Keeper of the Flame: John Howard Whitehouse (1873-1955) 30 April - 2 October 2005

As one of its founders and its first secretary, the young J.H. Whitehouse delivered a loyal message from the Ruskin Society of Birmingham in February 1899, on Ruskin's eightieth birthday. He went on to become the leading figure in maintaining Ruskin's memory, arranging a national memorial (Ruskin Hall, at Bournville, Birmingham) and a centenary conference in 1919. Secretary of Toynbee Hall, and a Liberal M.P. from 1910 to 1919, he campaigned for educational reform, and founded Bembridge School on the Isle of Wight, based on Ruskinian and creative principles. His wide circle of contacts included writers such as George Bernard Shaw and John Masefield, and the polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen.

Left to right - Brantwood, Bembridge School, the Ruskin Library

In 1932 he bought Brantwood, Ruskin's last home at Coniston, opening it to the public and starting a Ruskin Society. The huge collection which he amassed of Ruskin's books, manuscripts, drawings and photographs forms the core of what is now held in the Ruskin Library. Fifty years after his death, this commemorative exhibition covers his career as an author and educationalist as well as his lifelong involvement with the interpretation and promotion of Ruskin's work.

	left: Isabella Jay Portrait of John Ruskin after Herkomer, bequeathed to the collection in Isabella Jay's will
right: John Ruskin, North West Porch, St. Marks, Venice, 1877, purchased for the Collection in 1931