This Online Library consists of various texts on the history of the Whitechapel Gallery, published and unpublished. All the texts are accessible here with permission from the copyright holders. The Library is regularly updated. The total number of texts identified so far is about one hundred, but new ones are constantly being written.

Anybody can read or download the texts for free. We hope this collection will instigate future research on the history of the gallery and help other studies.

High res inside lib

Inside the Whitechapel Library, now included to the gallery space. Photographer unknown. Tower Hamlets Local History Libary & Archives

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PUBLISHED TEXTS

  1. Nicholas Serota, ‘Eva Hesse at the Whitechapel Art Gallery’ in Barry Rosen (Ed.) Eva Hesse: Exhibitions 1972-2022. Hauser and Wirth, London, 2024. Pp.32-45.

The author was the gallery’s Director at the time of the exhibition, in 1979.

Download the article in pdf here. Please, follow the link if you want to buy the entire book directly from the publisher, Hauser & Wirth:

Eva Hesse: Exhibitions, 1972–2022

 

 

 

 

 

2. Sachs, Helen. ‘Canon Barnett’. Small text from the catalogue of the exhibition This is Whitechapel, Whitechapel Gallery, 1972, pp.14-17. Download pdf here.

 

3. Sachs, Helen. ‘The Whitechapel Gallery’. Small text from the catalogue of the exhibition This is Whitechapel.  Whitechapel Gallery, 1972, pp.23-29. Download pdf here.

 

 

 

Henrietta Barnett (1918-19). Canon Barnett : his life, work, and friends. London: J. Murray.

The founder of the Whitechapel Art Gallery and the Toynbee Hall had his life story written by his wife. Follow the links to the Internet Archive, Volume 1 available here,  Volume 2  here.

Yiakoumaki, N. (2009) ‘The Whitechapel files: a pictorial essay drawn from the Whitechapel archive’, Sharmacharja, S. (ed.). A Handbook for the 21st Century Art Institution. London: Whitechapel Gallery, Koenig Books, pp. 78-107. Download pdf here.

 

 

  1. Schwarz, K. (2009) ‘High Rising: an Aerial View [Introduction]’, Schwarz, K. and Vaugham, H. (eds.) A Gallery in Whitechapel Rises in the East. London: Whitechapel Gallery, pp. 10-12. Download pdf here.
  2. ‘In Conversation: Alice Rawsthorn, Paul Robbrecht, and Rachel Whiteread discuss the latest phase in the evolution of the Whitechapel Gallery, its landmark status, and the process of the Gallery expansion’ (2009), Schwarz, K. and Vaugham, H. (eds.). A Gallery in Whitechapel Rises in the East. London: Whitechapel Gallery, pp.87-95. Download pdf here.

 

 

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UNPUBLISHED TEXTS

(1) Emily K. Abel. Canon Barnett and the First Thirty Years of Toynbee Hall. PhD-thesis, Queen Mary College, University of London, 1969.  Download the full text in pdf here.

(2) Georgia Nayia Yiakoumaki. Curating Archives, Archiving Curating. PhD thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2009. Download Chapter III, The Picasso Material here. 

(3) Andrey Lazarev. John N. Duddington by documents from the Whitechapel  Gallery Archive: An Invisible Director? – Web publication, Whitechapel Archive, 2024. Download the full publication here.

(4). Andrey Lazarev. Glass Slides: Early Educational Tools at the Whitechapel Gallery. Web publication, Whitechapel Archive, 2024. Download the full publication here.

BIBLIOGRAPHY (published)

 

  1. Bonaventura, P. (2001) ‘Recent Art History at the Whitechapel Art Gallery’, The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp. 40-42.
  2. Borzello, F. (1980) ‘Pictures for the People’, Nadel, I.B. and F. S. Schwarzbach, F.S. (eds.), Victorian Artists and the City: A Collection of Critical Essays.  New York: Pergamon Press, pp. 30–40.
  3. Borzello, F. (1987) Civilizing Caliban: The Misuse of Art 1875–1980. London: Faber & Faber.
  4. Brandon T. (1999) Art for the Nation: Exhibitions and the London Public, 1747–2001. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 82–92.
  5. Brett, G. (2001) ‘Helio Oticia’s ‘Whitechapel Experiment’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp. 76-78.
  6. Briggs, A., and Macartney, A. (1984) Toynbee Hall: The First Hundred Years London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  7. Brill, D. (2001) ‘Artists as Collectors. Rosemarie Trockel’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp. 84-87.
  8. Davis C. (1985) ‘Building Story: Colquhoun & Miller’s remodeling of the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London’s East End’, The Architects Journal, 182(43), pp. 35-57.
  9. ‘Construction Chronology’ (2009), Schwarz, K. and Vaugham, H. (eds.). A Gallery in Whitechapel Rises in the East. London: Whitechapel Gallery, pp. 47-86.
  10. Creedon, A. (2006) ‘”Only a Woman”. Henrietta Barnett, Social Reformer and Founder of Hampstead Garden Suburb. Chichester: Phillimore & Co.
  11. Cruickshank, D. (1985) ‘Whitechapel: Fracas behind the Façade’ [on Townsend and the Whitechapel], Architectural Review, 85.
  12. de Sausmarez, M. (1969) ‘Bryan Robertson’s Achievement at the Whitechapel’, Studio International, February 1969.
  13. Escritt, S. (2009) ‘Charles Townsend, the Whitechapel Gallery and the Enigma of English Art Nouveau’, Schwarz, K. and Vaugham, H. (eds.) A Gallery in Whitechapel Rises in the East. London: Whitechapel Gallery, pp. 16-33.
  14. Francis, M. (2001) ‘Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp. 79-81.
  15. Glancey, J. (1986) ‘Whitechapel Communities’, RIBA Journal, March 1986.
  16. Glazebrook, M. (1969) ‘The Whitechapel Future’, Studio International, February 1969.
  17. Graham-Dixon, A. (1986) ‘Looking and Learning. Andrew Graham-Dixon joins a group of schoolchildren at the Whitechapel Art Gallery’, Sunday Times, 29.06.1986.
  18. Graham-Dixon, A. (1986) ‘Education at the Whitechapel Art Gallery’, Zeitungsausschnitt ohne Quellenangabe und Ort.
  19. Hartley, L. (2019) ‘From the Local to the Colonial: Toynbee Hall and the Politics of Poverty’, Victorian Studies 61(2), pp. 278–288.
  20. Hartley, L. (forthcoming 2024) ‘Ruskin for Whitechapel’, Kreisel, D., Stoddart,J. and Amy Woodson-Boulton, A. (eds.) Ruskin after 200: Thinking with Ruskin in the Twenty-First Century. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  21. Hartley, L.(2023) ‘Art on Sundays: Henrietta Barnett and the Whitechapel Fine Art Loan Exhibitions’, Beaumont, S. and Emerald Thiele M. (eds). John Ruskin, the Pre-Raphaelites, and Religious Imagination: Sacra Conversazioni. London: Palgrave Macmillan, chapter 12.
  22. Haythorntwaite, J. (2001) ‘Roller-Coasters and Helter-Skelters. ‘Missionaries and Philosophist: A History of Patronage and Funding at the Whitechapel Art Gallery’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp.18-27.
  23. Howell, C. (2009) ‘Space: the final frontier?’, Sharmacharja, S.(ed.). A Manual for the 21st Century Art Institution. London: Whitechapel Gallery, Koenig Books, pp. 140-155.
  24. ‘In Conversation: Alice Rawsthorn, Paul Robbrecht, and Rachel Whiteread discuss the latest phase in the evolution of the Whitechapel Gallery, its landmark status, and the process of the Gallery expansion’ (2009), Schwarz, K. and Vaugham, H. (eds.). A Gallery in Whitechapel Rises in the East. London: Whitechapel Gallery, pp.87-95.
  25. Jones, J. (2001) ‘John Berger and Looking Forward’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp. 64-66.
  26. Koven, S. (1994) ‘The Whitechapel Picture Exhibition and the Politics of Seeing’, Sherman, D. and Rogoff, I. (eds), Museum Culture, Histories, Discourses, Spectacles. London: Routledge.
  27. Koven, S. (1994) ‘Henrietta Barnett (1851–1936). ‘The (auto)biography of a late Victorian marriage’, Pedersen S. and Mandler P. (eds.) After the Victorians: Private Conscience and Public Duty in Modern Britain. London: Routledge, pp. 31–53.
  28. Lambirth, A. (2019) The Life of Bryan: a Celebration of Bryan Robertson. Norwich: Unicorn Press, section ‘The Whitechapel Years, 1952-1969’, pp. 46-158.
  29. Lampert, C. (2001) ‘Finding our territory’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp.5-6.
  30. Latham, I. (1980) ‘Charles Harrison Townsend: Whitechapel Gallery 1899-1901’, Architectural Design, 11, pp. 48-50.
  31. Lichtenstein, R. and Dein, A. (2001) ‘The University of the Ghetto: Stories of the Whitechapel Library’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp.9-12.
  32. Livingstone, M. (2001) ‘Reshaping The Whitechapel: Installations from Tomorrow to Today’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp. 32-36.
  33. Lomax, J. (1989) ‘The Organiser’s View’, Graham-Dixon, A. and Lomax, J. (eds) Artists & Schools. The Whitechapel’s Education Programme with East London Schools. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp. 21–26.
  34. Lunn, F. (2001) ‘The Whitechapel Open’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp.37-39.
  35. Mann, W. (2009) ‘The Collective Imagination of the City: The Whitechapel Gallery in the Past and Future East End’, Schwarz, K. and Vaugham, H. (eds.). A Gallery in Whitechapel Rises in the East. London: Whitechapel Gallery, pp. 34-46.
  36. Matthews-Jones, L. (2011) ‘Lessons in Seeing: Art, Religion, and Class in the East End of London, 1881–1898’, Journal of Victorian Culture 16:3.
  37. Meacham, S. (1987) Toynbee Hall and Social Reform 1880–1914: The Search for Community. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  38. Mellor, D. (1993) The Sixties Art Scene in London. London: Phaidon. Fragments on the Whitechapel Gallery.
  39. Millar, J. (2001) ‘This is Tomorrow’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp. 67-70.
  40. Morris, L. and Radford R. (2001). ‘Association of Artists (AIA) at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1939’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp. 62-63.
  41. Mörsch, C. (2019) Die Bildung der A_n_d_e_r_e_n durch Kunst Eine postkoloniale und feministische historische Kartierung der Kunstvermittlung. Wien: Zaglossus e. U.
  42. Nash, M. (2009) ‘A theatre for learning’, Sharmacharja, S. (ed.) A Manual for the 21st Century Art Institution. London: Whitechapel Gallery, Koenig Books, pp. 130-139.
  43. Newman, J. (2001) ‘The Whitechapel Archive: History or Aide-Memoire?’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp. 13-17.
  44. Pimlott, J. A. R. (1935) Toynbee Hall: Fifty Years of Social Progress. London: J. M. Dent & Sons.
  45. Robertson, B. (2001) ‘Supping with the Devil’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp. 82-83.
  46. Sachs, H. (1972) ‘Canon Barnett’, This is Whitechapel. London: Whitechapel Gallery, pp.14-17.
  47. Sachs, H. (1972) ‘The Whitechapel Gallery’, This is Whitechapel. London: Whitechapel Gallery, pp.23-29.
  48. Schwarz, K. (2009) ‘High Rising: an Aerial View [Introduction]’, Schwarz, K. and Vaugham, H. (eds.) A Gallery in Whitechapel Rises in the East. London: Whitechapel Gallery, pp. 10-12.
  49. Steedman, M. (ed.) (2011) Gallery as Community: Art, Education, Politics. London: Whitechapel Gallery.
  50. Steyn, J. (1994) ‘Inside-Out: Assumptions on English Modernism in the Whitechapel Art Gallery’, London, 1914’, Pointon, M. (ed.), Art Apart, Art Institutions and Ideology across England and North America. Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press.
  51. Steyn, J. (2001) ‘From Masculinity to Androgyny: The Whitechapel Art Gallery’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp. 30-32.
  52. Steyn, J. (1990) ‘The Complexities of Assimilation in the 1906 Whitechapel Art Gallery Exhibition “Jewish Art and Antiquities”‘, The Oxford Art Journal. 13:2, pp. 44-49.
  53. Szymczyk, A. (2009) ‘From the “Best kind of hanging” to the “Eden Plan”’, Sharmacharja, S. (ed.) A Manual for the 21st Century Art Institution. London: Whitechapel Gallery, Koenig Books, pp. 55-67.
  54. Taylor, B. (2001) ‘The Rauschenberg Retrospective in 1964’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp. 71-75.
  55. Waterfield, G. (ed.) (1994) Art for the People: Culture in the Slums of Late Victorian London. London: Dulwich Picture Gallery, pp.96, 97. A short text by Stephen Frank.
  56. Watkins, M. (2011) Henrietta Barnett: Social Worker and Community Planner.  London: Micky Watkins and Hampstead Garden Suburb Archive Trust.
  57. ‘Whitechapel Art Gallery: Colquhoun and Miller’ (1985), Architects Journal, 23, pp. 36-50.
  58. Widgery, D. (2001) ‘Ripe Bananas and Stolen Bicycles’, Lampert, C., Tarsia A., and Stobbs, C. (eds.) The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, pp.28-29.
  59. Wilson, Chr. (2017) Richard Hollis: Design for the Whitechapel. London: Hyphen Press.
  60. Wilson, S. (2000) ‘“The Highest Art for the Lowest People”: The Whitechapel and Other Philanthropic Galleries, 1877–1901’, Barlow, P. and Trodd, C. (eds.) Governing Cultures: Art Institutions in Victorian London. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 172–186.
  61. Winter, H. (1969) ‘The Whitechapel Gallery’, East London Papers, 12(1), pp. 63-65.
  62. Yiakoumaki, N. and Merewether, Ch. (2009) ‘Riddles and secrets’, Sharmacharja, S. (ed.). A Manual for the 21st Century Art Institution. London: Whitechapel Gallery, Koenig Books, pp. 68-77.
  63. Yiakoumaki, N. (2009) ‘The Whitechapel files: a pictorial essay drawn from the Whitechapel archive’, Sharmacharja, S. (ed.). A Manual for the 21st Century Art Institution. London: Whitechapel Gallery, Koenig Books, pp. 78-107.