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University of Bradford >> Library >> Special Collections >> Jacquetta Hawkes Archive
The J.B. Priestley Library is delighted to announce that the archive of Jacquetta Hawkes has been donated to Special Collections. Jacquetta Hawkes (1910-1996) had an immensely rich and varied life, motivated by her passion for the distant past. She was a highly respected archaeologist, a writer of poems, plays and articles, a film-maker and broadcaster and peace campaigner. Her best-known work is probably "A Land" (1951), which fuses archaeology, literature, geology and art to explore Britain's past and present. She first married fellow archaeologist Christopher Hawkes ; her second husband was J.B. Priestley, the Bradford-born novelist and playwright.
The extensive archive includes diaries, letters, photographs, notebooks and drafts of books, poems, plays and articles. It shows how Jacquetta developed as an archaeologist and writer, also her fascinating social and personal life. It is particularly appropriate that the Archive should come to the University of Bradford, as we have relevant departments which are centres of research excellence (Archaeology, Peace Studies) and we also hold the J.B. Priestley Archive.
To supplement the archive, we are also developing a Special Collection of Jacquetta's published books, articles and other writings. This collection will also include works about her or otherwise relevant to the archive, and volumes from her own library.
Details of the Hawkes Book Collection.
Dr Christine Finn, herself an archaeologist and author, is writing a biography of Jacquetta Hawkes. She shares Jacquetta's deeply held belief in a humanistic, imaginative approach to the study of prehistory and has published several articles about her life and works. Dr Finn joined the J.B. Priestley Library in September 2003 as Writer-in-Residence, and also received an Honorary Research Fellowship from the Department of Archaeology. In Autumn 2005, Dr Finn moved to the University of Bristol, but she maintains her links with the Jacquetta Hawkes Archive and the University of Bradford as Writer Fellow
More information about Dr Finn's work
Image: photograph from Jacquetta Hawkes's wartime identity card (photographer unknown). Image © University of Bradford, 2004.
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