Adamson Collection Trust (established 1978)

Papers of Adamson Collection Trust have been arranged in six sections:

A Constitutional

B Trustees' correspondence

C Reference and background documents

D Curatorial matters

E Adamson Collection: selected artists

F Edward Adamson

The material was transferred to the library at Wellcome Collection by the Adamson Collection Trust as a gift in June and July 2012 and January 2013.

In June 2013 some items belongong originally to acc 1764 (donated in October 2010 by John Timlin) were transferred to SA/ADC as more relevant for this collection than for PP/ADA.

The Adamson Collection Trust was set up in 1978 to promote Edward Adamson’s work and the Adamson Collection, comprising artworks created largely by patients with whom Adamson worked at Netherne Psychiatric Hospital, Surrey from 1946 to his retirement in 1981, but also by patients with whom he worked privately after his retirement. John Timlin (Adamson's life partner and collaborator) was the Trust's chairman 1978-2001 (with Sheila Donaldson-Walters serving one term as chair 1994-1997) and David O’Flynn, Consultant Rehabilitation Psychiatrist at Lambeth Hospital, took over in 2005. Adamson was the Collection's curator until his death in 1996, a role then taken by Alice Jackson, Head of Art Therapies at Lambeth Hospital (1997-2012) and currently performed by O'Flynn.

Personal papers of Edward Adamson are available for research at the Wellcome Library (PP/ADA). Approximately 5,000 artworks from the Adamson Collection were transferred to the library's Paintings, Prints and Drawings collection in July 2012 and are currently awaiting decisions on potential rehousing/arrangement.

At Wellcome Collection:

PP/ADA: personal papers of Edward Adamson.

MS.7913/28: Chapter 26. Edward Adamson, 'Art Therapy in the Treatment of Mental Illness'

Art-therapy. Paintings and drawings by psychiatric patients, under the guidance of Edward Adamson, ca. 1946-1981: more than 5,000 paintings and drawings, deposited in the Wellcome Library in the summer 2012, currently awaiting decisions on potential rehousing/arrangement.

PP/RKF: Section B of Rudolf Karl Freudenberg's (1908-1993) papers relate to Freudenberg's psychiatric practice at Netherne Hospital where Adamson worked 1946-1981 and contains two files on the Adamson Collection (PP/RKF/B.15/1 and PP/RKF/B.15/4).

Art-therapy. Paintings and drawings by psychiatric, geriatric, tuberculosis and other patients and by disturbed children, under the guidance of Rita M. Simon, ca. 1942-1989: more than 300 paintings, Iconographic Collection.

Psychiatric patients and psychiatrists. Etchings by Gemma Anderson, 2009-2010: 16 prints in Iconographic Collection.

PP/PMY: currently uncatalogued collection including a mixture of handwritten and printed work, along with paintings, sketches, drawings, relevant newspaper articles and ephemera, by a mental health patient. The diaries (1979-2011) detail the patient's journey through the mental health system and her close relationship with her therapist.