History of the Solander boxes

Some of the black solander boxes were made by G. Ryder & Co. (based in Milton Keynes). These are covered in black buckram but with a smooth appearance and are shallow in format. They have an acid free barrier. On one example (at S94.3R?) the text Rm/Sm was written by Gertrude Prescott-Nuding (who was briefly at Wellcome on a short-term contract to move the parcels out of Enfield in the 1980s and put them in the solanders).

G. Ryder & Co. had a contract with director Stanley Kubrick to provide him with archive boxes to store photographs taken in the research of his films. William referenced a War film where photographs were taken to document windows, doors etc to ensure the sets built for the film would be authentic. A film was then later made by Director Jon Ronson about these boxes specifically.

The black solanders made by G. Ryder’s company were sent in carboard packaging (e.g. S91.6R) and this packaging has also been utilised as storage for the visual material. These are identifiable by the blue and yellow labels with the Wellcome address on followed by dimensions and wording such as ‘supreme solander’.

There are also large and medium sized black solanders in the drawer store – also manufactured by Fernbest (coarse buckram) and G.Ryder & Co (smooth buckram) in a larger format that those in the solander store. (Pre ‘A’ sizes). These sizes are reflected in that the first part of the drawer store at one end contains material decanted from the largest sizes (up to about D20?) in one sequence, i.e. botany, portraits, anatomy etc. This is then followed by a duplicate subject sequence that relates to the decanted medium formats. Smaller items will still be stored in these drawers where one object in the sequence is larger.