Mildred Archer

Mildred Archer (born December 28, 1911 in London - † February 4, 2005 in Cleeve , Somerset ) was a British ethnologist and art historian who collected the folk art and folklore of Northeast India and, as the custodian of the collections of the East India Company, was responsible for viewing and evaluating them made extensive picture collections.

Education, marriage and years in India

Mildred ("Tim") Bell, her maiden name, entered St Hilda's College , Oxford , majoring in history , after attending school in London in 1930 . There she met her future husband William ("Bill") G. Archer, a friend of her brother from Cambridge . Bill passed the Indian Civil Service exam and studied Hindi at the University of London's School of Oriental Studies (SOAS) . Like many students in those tough economic times in Cambridge, the couple were leftist and a member of the university's Labor Club . In 1931 Bill left for India on duty, from where he returned to England in 1934 after a heat stroke. As a newlywed couple, Mildred and Bill traveled back to India, where Bill served for over a decade, ending up as a district officer in Bihar . While her husband was doing the administrative work, "Tim" worked on her own as an art ethnologist in these remote areas. Back then, the couple laid the foundation stone for their art and ethnological collections. In retrospect, the couple describes their critical attitude to the prevailing colonial policy, the question of Indian independence and the club and bridge enthusiasm of their English compatriots in their memories.

Her son (Michael) and daughter (Margaret) were born in India. Due to a lack of suitable teaching material, the couple quickly wrote their own English school books ("The Bihar Reader", 1936 ff.)

Despite his sympathy for the Indian freedom movement, William Archer gave the police a free hand in 1942 when they opened fire on demonstrating students in Patna ; there were 8 dead, William was henceforth "the butcher of Patna" ("the butcher of Patna"), which brought him into conflict with many of his Indian acquaintances and friends.

In 1942 the Archers were first transferred to the Santal area in what is now East Bihar, then towards the end of the war to Nagaland in the extreme northeast of India, where Bill Archer was able to pursue his ethnological studies.

Curator for the paintings of the East India Company in London

The Archers returned to England in 1947, and in 1949 William was appointed curator of Indian art at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where he mainly focused on Indian court painting and painting in the so-called Company Style , a painting style commissioned by the East India Company , dedicated.

Mildred Archer only gradually grew up as an assistant by cataloging the holdings of paintings of the East India Company in art history, which she opened up to a broad public from 1954–1980 as curator of the holdings of the Indian Office Library through countless publications and exhibitions. With the sudden death of her husband in 1979, her publishing activities did not cease; the last publication dates from 1994. Her services to the knowledge of the Hindu, Muslim and British artists then active in India were recognized in 1979 with the “ Order of the British Empire “(OBE) recognized.

The works of Mildred Archer are just as indispensable for the visual arts of the early English colonial times and the Indian court art of the 18th and 19th centuries as they are for the folk art of Bihar.

Anecdotal

"Tim" Archer was famous in London for her archival knowledge at the India Office Library. Numerous anecdotes revolve around them, according to the warning shout of the employees in the densely arranged, movable bookshelves if you wanted to push them together: "Are you inside, Mrs. Archer?"

Remarks

Left

Fonts (selection)

Patna Painting . London: Royal India Society 1947
Tippoo's tiger . London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1959
Natural History Drawings in the Indian Office Library . London: HMSO 1962
British Drawings in the India Office Library . 2 Vols. Vol. 1: Amateur Artists . Vol. 2: Official and Professional Artists . London: HMSO 1969
Company Drawings in the India Office Library . London: HMSO 1972.
Indian Popular Painting in the Indian Office Library . London: HMSO 1977
with Ronald Lightbown: India Observed. India as viewed by British Artists 1760-1860 . London: Victoria and Albert Museum 1982
India and British Portraiture 1770-1825 . London. New York. Karachi. Delhi: Sotheby Parke Bernet 1979
Early Views of India. The Picturesque Journeys of Thomas and William Daniell 1786-1794. The Complete Aquatints . London: Thames & Hudson 1980
with Toby Falk: Indian miniatures in the India Office Library . London: Sotheby Parke Bernet [u. a.], 1981
The India Office Collection of Paintings and Sculpture . London: British Library 1986
Visions of India: the sketchbooks of William Simpson, 1859-62 . Oxford: Phaidon 1986
with Christopher Rowell, Robert Skelton: Treasures from India. The Clive Collection at Powis Castle . New York: Meredith 1987
with Toby Falk: The passionate quest. The Fraser brothers in India . London: Alfalak / Scorpion 1989
with Toby Falk: India revealed. The art and adventures of James and William Fraser 1801-35 . London [u. a.]: Cassell 1989
with Graham Parlett: Company Paintings. Indian Paintings of the British Period . London: Victoria and Albert Museum 1992

Collections

Romance and poetry in Indian painting. A loan exhibition of Indian miniatures from the collection of Mildred and WG Archer, 26 May to 19 June 1965 . London: Wildenstein 1965
Indian miniatures and folk paintings from the Collection of Mildred and WG Archer. London: Arts Council of Great Britain 1967

memories

William and Mildred Archer: India Served and Observed . London: Putney 1994

personal data
SURNAME	Archer, Mildred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British ethnologist and art historian
DATE OF BIRTH	December 28, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH	London
DATE OF DEATH	February 4, 2005
Place of death	Cleeve (Somerset) , Somerset

[1] India served and observed , 1994

[2] ttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1489180/Mildred-Archer.html

[3] ttp://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/book-review-bearers-blimps-and-jungly-fruits-india-served-and-observed-william-mildred-archer-bacsa-1368803 .html

[4] ttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1489180/Mildred-Archer.html