Record

Browse this collectionThis entry describes an individual archive record or file. Click here to browse the full catalogue for this collection
Archive Reference / Library Class No.D8760/F/OBJ/7
Former ReferenceD3311/OBJ
TitleSeal of the Universities Settlement in East London, designed by Philip Lyttelton Gell, with card of notes explaining the design to celebrate the opening of Toynbee Hall
Date1884
DescriptionToynbee Hall in Spitalfields was set up in 1884 by leading figures of Oxford University as a "settlement " to provide social facilities and activities and act as a centre for social reform in a poor urban area. The seal incorporates the emblems of the two universities of Oxford and Cambridge, students of which lodged at Toynbee Hall to undertake social work. Philip Lyttelton Gell was the first Chairman of Trustees.
Extent2 items
LevelItem
RepositoryDerbyshire Record Office
Full Catalogue ListClick here to view a full list for this collection
Archive CreatorGell family of Hopton Hall, Wirksworth
Transcript or IndexLangley Lodge (near Oxford)
My ideas in designing this seal at the foundation of Toynbee Hall were somewhat of this kind:-
The open volume with the insignia of Oxford on one page + Cambridge on the other represents the inherited education, knowledge + intellectual equipment of the Upper Classes. The scroll upon w[hic]h it rests ("In knowledge of whom standeth our Eternal Life") indicates that this knowledge is the Knowledge of God as revealed in the Laws of Nature + in His dealings with mankind w[hic]h is essential to all live. The Dawn of a new Epoch was in the East behind the open volume + the Oxford motto "God my light" re-echoes the idea embodied in the open volume below. P Lyttelton Gell
Add to My Items