Desk of A.Gilhespy

The Joseph Crawhall II Society

Joseph Crawhall II (1821–1896) JCII, Self portrait was a wood engraver, book designer, writer, businessman, patron of the arts, campaigner for the preservation of architecture, collaborator of Charles Keene, collector of antiquities, keen angler, secretary of the Newcastle Arts Association. Fully absorbed in the life of a thriving and productive city, he made significant contributions in every area of interest that he pursued.

For the last six years I have been collecting, carrying out research, and building an online archive at josephcrawhall.org of Crawhall's creative work, much of which takes the form of chapbooks. The archive comprises primarily of careful, glancing-light reproductions of original copies of the hand printed books from private collections. The photographic technique reveals the boldness of the engraving and textural qualities of the print and paper:


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Old Aunt Elpa's ABC, published by the Leadenhalle Press 1884

In 2018 I visited the archives of UCLA, California in order to investigate and document the contents of nine boxes of Crawhall Family archives.

Note: The JCII Society website, first published in 2012 on a now well out of date template, is currently being rebuilt, aiming to go live autumn 2019.


Well Begun
Accurate summation of progress