Approach

This section describes the general approach and influences on the project and a summary of the problems with the existing cataloguing that it attempted to resolve.

General approach

The approach to description, arrangement and access review was chiefly informed by the legacies of collecting, alongside the need to re-centre the creators of these works in the record. It was also broadly informed by trauma informed archival practice, considering responsibilities towards yourself and colleagues to work in psychological safety, responsibilities towards the prospective viewer to provide an informed choice over whether to engage, and responsibilities to the creators to treat their work with care and respect.

Recataloguing the works within the structure of Edward Adamson's archive provides crucial context on how and why these works survived. It also helps to acknowledge Wellcome Collection's agency over these works through our collecting interests. Wellcome Collection collects and makes available material explicitly related to lived experience of health; our interest in the artwork within this collection is chiefly because of the context it was created in, not in spite of it, and our cataloguing practices should reflect this.

By intellectually rearranging the works by creator and date of creation, and removing medicalised, confusing and/or misleading language from the records, we challenge past narratives these works have been used to represent; approximately ten creators, and the interpretation of their work, have been typically used to represent the collection as a whole. By placing all works together in series, we can better demonstrate the breadth of different creators and encourage critical thinking in our audiences to redress what 'The Adamson Collection' is and who is represented within it.

Specific choices

• Edward Adamson has been removed as a creator within individual records as the context of the archival structure and wider description is sufficient to understand his connection to the works. By removing his name as a creator, it centres the actual creator of the work.

• Interpretations made by previous cataloguers, the Adamson Trust, and Edward Adamson have been stated as such in the record, as well as the source of the title and creator attribution. Any assumptions about the creator's medical conditions, emotions or Jungian analysis of the work has been removed and instead cited as related material where published elsewhere.

• The words ‘creator’ and ‘works’ have been used throughout the catalogue, rather than ‘patient’, ‘artist’, ‘artwork’ etc. centring the individual in relation to the material rather than interpreting through a potentially polarising or leading lens.

Key issues to address through recataloguing

• Titles can be overly interpretative and use unnecessarily complicated language

Solution - Simplify language where possible throughout the record, remove overly long descriptive titles. Use inscribed titles where possible and always record the source of the title in the record.

• Metadata is not recorded consistently, particularly inscriptions and subject headings

Solution - Use a controlled list of phrases and terminology across the records. Use the visual and material culture guidelines to inform mandatory and optional data recording. Remove inappropriate or misleading subject headings.

• Works are difficult to retrieve because the reference numbers are not sequential and packaged inconsistently, sometimes with uncatalogued and catalogued material housed in the same folder

Solution - Prioritise cataloguing of uncatalogued material already deframed and present within existing catalogued series. Repackage material into more overarching folders with consistent outer folder numbering to make safe handling and retrieval easier.

• Works are presented in isolation without context of their creation, requiring the viewer to have prior knowledge of 'The Adamson Collection'

Solution - Place the material into an archival structure, specifically Edward Adamson's archive as collector and facilitator. Add related material links to archival documentation and published references where known at most suitable levels. Add custodial and administrative histories where known at most suitable levels.

• Uncatalogued works are only represented by a single iconographic number, and are often stored in large single folders, making them difficult to produce safely and manage responsibly.

Solution - Catalogue and repackage these works at item level, recording to a consistent standard informed by the visual and material culture cataloguing guidelines.

• Parts of the collection are still owned by the Adamson Trust but stored by Wellcome Collection, and a small number of sculptures are in the midst of being acquired.

Solution - Create basic inventory data for these parts of the collection to better enable Collections Development decision making and documentation.