| Administrative History | John R Biggs was a distinguished wood engraver, typographer, graphic designer and writer who early in his career established a much admired private press. This archive covers all these activities over a long span of time from his student days in Derby to the final years of his retirement from teaching.
John Biggs was born at 19 Hampden St., Derby in 1909 and studied at Derby School of Arts and Crafts where he produced and co-edited the Art School magazine, later called "The Buck in the Park". A J Symonds encouraged him to take up wood engraving and in 1929 Biggs established at his home a private press called 'The Hampden Press', having brought a second hand Albion printing press from the Derby Telegraph for thirty shillings. Here between 1929 and 1945 he issued thirteen booklets and pamphlets, all designed, printed and bound by himself and often illustrated with his own wood engravings. These included his own poems 'Sinfin Songs' (1932), editions of Spenser's 'Epithalamium' (1938) and of 'A World Within a War' by Herbert Read (1943). In 1931 one of Biggs's wood engravings, Roadmen, was exhibited at the Royal Academy. In 1932 Biggs was offered a work placement by James Masters who in 1924 had founded the High House Press in Shaftesbury. Biggs became the mainstay of one of the High House Press's most prestigious productions called 'Shaftesbury, the Shaston of Thomas Hardy', producing nine of the fourteen engravings in this book. Biggs's involvement in wood engraving reflects the revival of interest in this craft, especially in the 1930s and 1940s, exemplified in the work of artists and writers such as Clare Leighton, Eric Ravilious, John Farleigh, Eric Gill, John O'Connor and Robert Gibbings who commissioned wood engravings from Biggs to illustrate the Penguin 'Robinson Crusoe' (1938).
John Biggs went to the Central School of Art in London to gain his Art Teacher's Diploma where he further developed his interest in wood engraving through the encouragement of Noel Rooke. In 1935 Biggs was commissioned to teach Lady Oppenheimer, wife of the diamond magnate, how to print and helped with her production of "The Hoopoe's Call". During the 1930s he also taught wood engraving at Chelsea School of Art and the Gravesend School of Art. Fine bookbindings were another of his interests and an example of his bookbinding was exhibited in California in 1939.
John Biggs was also skilled in typography and graphic design. Amongst his output was a poster for London Transport in 1934. He became the first Head of Design at the London School of Printing in 1939 and continued in post until 1946. Simultaneously, he undertook freelance work as a book designer and illustrator and designed a number of children's books, together with the covers of the first King Penguins. In the mid 1940s, Biggs became Art Editor for SCM Press and the Production Manager of Country Life Books where he designed the Lutyens Memorial Volumes.
After a short period as Vice-Principal of Norwich School of Art, John Biggs was appointed Head of Graphic Design at Brighton School of Art in 1951, a post he retained until his retirement in 1974. From the late 1940s to the 1970s Biggs was also the author of a number of handbooks and studies on typography, letter forms and lettering. One of the most popular of these was "An Approach to Type", first published in 1949, and reprinted several times.
From 1972 until shortly before his death, John R Biggs travelled extensively in Russia and the Baltic States. His own work was exhibited in Moscow, Tashkent and Leningrad in the early 1980s. These trips provided him with material for lectures, especially on Soviet art and art education, and with a wide network of contacts with artists, especially wood engravers, in the then Soviet Union.
Biggs's archive includes letters from well-known figures such as C S Lewis, Alfred Fairbank, Walter de la Mare and Robert Gibbings. He also corresponded with John Randle of the Whittington Press who published Biggs's engravings for 'The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse', and who wrote an account of Biggs's Hampden Press publications. Biggs's archive is important in itself and complements that of the Derby School of Art (now part of University of Derby) which is also held in Derbyshire Record Office. Biggs's local origins, plus the diversity and longevity of his career, provide valuable insights into the interaction between artistic endeavour, employment and educational activities in the middle and later decades of the 20th century. His output represents a significant contribution to understanding of trends in wood engraving, graphic design and printing during this period. |
| Custodial History | This collection was donated to Derbyshire Record Office by the family in November 1991. Two further items (D3562/10/4/1-2) were donated in August 2024 by a colleague of the former Production Manager at SCM Press Ltd who had a small letter press printing studio at home, where these records were found by the colleague who inherited the equipment and other material from the studio. |