I am not sure how the layout of this will turn out as an email, Forgive me.
Special thanks to all of you who have helped get such a good start on
this bio.
Brian
A preliminary biography outline of*Alan Summerly Cole, 1846-1934
*/(Gleaned from many web sources academic works etc. with the help of
members of Arachne (lace list)/
/Collated by Brian Lemin Dec2021/
*Nationality*: English
*Date of Birth*: 1846.08.19
*Place of Birth*: Bayswater. London Middlesex
*Date of Death*: 1934.03.24
*Place of Death*: May 30, 1934 (86-87)
London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom
*Identity: *
Alan Summerley Cole was the son of Sir Henry Cole, K.C.B, a pioneer in
design reform and the first director of the South Kensington Museum.
*Marriage:*
A. S. Cole ( aged 32)married Margaret Elizabeth Clark (aged 19) (1859 â
1933)in March 1879 ,( or possibly on 7 January 1879 )in the parish of
Taunton St Mary)
They had four children,
Hilda (b. ca 1880, m. Jack Bennet),
Muriel (b. ca 1882),
Jack (b. ca 1884) and
Doreen (1901-1903).
*Life: *
Cole attended the Government Design Schools at South Kensington, and
later became the Assistant Secretary at the South Kensington Museum. He
was an expert in textiles, especially lace, and was the author of a
number of catalogues on the subject. He wrote reports on the working
conditions of lace makers in Britain.
He was the son of the museumâs first director, Sir Henry Cole
(1808-1882), and also served as Assistant Secretary at the museum. He
published âA Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Lace in the
South Kensington Museumâ in 1881, and in 1891 produced a supplement for
specimens of lace acquired between 1880 and 1890. He was commissioned by
Parliament to investigate the Irish lacemaking industry; He also wrote a
report on the Devon lace industry and many important works on the
subject and on lace in general. Cole knew many turn of the century Arts
& Crafts leaders, and was one of the only people advocating lace in the
movement.
He entered Charterhouse for a brief periods despite his father's
reservations. As has been recorded, he spent his working life in the
Department, as Private Secretary to his father from 1867 to 1873, and
later in a variety of capacities. He continued to serve in the Board of
Education to 1908. He was made C. B. in 1902, and he was a Member of the
Council of the Royal Society of Arts from 1914 to 1918.
The science and art department were part of the government, and was
based on the South Kensington site next to the museum that became the
V&A. He was widely regarded as a textile expert, publishing monographs
of textiles, silks, embroidery and of course lace. As a commissioner for
the department, he went out to the lace counties and Ireland to report
on the state of the lace industries there, and for the Children
employment commission on children working and schooling in the lace
industry in 1862.
He was a friend of Whistler.
In 1849, when Whistler was living with the Hadens at Sloane Street, he
met Cole and his elder sisters at a children's party given by the
Dilkes. Cole and Whistler remained life-long friends and correspondents.
In the spring of 1876 Whistler began a portrait of Cole's father which
was taken up again in February 1882 but never finished as Henry Cole
died on 18 April 1882. The picture appears to have been destroyed. Later
in 1876 Whistler and Cole played together in /Under the Umbrella/, an
amateur theatrical in Kensington Town Hall. In this year Whistler also
gave Cole an number of spontaneous sketches he had made of /The Blue
Girl: Portrait of Connie Gilchrist/ (YMSM 207) and /Arrangement in Brown
and Black: Portrait of Miss Rosa Corder/ (YMSM 203). In 1879 Cole helped
Whistler plan a trip to Venice.
Cole's diary records many dinners and breakfasts at Whistler's house
during the 1870s in the company of such persons as Frank Dicey, Cyril
Flower, Louis Huth, Richard Monckton Milnes, Oscar Wilde, Jacques Joseph
Tissot, Frances Leyland, Janey Sevilla Campbell, George Adolphus Storey
and Theodore Watts, when they had discussed such subjects as Japanese
art, Velasquez, Balzac, Sarah Bernhardt and spiritualism. In his diary
Cole also followed the progress of Whistler's decoration of the Peacock
Room at Leyland's home in Prince's Gate in the autumn and winter of
1876, and made records of the exhibitions of Whistler's pictures, eg.
Fine Art Society in 1881.
Alan Summerley Cole's Timeline
<https://www.geni.com/timeline/view_all?profile_id=6000000173411252238>
Showing 7 events
1847
Birth of Alan Summerley Cole
<https://www.geni.com/profile/6000000173411252238/events/6000000173411252239>
London, Middlesex
DEC 31
1879
Birth of Hilda Margaret Summerley Bennett
<https://www.geni.com/profile/6000000173411252238/events/6000000173410434076>
1879
Marriage of Alan Cole and Margaret Clark
<https://www.geni.com/profile/6000000173411252238/events/6000000173411807006>
Taunton, Somerset, England, United Kingdom
1883
Birth of Jack Summerley Cole
<https://www.geni.com/profile/6000000173411252238/events/6000000173415069933>
1883
Birth of Ruth Jack Summerley Chaplin
<https://www.geni.com/profile/6000000173411252238/events/6000000173410424486>
1901
Birth of Doreen Marion Cole
<https://www.geni.com/profile/6000000173411252238/events/6000000173415037959>
MAY 30
1934
Death of Alan Summerley Cole
<https://www.geni.com/profile/6000000173411252238/events/6000000173411252240>
London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom
Contributions to EB1911 <https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/EB1911>
* "Brocade
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Brocade>,"
in /Encyclopædia Britannica
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica>/
(11th ed., 1911)
* "Carpet
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Carpet>,"
in /Encyclopædia Britannica
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica>/
(11th ed., 1911)
* "Embroidery
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Embroidery>,"
in /Encyclopædia Britannica
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica>/
(11th ed., 1911) (/in part/)
* "Gold and Silver Thread
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Gold_and_Silver_Thread>,"
in /Encyclopædia Britannica
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica>/
(11th ed., 1911)
* "Lace
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Lace>,"
in /Encyclopædia Britannica
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica>/
(11th ed., 1911)
* "Tapestry
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Tapestry>,"
in /Encyclopædia Britannica
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica>/
(11th ed., 1911)
* "Textile-printing
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Textile-printing>,"
in /Encyclopædia Britannica
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica>/
(11th ed., 1911) (/Art and Archaeology/)
* "Weaving
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Weaving>,"
in /Encyclopædia Britannica
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica>/
(11th ed., 1911) (/Archaeology and Art/)
*Bibliography: *
Cole, Alan S. (ed.), /A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Lace
in the South Kensington Museum/, London, 1881;
Cole, Alan S., /A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Tapestry
and Embroidery in the South Kensington Museum/, London, 1888;
Cole, Alan S., /A Supplemental Descriptive Catalogue of Embroideries and
Tapestry Woven Specimens Acquired by the South Kensington Museum Between
1890 and 1894/, London, 1896;
Cole, Alan S. and Henrietta (ed.), /Fifty Years of Public Work of Sir
Henry Cole, K.C.B., Accounted for in his Deeds and Writings/, 2 vols,
London, 1884; Bonython, Elizabeth,
/King Cole: A Picture Portrait of Sir Henry Cole, K.C.B., 1808-1882/,
London, n.d; /Who was who: a companion to Who's who/, London, vol. 3.
Alan S. Cole. Editor. Embroidery from the South Kensington Museum /
Alan S. Cole. Ornament in European silks;
Alan S. Cole. Ancient Needlepoint and Pillow Lace. Arundel Society,
1875. 59 pages.
Alan S. Cole. Weaving. Cambridge University Press, 1911. 16 pages.
Alan S. Cole. A renascence of the Irish art of lace-making. London,
1888. Title no: 4.2.328 (1 mf)
Alan S. Cole. Cantor lectures on the art of lace-making. London, 1881.
Title no: 4.2.577 (1 mf)
--
Brian. (Who lives in Awabakal Country)
Cooranbong. Australia
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