Output details

A genius for money: business, art and the Morrisons

This book explores the intersecting histories of collecting and connoisseurship, architecture, design and patronage, politics and economics, social history and biography, wealth studies and the development of American/global trade and investment. It is based on primary research which also informed the following: the OU RED (reading) project and National Trust developments at Basildon; articles in ‘Business Archives’, ‘Furniture History’ and the ‘Palestine Exploration Quarterly’; and the work of art dealers and auction houses. The book launch was sponsored by Christie’s.

The book was funded in part by grants from the Paul Mellon Foundation and the Scouloudi Foundation. Dakers tested the research at a number of international conferences and seminars, addressing scholars from a variety of fields. The book received positive reviews from the Financial Times, Spectator, TLS, Apollo, Wall Street Journal, and Art Newspaper.

For the book Dakers negotiated special access to the private papers of the Morrison family and examined these over a period of ten years. The majority of the papers were uncatalogued and had been unavailable to previous scholars. Dakers identified the content and significance of the materials and organised them into a workable archive, with extensive transcription. This involved deciphering nineteenth-century handwriting and early account books. The range of material (estate, political, family, commercial) informed the multi- and inter-disciplinary nature of the book. A professional cataloguer employed by the Morrisons now draws on Dakers’ work.