jones / ede collection

 Summary

 The friendship of the artist, writer, and WWI veteran David Jones (1895–1974) and the founder of the Kettle’s Yard Museum, Harold Stanley (“Jim”) Ede (1895–1990), is a unique example of the relationship between artist and patron in the Modernist period. Jones and Ede shared a special affinity: both were painters, served in the First World War, shared connections with Wales, and had a profound thirst to understand the role that art plays in spiritual life. Jones’s letters to Ede showcase some of his most candid discussions of his artistic philosophy, and are crucial to our understanding of Jones’s place in the network of Modernist artists and writers. In addition to Jones’s letters to Ede, the Jones/Ede collection includes ten (10) “deep-zoom” images of visual works of David Jones held in the Kettle’s Yard Museum. There are also digitized copies of notes, publications, and letters about Jones, collected by Ede and kept in the archive at Kettle’s Yard. The editorial team has transcribed a number of the letters in TEI and will finish the collection in 2024.

Scope

122 manuscript letters from David Jones to Jim Ede (dated 1927-1971); several miscellaneous bodies of correspondence about Jones between Jim Ede and others; newspaper clippings and copies of publications relevant to Jones and his work; photographs of Jones’s visual works; Ede’s handwritten notes about Jones; and copies of Ede’s public talks about Jones (originals held in the archive of the Kettle’s Yard Museum, Cambridge)

View the letters here: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/davidjones/2

View the visual works held in Kettle’s Yard Museum here: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/davidjones/1

View the other correspondence and archival material here: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/davidjones/17

Key people

Laura McCormick Kilbride (grant lead on CHRGS); Anna Svendsen (coordinating editor); Huw Jones and Yasmin Faghihi (TEI expertise)

Editors and Transcribers

Robin D’Souza; Catherine Enwright; Jasmine Hunter Evans; Fr. Celestine Hettrick, OSB; Aneurin Jones; Huw Jones (Swansea); Amber Kidd; Elizabeth Powell; Bead Vidrine; Clare Schmelzer

Funding

Cambridge Humanities Research Grant Scheme (CHRGS), Cambridge University

  • match funding between Cambridge University and the David Jones Research Center ($7.5k per institution for a total of $15k)

  • covered:

    • digitization and hosting of Jones’s letters to Jim Ede, other correspondence and papers about Jones by Ede, and ten (10) artworks of David Jones (originals in Kettle’s Yard Museum, Cambridge)

    • hybrid TEI workshop in Cambridge to train 15 scholars in TEI (Text Encoding Initiative)

Future

A team of editors has transcribed about half the letters in TEI (viewable alongside select scans in the Cambridge Digital Library) and plans the finish the rest in 2024. Check back to watch the work progress!

Image Credit

Taken from letter of David Jones to Jim Ede, 28 December 1953 (Kettle’s Yard Museum, KY/EDE/1/8/1/92). Copyright: Trustees of the David Jones Estate.

All images reproduced with the kind permission of the Trustees of the David Jones Estate/Bridgman Images.