Two sketchbooks, which give a unique insight into a bygone age of shipping around the coast of Britain over a hundred years ago, are to be exhibited online for the first time by the University of Glasgow. 

Ernest Arthur Binstead’s accomplished pencil drawings and watercolours from the 1900s have been digitised by Archive Services and will be displayed on the University’s website to enable scholars and the wider public to access the material.  Submarines in Dover harbour

The collection - donated earlier this year by a Miss Lee of  Berkshire - includes artwork inspired by Binstead’s journey on the S.S. Garmoyle from Glasgow to the Isle of Dogs in April 1901 as well as a number of other sketches and watercolours from Binstead’s extensive sea travels during the early 1900s.

A second sketchbook, dated 1908 and featuring scenes from the Dover and Folkestone areas of south-east England, was gifted to the University by Miss Lee only recently.

Lesley Richmond Director of Archive Services at the University of Glasgow said: “We are very grateful to Miss Lee for donating the sketchbooks to GUAS for inclusion in our collections. Archive Services will ensure long-term preservation of the sketchbooks and the digital images on our online exhibition will enable many more people to enjoy them. The images are very evocative of the maritime way of life in Britain a century ago.”

The online exhibition of Binstead’s sketches can be accessed at this address: www.gla.ac.uk/services/archives/exhibitions/ernestarthurbinstead/

Further information:
Martin Shannon, Media Relations Officer
University of Glasgow Tel: 0141 330 8593
Email: m.shannon@admin.gla.ac.uk

Lesley Richmond, Director of Archive Service
University of Glasgow Tel: 0141 330 2089
Email: L.Richmond@archives.gla.ac.uk

First published: 18 December 2008

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