Theo Brown's Lost Woodcuts

 

 Theo Brown. Photograph taken 1930s.

The Theo Brown Archive, held at Exeter University Library, contains around thirty boxes filled with papers, journal off-cuts, pictures, field surveys and cryptically hand-written notes composed and collected by the late folklorist over the course of her life.

Hidden amongst these, on small scraps of paper or handmade cards, are examples of Brown's rare talent as a wood-engraver. The images offer an insight into the imaginative landscape Brown envisaged for the stories and tales she collected. They also tell us something of the dedication and modesty of their author; these are images created, with few exceptions, for the benefit of a close circle of friends and confidants. As part of the box-set Theo Brown and the Folklore of Dartmoor, Folklore Tapes will reproduce facsimile versions of the surviving woodcuts, many of which depict ghosts, phenomena and characters from the moors.

 

 

All images reproduced with kind permission of Exeter University Library.