publishing, and a second edition of the original microfiche and an update have now been produced on schedule.

The entire Witt Library up to 1992 is now available on microfiche, containing 1.6 million items and about 75,000 artists.  This is a major achievement as it provides a ‘back-up’ against the nightmare possibility of destruction of the Witt itself and it makes the Library in microfiche format more widely available to students and scholars in other countries.

John Sunderland
Witt Librarian

November, 1992

<back