National Gallery Displays Historical Documents & More in EXPLORE YOUR ARCHIVE Week

14-22 November 2015 is 'Explore Your Archive' Week - the annual national event that celebrates the unique potential of archives to excite people, bring communities together and tell amazing stories.

Established in 1824, the National Gallery has an intriguing archive with all manner of quirky items that have been collected during its 191-year history. To celebrate 'Explore Your Archive' our archivists have collated their Top Ten Most Fascinating...

1 - The National Gallery's first regulations

On 8 April 1824, a letter was sent by the Treasury to William Seguier, the newly appointed Keeper of the National Gallery. Enclosed was the Regulations for the Exhibition of the Collection of Pictures purchased for the use of the Public, from the Executors of the late Mr Angerstein. John Julius Angerstein had been a wealthy banker and art collector. Upon his death, 38 of his paintings had been acquired for the nation and were placed on display at his Pall Mall home (the Gallery's Trafalgar Square building did not open until 1838). Regulation number two states 'All Persons to be admitted gratis' - although regulation number three's limit of 200 visitors at any one time suggests a very different level of attendance to the 6.5 million people who now visit the National Gallery every year.

2 - The Copyists Register

A founding principle of the National Gallery was that it should be a place where contemporary artists might receive education and inspiration from Old Master paintings. From then until today, the Gallery has kept a record of those copyists. The first Copyists' Register records admissions between 1824 and 1855 - listed as the 12th student in 1844 is a certain William Holman Hunt, demonstrating that some of the copyists went on to make their names as artists.

3 - Agnew's Stock Book

Some of the most interesting records within the National Gallery's Research Centre are the Stock Books of the art dealership Thos. Agnew & Sons (1850s-1980s). They record all paintings, drawings, prints and engravings purchased, and are a crucial source of information for researchers tracing artworks owned by public institutions and private collectors. One page contains the purchase on 4 June 1894 of Botticelli's The Madonna by the National Gallery, now reattributed as an early work of Filippino Lippi and entitled The Virgin and Child with Saint John.

4 - Agnew's Gainsborough theft

The Agnew's Archive does not only contain written records; fragments of fabric reveal a fascinating chapter in the firm's history. In 1876 Agnew's purchased Thomas Gainsborough's Duchess of Devonshire and exhibited it in their Bond Street Gallery, however a few weeks later it was stolen by the thief Adam Worth (sometimes referred to as The Napoleon of Crime), and hidden in the USA. As proof of possession, Worth cut fragments from the upper part of the painting and sent them to Agnew's; along with the threat to destroy the painting if they contacted the police. It took 25 years before the Duchess was finally recovered and returned to Agnew's.

5 - The Paramount list

In 1922, the Gallery's Board of Trustees wrote to the Treasury requesting future assistance should a number of internationally important paintings ever come onto the open market. In October of that year, Sir Charles Holmes, the Gallery's Director, submitted the Paramount List of seven paintings then in private hands. These were Titian's Diana and Actaeon, The Three Ages of Man, The Vendramin Family and Portrait of a Young Man; Holbein's Portrait of King Henry VIII; Memling's The Donne Triptychand The Wilton Diptych. The Chancellor agreed that should any of the seven paintings be offered for sale, additional funding would be provided to ensure that the pictures entered the national collection.

Of those paintings, The Vendramin Family and The Wilton Diptych were acquired by the Gallery in 1929; The Donne Triptych was acquired in 1957 whilst Diana and Actaeon was purchased jointly by the National Gallery and the National Galleries of Scotland in 2009. Titian's The Three Ages of Man and Portrait of a Young Man remain in private collections but are on loan to the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery respectively. Of the paintings on the 1922 Paramount List, only Holbein's Portrait of King Henry VIII has left the country and is now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection in Madrid.

6 - Aldwych Tube Station World War 1 storage

The storage of the National Gallery's paintings in a Welsh mine during World War II is relatively well known. However, this was not the first occasion that the collection had been threatened by aerial attack during times of war. During the First World War, German Zeppelin bombers attacked the capital and Sir Charles Holmes, the Gallery's Director, accepted an offer to use part of the disused Aldwych tube station for storage. In July 1917, the Office of Works submitted to the Gallery a plan of the proposed storage. A new floor was to be placed over the track, brick walls were to be built to enclose the area and burglar-proof doors were to be installed. A letter received by the Gallery from New Scotland Yard suggested that the watchmen employed to guard the paintings should be "men of quite satisfactory antecedents and fitness for their posts."

7- Art handlers hanging a picture

Today, the National Gallery's Art Handlers are amongst the best in the world and utilise specialist equipment to undertake their work. However, photographs from the Gallery's archive show that this wasn't always the case. In one image, taken c.1928, two attendants share a stepladder as they hang a painting. Forced to use the equipment available to them, they are at least well turned out in their uniform caps.

8 - Prado Medal

This medal recognises the role played by the National Gallery - and specifically the Assistant Keeper, Neil MacLaren - in safeguarding the Prado's paintings during the Spanish Civil War. An International Committee for the Rescue of Spain's Treasures of Art had been established, drawing expertise from a number of international institutions. In 1939, the precious collection of artworks was driven in lorries across the Pyrenees. Despite terrible travelling conditions and the threat of Nationalist bombings, the convoy arrived in France. From here the paintings were taken by train to a safe location in Geneva. Designed by Antoni Tàpies, the medal was commissioned by the Order of Arts and Letters of Spain and was presented to the National Gallery in January 2010.

9 - Wartime concert programme

Perhaps the most famous of the National Gallery's World War II activities were the Dame Myra Hess music concerts. Hess had a significant role in initiating and organising the concerts and played in the first one herself. The concerts became a daily lunchtime event and were so popular that Clark referred to them as a 'national institution.' Such was the size of some of the concert audiences that chairs had to be borrowed from Buckingham Palace.

10-Hugh Courts Instruction to defend Kempton Bunton

Goya's Duke of Wellington, which was acquired for the Gallery in 1961, was stolen just nineteen days after going on display. Four years later a man called Kempton Bunton confessed to the crime and under the Poor Prisoners' Defence Act of 1930 was granted legal aid. This certificate appoints (the aptly named) Hugh Courts as Bunton's solicitor and he would continue to represent Bunton throughout the case. His papers, which are now permanently preserved in the National Gallery Archive, cover everything from the initial painstaking task of gathering evidence, the widespread press interest in the case and his dealings with a temperamental Bunton who decided to abandon thoughts of an appeal, bringing this unique episode to a close.

As part of the Explore Your Archive week, the National Gallery is offering the opportunity to view original documents from the Gallery's archive, including documents relating to the Kempton Bunton case. For more information visit www.nationalgallery.org.uk