The Collingwood Collection: an introduction to the family and the project
From Special Collections and Archives, Cardiff University
It’s been two months now since I joined Special Collections and Archives as the project archivist for the Collingwood collection. During this time I have been completely immersed in the family’s correspondence and, as a result, feel like I know the family almost as well as my own!..
The Collingwood Collection is the family archive of an extraordinary family. The Collingwoods have been described as ‘probably the most intellectually and artistically gifted family in the Lake District in the late 19th and early 20th centuries…’
Arthur Ransome, a close friend of the family, based the Walker children in Swallows and Amazons(1930) on Dora and Ernest’s children…