Hannah Frank news November 2009
Fiona Frank
HANNAH FRANK NEWS NOVEMBER 2009
Dear fans of the late Hannah Frank,
I haven’t written to you for a while, and there are a few new names on the list (welcome to those who have discovered my aunt through Ebay recently!). I wanted to let you know about some of the things that have been happening this year. In this newsletter: video clip of the Posthumous Honorary Doctorate; cataloguing of the 'Hannah Frank and Lionel Levy collection' of letters, diaries, albums, photographs and certificates; Glasgow Women's Library acquires Hannah Frank books and prints; Hannah Frank in the media - ‘Scottish Woman’ and ‘Journal of Jewish Culture and History’; acquisition of original Hannah Frank drawings by Glasgow City Museums; and bargain prints on Ebay!
DR HANNAH FRANK – see video clip of the conferring of the Hon.Doctorate
My late aunt was, as readers of this newsletter will know, awarded the very first Posthumous Honorary Doctorate that Glasgow University has ever offered. The award is in recognition of her ‘international distinction’ and was made at the university’s Commemoration Day on 17th June where I was invited to collect it on her behalf. It was a fantastic event spread over two days with a chapel service (in the University chapel where the 100th birthday exhibition took place last summer), tea with the Principal, dinner with the Chancellor, and as much pomp, circumstance and tradition as you can possibly imagine. The University sent me a beautiful DVD and commemorative book of the photographs of the event. You can see the part where the Principal made the oration for my late aunt and the Chancellor handed me the scroll with the honorary doctorate made out to ‘Hannam Frankum’, followed by the most wonderful singing by the University choir, on the website at http://www.hannahfrank.org.uk
MEMORIAL SERVICE
The stone setting and memorial service took place for my late aunt at Cathcart Cemetery, Glasgow, on July 29. Friends and family came from all over Scotland, England, Jersey and the US. Following the service we went to Garnethill Synagogue, the home of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre (SJAC), where the official handover of the 'Hannah Frank and Lionel Levy Collection' of personal papers, diaries, letters, and albums took place.
CATALOGUING THE ARCHIVE
My late aunt and uncle’s papers, now in the care of the SJAC, are being catalogued by students from Glasgow University and the Glasgow School of Art. This exciting work began this month with the first students beginning a two week ‘top level’ cataloguing exercise. The first two students to work on the collection are Dina Strati and Helen Cannings, both on the MSc in Information Management and Preservation at Glasgow University. Helen is concentrating on my aunt’s letters – she never seemed to have thrown anything away in 100 years! – and Dina is looking at her albums and diaries.
The whole archiving project is really exciting in itself but even more so because Dina comes from Athens and so is able to decipher Hannah’s most secret diary thoughts - thoughts that she kept from prying eyes through writing parts of the diary in Greek script. (In her later years she was comfortable with the thought that we would eventually decipher these sections – as you will know if you’ve seen a copy of the film ‘A Spark Divine’ when she talks about her diaries.)
We envisage that this archive will be of interest to researchers in many different fields – women’s studies and women’s history, Glasgow and Scottish social history, history of art, Jewish history and community, to name a few.
GLASGOW WOMEN’S LIBRARY
The Glasgow Women’s Library houses a lending
library, archive collections and contemporary and historical artefacts relating
to women’s lives, histories and achievements. Auntie Hannah had made
provision in her will for the division of her beloved books among friends and
family, but there were many left after this had been done. The Glasgow
Women’s Library were pleased and honoured to be offered the opportunity
to choose some books from her collection after she died.
The GWL blog says: “Hannah’s books themselves are gorgeous, but are made even more so by her personalised black and white ‘Ex libris’ bookplates. Many of them have beautiful, touching inscriptions from friends and family. It felt like such a privilege to look through Hannah’s books, as though we were getting an rare insight into her life as a young woman. Many of the books are from her student days at Glasgow University in the 1920s. What an achievement – to keep all your books together over a lifetime.” See http://blog.womenslibrary.org.uk/2009/04/30/a-life-in-books/ for the full story.
The library was also delighted to receive a set of Hannah Frank prints. These prints are now on show at the library’s current premises on Parnie Street. The library is currently fundraising to renovate a new space at The Mitchell, the largest public library in Europe, which is on North Street, Glasgow. The move will probably take place at the end of 2010 and the set of signed prints will be on permanent display there.
ACQUISITIONS
I’ve been in discussion with Glasgow City Museums who are hoping to acquire two Hannah Frank original drawings - ‘Wrap Thy Form in a Mantle Grey’ (1941) and ‘I Sought Him But I Found Him Not’ (1935) - as well as a set of mounted woodcuts, which include a bookplate Hannah made for my father, Leo Frank, when he was a medical student. This bookplate includes the ‘tools of my father’s trade’ – a skull balanced on a pile of medical textbooks.
I’m very pleased that my aunt’s work is continuing to find its rightful place in public collections nationally. Other drawings and sculpture are already in the Hunterian Gallery at Glasgow University, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, the Ben Uri London Jewish Museum of Art, and the Peter Scott Gallery at Lancaster University, and I hope to extend this list over the coming year.
FUTURE PROJECTS
Some of the funds from the sale of my aunt’s drawings will go to continuing to keep her name alive. We plan to announce some new projects on the anniversary of her death this December so keep an eye on your inbox.
HANNAH FRANK PRINTS ON eBay
You can see all of my late aunt’s drawings on the Hannah Frank website (http://www.hannahfrank.org.uk and click on Gallery). Reproductions of all these drawings are available for purchase from the webshop. But there are also some Hannah Frank prints on eBay now with low starting prices. Just search for ‘Hannah Frank’ on eBay and you may get some bargains for yourself or for Christmas and Chanukah presents.
SCOTTISH WOMAN MAGAZINE
'Scottish Woman’ magazine, “the number one magazine for women in Scotland” (see http://www.scottishwomanmagazine.com/ ) is planning to feature Hannah Frank in their December/January issue out at the end of November. Look out for it!
JEWISH CULTURE AND HISTORY JOURNAL
An article I wrote two years ago for a conference in Cape Town on 'Jewish Journeys' is being published in the next issue of the journal Jewish Culture and History, Volume 11. (see http://www.vmbooksuk.com/acatalog/Jewish_Culture_and_History.html). The article, entitled ‘Hannah Frank’s Glasgow Jewish Journey: From the Gorbals to the Southside’, discusses Hannah Frank's literary journey, and specifically, how her diaries show the way in which the novels, plays and poetry that she read as a girl affected her art and her thinking into adulthood. When asked about influences on her art shortly before she died, Hannah Frank credited "The books I read; the poetry I read. I loved the Bible - I loved the poetry of the Bible." Lines from Shelley, Fletcher, Keats, O’ Shaunessy and others provided titles for her works and she llustrated verses from the Bible (Job), also drawing at least one depiction of Adam and Eve. A work entitled ‘Dusty Answer’ (1930), which was recently acquired by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, is inspired by a daring novel of the same name from 1927 by Rosalind Lehmann.
NEWSLETTER DETAILS
I have sent you this newsletter because you’ve indicated your interest in the art of my late aunt, Hannah Frank. I hope to send out another in December with news of a momentous project. Please let me know if you’d like to come off this mailing list, or if you would like me to change your details.
Many best wishes
Fiona Frank (niece of the late Hannah Frank)
3 Dalton Road
Lancaster LA1 3PR
Tel 07778 737681