Walter Benington photographic portraits

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The collection comprises 200 glass plates of Benington's Oxbridge personalities and notable figures from the wider world of literature, politics, the sciences and the arts. The portraits date mainly from 1920-1922, but there is a group for 1914 and a smaller group for 1926. Many of the portraits were published in the Sphere, particularly Cambridge personalities on 4 and 11 June 1921 and Oxford personalities on 21 and 28 October 1922.

Dates

Creation: 1914-1926, n.d.

Extent

0.3 Linear metres (14 physical shelfmarks)

Language of Materials

English

Preferred Citation

Oxford, Bodleian Libraries [followed by shelfmark, e.g. Neg. b.4/1 item 1].

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Full range of shelfmarks:

Neg. b. 4/1-14

Collection ID (for staff)

CMD ID 12742

Additional Description

Abstract

The collection comprises 200 glass plates of Benington's Oxbridge personalities and worthies of the wider world of literature, politics, the sciences and the arts, 1914, 1920-1, 1926, n.d.

Biographical / Historical

Walter Benington (1872-1936) was a leading member of the co-called 'Linked Ring' group of Pictorialist photographers and his photographs were exhibited in Britain, Europe and the United States of America. By 1910 he became one of the country's leading portrait photographers. He later worked for Elliot & Fry of Baker Street in London, as well as being a frequent contributor to periodicals, notably the Sphere.

Custodial History

Sometime after Benington’s death in 1936, the plates may have passed into the keeping of the artist, Mr. Archie Utin. It seems probable that they were gifted to the Bodleian Library following Utin’s death in 1977.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Without written documentation the precise details cannot be ascertained. There is circumstantial evidence to suggest that the plates were given by Benington’s widow to an Oxford neighbour, the artist Archie Utin. We know that sometime in the early 1940s Utin had acquired two important portfolios of Benington’s photographic work. The portfolios contained Benington’s photographic record of the work of the young French sculptor, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.

Archie Utin died in 1977 and for a period thereafter the Gaudier-Brzeska portfolios disappeared. They are now in the Tate Gallery Archive and in the Archive of Modern Conflict. It is not unreasonable to suggest that a similar pattern may have operated with the Photographic Portraits except that on Utin’s death the plates were passed to the Bodleian.