Conway Library
Coming soon: the fully digitised Conway Library - available on your laptop or mobile device, wherever you are!
Conway Digital Launch Update March 24th
Please see our new Conway Library page.
About
The heart of the Conway Library is the private collection of Lord Conway of Allington, which came to The Courtauld Institute of Art in 1932. Since then, the Library has been developed continuously as a teaching and research collection.
It now contains over one million images: photographs and cuttings of world architecture, architectural drawings and publications, sculpture, ivories, seals, metalwork, manuscript illumination, stained glass, wall paintings, panel paintings and textiles.
Conway Library history
Since it came to The Courtauld over 80 years ago, the Conway Library has been built up by various means. Its stock of original photographs has been increased by donation and by buying negatives, and the Library has also commissioned photography in Britain and abroad. A large number of the photographs are the work of graduate students from The Courtauld Institute of Art, whose informed insights make the Library an especially valuable research tool.
The Conway collection also includes two smaller collections. The archive of 22,000 glass plates known as the De Laszlo Collection of Paul Laib Negatives includes images of works by many of the major artists working in Britain between 1900 and 1945. The archive of renowned architectural photographer Anthony Kersting (1916-2008) consists of over 160,000 images documenting the architecture of almost every European country, Asia, New Zealand, the Middle and Far East.
Separate from the main Library sequence and accessible by arrangement are the Conway’s holdings of historic photographs (mostly of architecture) and the late Edward B. Garrison’s collection of photographs of pre-1300 Italian painting.