Using the Katharine Emma Maltwood Collection finding aid, I set out to develop and select resources for inclusion in an online exhibit. As a former employee of the University Legacy Galleries (formerly the Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery), I had a previous interest in the life story of Katharine Maltwood. Despite having passed away decades before my arrival at the gallery in the 2000s, Maltwood's influence on the space was made tangiblethrough the presence of her sculptures, two-dimensional art works, and vast collection of arts and craft furniture.
Reviewing the finding aid, and later handling items from the archives' collection, I was able to develop a general theme for the exhibit. The relationship between Katharine Maltwood's artworks, research interests, and a still-living hawthorn tree (purportedly taken as a graft from Glastonbury and planted by Maltwood herself), inspired me to develop an exhibit examining Maltwood's fascination with the Glastonbury Tor and Arthurian Legend. Through the display of a selection of Maltwood's research materials, artistic works, correspondence, and photographs, the exhibit will provide viewers with biographical information about Katharine Maltwood, her work related to the legends, and how these thematic interests were received within her lifetime and today.
Folders from the Katharine Emma Maltwood Collection.
The K.E. Maltwood finding aid is a 54-page document.
The embossed bronze sign that accompanies the tree reads, “THE HOLY THORN OF GLASTONBURY A GRAFT FROM JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA'S STAFF THAT BUDDED 60 A.D.”
Photograph of a plaster model by K.E. Maltwood representing the Somerset zodiac as seen from the air if the trees were removed.
A hawthorn tree planted by Katharine Maltwood, located outside the UVic University Centre where the Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery was house from 1978 - 2011.
List of resources selected for digitization for online exhibit accompanied related information.