Bloomsbury Below Stairs: Grace Higgens at Charleston, 1920-1970
29 January 2008
30 January to 20 April 2008
The Folio Society Gallery at the British Library
Bloomsbury Below Stairs draws on the recently acquired archive of Grace Higgens (1903-1983), who worked for over 50 years at Charleston Farmhouse, Sussex, a country haven for the artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and their circle of unconventional and talented friends, collectively known as the Bloomsbury group. The display paints a vivid picture of the lives of the Bloomsbury group as seen from 'below stairs' through the diaries, photographs and letters of Grace Higgens, housekeeper to Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant for more than five decades.
Grace Higgens, née Germany, was sixteen when she began working for Vanessa Bell in June 1920, having applied for a position as a housemaid through Collins Agency. She was taken down to Charleston a month later. The farmhouse was remote and rundown with no electricity, and water had to be hand pumped, but the high spirited Grace, noted for her robust good humour, stayed for over 50 years as housemaid, nurse, cook and housekeeper.
Exhibits include correspondence from Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, including instructions on the management of the household, affectionate letters congratulating her on her marriage to Walter Higgens, the Charleston gardener, and the birth of her son, John, and detailed letters recounting their travels around Europe. A selection of Grace's diaries will be shown, which contain details of her life with the Bells, her first experience of travelling abroad with the family, and her encounters with the Woolfs and other members of the Bloomsbury set. In an entry from 1924, she writes, "Mrs Woolf arrived after tea to the great joy of the household, as she is very amusing and helps to cheer them up." In another diary entry, she writes, "I met Mr & Mrs Leonard Woolf, riding on their bicycles to Charleston. They looked absolute freaks, Mr Woolf with a corduroy coat which had split up the back like a swallow tailed, and Mrs Woolf in a costume she has had for years."
More exhibits include a complimentary postcard from Virginia Woolf asking Grace for a recipe, "Could you be so good some time as to write out the recipe, as I can't get any cakes made except yours that I like to eat?" and a valentine from Duncan Grant. Also on display will be a programme for a play by Lytton Strachey, The Son of Heaven, featuring a cover illustrated by Vanessa Bell, Grace's recipes and scrapbooks featuring newspaper cuttings about the Bloomsbury set. Grace was a keen photographer and a number of her photographs of the Bells and other members and associates of the Bloomsbury group will be displayed.
Sally Brown, Curator of Modern Literary Manuscripts at the British Library, commented: "Bloomsbury Below Stairs paints an intimate portrait of the Bloomsbury group, through Grace Higgens's candid, affectionate observations of the Bells and their associates, private photographs and personal mementos. The display offers a unique insight into the lives of the Bloomsbury group, as seen from 'below stairs'".
For further information, contact Ruth Howlett at the British Library Press Office: +44 (0)20 7412 7112 or ruth.howlett@bl.uk
Notes for Editors
Bloomsbury Below Stairs: Grace Higgens at Charleston, 1920-1970 is on display in The Folio Society Gallery at the British Library from 30 January to 20 April 2007. Admission is free.
The Grace Higgens archive includes diaries from the 1920s through to the late 1960s, and pocket diaries from 1962-1972 when she was housekeeper to Duncan Grant. There are a number of appointment diaries with brief entries, recipes, postcards, and newspaper cuttings about the Bloomsbury set in scrapbooks. Most of the correspondence consists of postcards, letters, cards and telegrams from Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, but there are also letters and cards from other members of the Bloomsbury set. Grace Higgens was a keen photographer and the archive includes photographs of the Bells and their children, other staff and later photographs of Charleston. The archive is available to researchers.
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