User:Shakespearian/sandbox

Hello, my name is Luke and I live in Walsall.

I like it there

I Like Strawberry

Walsall Museum and Art Gallery houses one of the largest collections of archives based on the personal life of the renouned artist and sculptor, Jacob Epstein and his family.

The collection of letters, diaries, journals and photographs had nearly been lost to a London landfill had it not been for the diligence of the museum's Head of Collections Jo Digger.

Kathleen Garman (later to become Kathleen Epstein, Jacob's second wife) had left her friend Beth Lipkin, as a major beneficiary in her will upon her death. They had shared a house together up until her death and the documents were all left behind.

In the late 1990s, Beth was admitted into a nursing home and it was at this time that the letters, diaries and photographes were put at risk of being lost forever, however as the house clearing was being performed, Jo Digger realised the importance of these documents and had them shoved into suitcases and removed for storage. Funding was sought in order to purchase the documents for Walsall Museum and Art Gallery, this was finally achieved in 2006 with funding for a permanent archievist obtained in 2009. The earliest of the archives dates back to the 1880s when a teenage Jacob Epstein wrote to the philanthropist Helen Moore asking if she would fund him so that he may pursue his dream of becoming an artist. She duly agreed to fund him and also arranged for him to work on a farm. The correspondence would continue, with him telling Moore of his interest in sculpture, something that he would become best known for.