Archives & Library

Library Collections

The library collections cover British painting, sculpture, drawing, prints, decorative arts, architecture and garden history from the medieval period to the present day. The collections on British artists and architects, the British and Irish country house and the eighteenth-century Grand Tour are particularly strong.

Giles Waterfield

Approximately 500 books. This material has been fully catalogued on the Library and Photographic Archive catalogue.

The collection consists of books from the library of the architectural historian Giles Waterfield. It contains material on the history of British architecture, especially that of the country house including a large number of guidebooks. It also contains a small collection of books on servants and below-stairs life. There are also books on exhibition and museum history and artists’ studios.

The collection was donated to the Paul Mellon Centre in 2017.

The Centre also holds Waterfield’s archive.

Selection of books with spines showing on a shelf.

Books on servants and below-stairs life from the Giles Waterfield donation, 2017

Giles Adrian Waterfield (1949–2016) was a museum director, curator, teacher, advisor and author. He was director of the Dulwich Picture Gallery (1979–1996); joint director of the Attingham Trust (1994–2003); an associate lecturer at the Courtauld; and the expert adviser or trustee to a huge number of leading institutions. He was also a successful author of both of art historical texts and fiction. His first novel, The Long Afternoon, won the McKitterick prize in 2001.