Papers relating to Sixsmith's radio broadcast on furnishing fabrics

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 133 Eng Ms 1330/1
  • Dates of Creation
      21 Nov 1932-12 Apr 1933
  • Physical Description
      3 sub-series; 14 items.

Scope and Content

This series contains material relating to a talk by Sixsmith which was broadcast by the Northern Region of BBC radio on 6 March 1933. The talk formed part of the 'Thing of Beauty' series, which took art and industry as its subject, concentrating on the importance of beauty in everyday manufactured consumer goods. Sixsmith was involved in forming the Design and Industries Association, which was established to promote the improvement of design in machine made goods, aiming to bring the spirit of Ruskin and Morris into the modern factory. In his talk, he focused on furnishing fabrics, the history and processes of producing different types of cloth, and the principles of beauty in relation to furnishing rooms. The series contains various drafts of the talk, showing its evolution from rough notes to a fair version, as well as news cuttings relating to the broadcast, and correspondence relating to Sixsmith's research for the talk as well responses to the broadcast.