Robert dawson photographer biography templates
Robert Dawson Romany Collection
Robert (Bob) Michael Dawson has spent over 50 years researching and writing about Britain’s Traditional Travellers – Gypsies (Romanies), Scottish Travellers and Irish Travellers and has written over 50 books and booklets about their History, Language, Way of Life, Traditions, Culture, Folk Lore and Families, some under his pen name, Stanley Wallcliffe Tarno. Dawson is the President of the Romany & Traveller Family History Society, (R&TFHS), former Treasurer of the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group, a member of the National Association of Teachers of Travellers, an honorary member of the Romani Association of Australia, and a member of Romany Roots and other related organisations.
The Robert Dawson Romany Collection was donated by Dawson to the R&TFHS in 1998, the Society deposited the Collection at MERL to make it easily accessible to R&TFHS members and other researchers.
The collection consists of papers relating to Gypsies and Travellers including research and writings by Dawson, press cuttings, material concerning Gypsy Societies and Gypsies and government legislation, teaching packs, publications including reports and academic papers, sheet music, illustrative material including photographs, drawings, posters, postcards and cigarette cards and plans of caravans.
The Library collection is made up of some 2000 volumes, including books, pamphlets and periodicals. There is also a good selection of published audio-visual materials.
The Dawson’s library includes classical historical works, such as George Borrows’ dictionary of the Gypsy language (Romano lavo-lil, 1907) and Walter Simon’s A history of the Gipsies (1865); some particularly rare titles, e.g. The Gypsies by Samuel Roberts (1836) and Études sur les Tchinghianés, ou, Bohémiens de l’Empire Ottoman by A. Paspati (1870); and general reference books, e.g. A gypsy bibliography by George F. Black. (1971 reprint) and Dennis Binn’s GLOBAL LIBRARY PROJECT The Global Library Project seeks to document the important role of public libraries throughout the world in engaging and supporting an informed citizenry. By providing unrestricted access to information, offering literacy and educational support, and advocating for free and uncensored speech, the shared commons of a public library is one of the last non-commercial public spaces we have in our increasingly privatized global society. Of particular interest to the project is how social, cultural, historic and political issues have shaped a library’s role in the community. This project grew out of Robert Dawson’s 18-year “The Public Library: An American Commons”—a photographic project published as The Public Library: A Photographic Essay by Princeton Architectural Press in 2014. Dawson’s earlier work focused on the shared commons of the landscape and environment of the American West, and on global water issues. He then applied this concept of a shared responsibility to a documentation of the American public library system. In 2016 Dawson began The Global Library Project with his wife Ellen Manchester, co-director and curator and their son Walker Dawson, videographer and researcher. They traveled to Belgium, Holland, France, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Moscow. Their journey took them from a library in the infamous refugee camp called the Jungle in Calais, France to Holocaust-haunted former synagogues turned into libraries in Poland to libraries close to the hot war in eastern Ukraine to the National Library of Russia called the Lenin Library. Special attention was given to the role of European libraries in assimilating the large numbers of refugees fleeing poverty and war. Two years later, Dawson was awarded a 2018 - 2019 Fulbright Global Scholar Fellowship. It allowed Dawson and Manchester to photograph for six months the role of librar The Robert Dawson Romany Collection was generously donated by Robert Dawson – one of Britain’s foremost experts on Gypsy history and culture – to the Romany and Traveller Family History Society in 1998. To make it easily accessible to RTFHS members and other researchers, the Society has deposited the Collection on loan at the Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading: a museum that is the largest single archive relating to the rural history of England and that is therefore a fitting home for this important resource about Romany life. Bob Dawson painting his vardo in the early 1960s. Assembled over many years, the Collection includes not only copies of the most important published works on Gypsy history and culture, including the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, but also a large number of notebooks and manuscripts compiled by Robert Dawson himself, recording family histories, research findings and observations of Gypsy life. There are also illustrations, postcards, photographs, music and video recordings and ephemera with a Gypsy theme, plus examples of Gypsy crafts. It’s a vital resource for all those with Gypsy forebears, as well as for academic researchers wishing to learn more about the major contribution the Romany Gypsy has made to the British rural economy for the past 500 years. Visits to the Collection are by appointment only. To find out more, please contact: The Museum of English Rural Life Tel: 0118 378 8660 (international: +44 118 378 8660) This page last updated: 6 May 2018. Skip to main content Collection Identifier: CA075-96 This collection contains pilot logbooks, personal correspondence, business correspondence, clippings, manuals, monthly reports, airfield directories, memoranda, radio messages, notes, base manuals, maintenance reports, passenger manifests, air facilities data, flight procedure information, maps, inter-office routing slips, reports, travel orders, payment slips, reimbursement requests, transportation requests, leave requests, invoices, employment updates, pilot information, resume, and artwork that were created and/or collected by Robert E. Dawson during his time as Station Manager for Air America, Inc. The Robert E. Dawson Collection is housed in two boxes of varying sizes and three flat-file folders totaling 19.8 linear ft. | Robert Dawson Photography
The Robert Dawson Romany Collection
What is it?
How to access it
University of Reading
Redlands Road
Reading RG1 5EX
UK
E-mail: merl[at]reading.ac.uk
Website Robert E. Dawson Collection
Scope and Content
The collection arrived in fair condition and was initially processed with only a container list as description. Due to a change of the content management system, further description proved to be necessary. During an assessment for an application for an NEH grant, the collection was identified for further processing and description. The curator identified five series with the first series being the Personal Papers Series, which contains Dawson’s pilot logbook covering his military career and his employment with Air America, Inc.; and correspondence between Dawson, Air America, Inc., and Air Asia Company, Ltd. regarding personnel and administrative matters, salaries, life insurance, injury reports, benefits, operations, and various other topics.
The second series is the Air America, Inc. Series, which contains base manuals, memoranda, clippings, maintenance reports, notes, passenger manifests, and correspondence relevant to Air America, Inc.’s operations.
The third series is the Publications Series, which contains air facilities data, flight procedure information, and flight manuals.
The fourth series is the Maps Se