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.

Sir Nicholas Goodison

250 books. This material has been logged on the Library and Photographic Archive catalogue. It is fully searchable but not fully catalogued. It is available for consultation.

The collection contains books collected by Sir Nicholas Goodison to support his research interests in the decorative arts and the history of scientific instruments. It contains books, exhibition catalogues and some auction catalogues on such subjects as barometers, clocks and watches, ormolu, silver- and gold-work, glass, ceramics and furniture. Many of the books are on the manufacturing processes involved as well as the objects themselves.

The collection was donated to the Paul Mellon Centre by his widow Judith Goodison in 2022.

The Centre also holds Goodison's archive.

Books from the Nicholas Goodison donation, Paul Mellon Centre Library Collection

Sir Nicholas Goodison (1934─2021) was Chairman of the London Stock Exchange (1976─1986) and the banking group TSB (1989─1995). He collected and studied decorative arts for many years and published on the subject. He was President of the Furniture History Society between 1990─2002, and served as Chairman of the Courtauld Institute of Art from 1982─2002 and the National Art Collections Fund (now the Art Fund) from 1986─2002. He was knighted in 1982.