About the Project

Sources used

The list was compiled primarily from the record books of JHKM. These are held in the Hunterian Art Gallery. The relevant volumes comprise the four job books which cover the Mackintosh years. The job book information was supplemented with data from the office visit book and cash book, also held in the Hunterian.

For every project undertaken by the firm during this period the following data was entered into an Access table: project name and address, client name, first and last page numbers, start date, whether the project was for a new building or for alterations to an existing one, and whether or not any of the job book entry was written in Mackintosh's hand.

The list derived from the job books was compared with the list of works in Alan Crawford, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, London: Thames & Hudson, 1995, pp. 210–12, and any additional architectural projects identified by Crawford were added. These were mostly student works, or works dating from after the JHKM period. A broad definition of 'architectural' was adopted, including, for instance, exhibition stands, gravestones and room settings for exhibitions. Interior design projects were regarded as 'architectural' if they were thought to involve structural alterations. Speculative and unbuilt designs were also included. The augmented list was compared with the lists of works in Hiroaki Kimura, 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Architectural Drawings', University of Glasgow:unpublished PhD thesis, 1982, pp. 7–14, and Mackintosh's entry in the online Dictionary of Scottish Architects, and from these sources a very small number of further projects were added.

A few more JHKM projects came to light when searching the various databases and indexes of Dean of Guild plans in Glasgow City Archives, and these were also added to the core list. They include schemes for a musicians' gallery at the Grand Hotel, a studio for Archibald Kay at 66 Berkeley Street and a drill hall for St George's Road School. It is not clear why these projects do not feature in the job books. In some cases, modest payments from the clients are recorded in JHKM's cash book, which may indicate that the office's involvement was limited to supplying drawings. In one case it seems to have done no more than make a survey of an existing building (Simpson's furniture warehouse at 102–8 London Road).

A small number of projects were added later during the course of the research. These included architectural competition entries known from payments recorded in the cash book, or from press reports; designs for unidentified buildings known from surviving sketches; designs and building surveys recorded in sketchbooks; and jobs mentioned in letters.

Some jobs which were originally grouped together as single projects (for example three alternative designs for Glasgow Art Galleries; three exhibition stands for Glasgow International Exhibition 1901) were subsequently split into separate projects.

The Projects table

The core list forms the table called 'Projects' in the MARC database. Further fields were added to it (for instance Dean of Guild plan numbers) that did not derive from the job books, but the 'pure' data from the job books was preserved in a separate table called 'Job Books'.

Numbering

Every project was given a unique identification number prefaced with the letter S – an S number. The S numbers are used to link all information relating to a particular project – architectural drawings, archival sources, historic photographs, etc. At the end of the research project, each project was given a chronological catalogue number for display on the website – an M number – but the S numbers remain the means by which information in the various database tables is linked.

Research grade 1.

All the architectural works accepted by Crawford as being by Mackintosh, plus all those for which the relevant job-book entries were wholly or partly written in his hand, or where his name was mentioned.

Research grade 2.

Particularly large or important projects by JHKM, some possibly showing Mackintosh's involvement.

Research grade 3.

Less important works mentioned in the job books, generally worth under £2000.

Research grade 4.

Projects costing less than £250, or for which no cost was recorded, unless there was a particular reason to believe they might be of aesthetic importance; non-architectural works (projects not involving mason-work; painted decoration; movable furniture); projects without significant aesthetic or architectural content (e.g. drains).

Names

This records information about individuals and groups associated with each project (particularly clients, and contractors or suppliers), or with Mackintosh's career more generally (such as colleagues, professional associates and commentators). Contractors are the most numerous group. It was therefore decided, for reasons of time, to include only successful contractors and suppliers – i.e. those recorded in the job books as having received payment. Each record is given an abbreviated reference in the 'name_key' field, which can be used as an entity reference in XML documents.

Bibliography

This records information about publications: author/editor, year of publication, title and other standard details. Each record was given an abbreviated reference in the 'bib_id' field, which could be used as an entity reference in XML documents.

Exhibitions

This records details of exhibitions in which Mackintosh's work was shown. Each record was given an abbreviated reference in the 'exhib_id' field, which could be used as an entity reference in XML documents.

Drawings

This is a comprehensive catalogue of drawings associated with Mackintosh's architectural projects and those of the firm during the Mackintosh years. For drawings in The Hunterian's collection, catalogue information was imported from INCA (The Hunterian's collection management system), then checked against the drawing, and edited and expanded to conform with MARC practice (see Appendix 1 in the Research section). For non-Hunterian drawings, catalogue information was gathered from examining the drawings themselves. This information was recorded on a pro-forma and subsequently entered into the table. Each drawing was given a filename comprising the prefix d, followed by the relevant project 'S' number, followed by an underscore, followed by the a three-digit running number, and this filename was entered into the table: e.g. d041_012.

Images

This records information about images which appear as illustrations on the website. Each image was given a unique filename. The filename consists of a prefix ('a' for archival material; 'c' for 'current' photographs, primarily those taken specially for the MARC project; 'g' for glossary illustrations; 'ph' for historic photographs) followed by the 'S' number for the project to which it relates, followed by an underscore, followed by a three-digit running number. The filename for portraits consists of a prefix ('por'), followed by an underscore, followed by the same abbreviation of the person's name used for the 'name key' in the names table. The images table includes fields for captions and for copyright information and credit lines. The images table also serves to catalogue archival material and historic photographs and thus includes fields such as marks, source and those relating to transcriptions.

Job-book images

This records information about photographs of job-book pages for use on the website. Each photograph shows a double-page spread from the job books and has a filename consisting of the prefix 'j', followed by the five-digit GLAHA number of the job book, followed by an underscore, followed by the number of the left-hand page in three-digit form (e.g. j53059_121; j53062_053; j53063_003).

Introductory Pages

The website has a number of introductory pages. In addition to an introduction to the project, these include Mackintosh (an essay on his architectural career), Contact Us, Links and Acknowledgements; and supporting pages for The Catalogue: Essays, Timeline, Map, Glossary and Bibliography.

The Catalogue

The heart of the site is The Catalogue. The Catalogue is accessed via the Project Index, which can be viewed either in a simple text version, or in a pictorial version illustrated with small images. The Index can be sorted alphabetically, chronologically or by cost. It leads to a catalogue entry for each project, divided into a number of separate tabs – see below.

Job-book entries

When the firm began work on a project, a new entry was begun in the current job book. For a small project, the entry might occupy only part of a double-page spread; for larger projects, it might extend over several double pages. When deciding where to begin a new entry, the person filling in the book had to guess how many pages the preceding entry would require for completion. Sometimes insufficient space was set aside, and for this reason some entries break off abruptly and resume on a later page. When this happens, there is generally a note to say so (e.g. 'Continued on p. 123').

Generally speaking, the left-hand pages record tenders and the right-hand pages record payments. On the left-hand page (or pages), the name of the project and client is written at the top of each entry. Below are the names of contractors who submitted competitive tenders for work on the project. These are generally grouped together according to their trade, identified by a sub-heading ('Mason', 'Joiner', 'Slater', etc.). To the left of the names there is often information about the date of the tenders: there might be a single date at the top, which refers to all the tenders on that page; or there might be individual dates next to each trade, or each contractor. In many cases, only the successful contractor's tender is dated. In the columns to the right of each contractor's name is the value of his tender in pounds, shillings and pence. In the case of the successful contractor, the value of the tender is usually repeated in the extreme right-hand column.

Sometimes 'returned' or 'returned with thanks' is written beside a contractor's name, and no value is recorded. It seems that potential contractors were sent details of the work required. Having considered the job, some decided not to submit a tender and instead 'returned' the details.

On the right-hand page (or pages) of each entry, the name of the measurer (quantity surveyor) is usually recorded at the top. Below this, payments to contractors and suppliers are recorded. Usually, these follow more or less the same order as the tenders on the left-hand pages, but sometimes the order becomes confused. As with the tenders, dates are recorded on the left of the payee's name, with the sum (or sums) paid on the right. Payments to contractors were often made in a number of instalments, which are generally individually dated, and sometimes marked 'first payment', 'final payment', etc. The measurer was paid a fee on the completion of each contractor's work. Half this fee was paid by the architects and half by the contractor, and the 'half measurer's fee' payments of the contractor are regularly recorded in the job books along with the contactor's own final payment. As well as payments to contractors who submitted successful tenders, the right-hand pages also record payments to suppliers of various fixtures and fittings (fireplaces, furniture, etc.) who did not submit tenders, and to providers of other services (e.g. 'inspector', 'clerk of works', etc.) The measurer's fees are sometimes recorded here, at the very end of the entry. Very occasionally the architect's own fees are also recorded here, and an overall sum for the cost of the entire project is given.

Transfer of job-book data into XML

The XML documents for projects entered in the job books contain a dedicated section for the data extracted from the job books. The aim was not to make a literal, word-for-word transcription of the job book into XML, nor to replicate the layout of the handwritten page, but to extract the most important information and fit it into a standardised XML framework.

Individual sums paid to a contractor were not recorded in their entirety, only the dates of first and last payments and the total. Crossings-out, variant spellings etc. were not recorded unless they appeared to be particularly significant. The user can consult the zoomable images of the pages to access all of the primary data.

For the purposes of presenting the information in a coherent, standardised way, the order in which it appeared in the books could not be preserved. In the Tenders section, contractors were recorded in the order in which they are listed in the book, but in the Payments section a sequence was consistently followed of Contractors, followed by Suppliers, followed by Measurer’s fees, even if these appeared in a different order in the book. The Measurer’s name is recorded at the beginning of the Tenders section, even if it only appeared in the job-book entry at the very end of the Payments section. The relative positions of all these elements are determined by the DTD (Document Type Definition) that is referenced by all the XML documents. Important information from the job books that did not fit into our standard template was recorded in a <note> element, defined in the DTD.

The job-book data is structured as follows:

Job-book number, and the number of each page on which any part of the entry appears
Phase name (this applies only to multi-phase projects, where each phase has its own name)
Client's name
Measurer's name and address
Tenders (names of trades; contractors' names; dates of tenders; values of tenders; whether accepted or not)
Payments to contractors (names of trades; contractors' names; dates of payments; total sum paid)
Payments to suppliers (name of supplier; service supplied; date of payment; sum paid)
Measurer's fees

Cash book

The cash book (The Hunterian, University of Glasgow: GLAHA 53079) records both the firm's income (on the left side of each double page), which included fees paid by clients, and the outgoings (on the right), including staff salaries and wages, and numerous annual, monthly and other expenses. A working list of the content of the cash book entries between 1889 and 1913 was developed for research purposes. It was decided that this information should be made available on the website. An index was developed which lists proper names related to projects and the running of the office, and other names that appear more than twice. In addition there are four headings: Competitions; Loans; Perspectives; and Photography. Entries for the three lead staff were not individually cited as these appear throughout the book – Honeyman until 1905 and Mackintosh and Keppie throughout the period under review.

Unpublished

Hunterian Art Gallery files: The Gallery has maintained files on a number of Mackintosh's architectural projects over the years, containing photographs, correspondence with owners, etc. The contents of these were transferred into the project files set up by MARC.
Thesis: Hiroaki Kimura, 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Architectural Drawings', unpublished PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 1982was the best available source of information about Mackintosh's architectural drawings. It includes photographs of a number of drawings which since 1982 have been lost or removed from the collections where the author saw them.
Glasgow database: This database, available in the Glasgow Room of the Mitchell Library, is a wide-ranging index of the Library's local history holdings.
Dean of Guild Court records: The Dean of Guild Court was the local planning authority in Scottish burghs during the period of Mackintosh's career (see Iain M. Gray, 'A History of the Dean of Guild Court and the nature of its records', in R. M. Bailey, Scottish Architects' Papers: a Source Book, Edinburgh: Rutland Press, 1996).
Drawings: Drawings submitted for the approval of the Glasgow Dean of Guild Court (and other burghs subsequently absorbed into the city) are held by Glasgow City Archives in the Mitchell Library. Four separate databases and a card index cover different parts of the collection, but there is no single, comprehensive index. The various indexes allow searches by address, petitioner and architect, but not all these options are available in all the indexes. In 2010, a search of the indexes was made for MARC. All drawings indexed as being by John Honeyman & Keppie or Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh were identified, and were noted in the Projects table in the field called 'Dean_of_Guild'. Subsequent searches by address, in relation to specific projects, brought further drawings to light.
Other Dean of Guild records: Glasgow City Archives has other useful records of the Dean of Guild Court, listed under D-OPW. The following have been important sources for MARC:
D-OPW 18 Dean of Guild Court, Master of Works List of Cases: 60 volumes, 1863–1972. Typed lists, bound into volumes, giving the date of each petition, petitioner's name, purpose and notes, with annotations. The annotations (e.g. 'Grant', 'Continue') seem to record the Master of Works' opinion of the plans submitted, perhaps as a recommendation to the Dean of Guild Court.
D-OPW 19 Dean of Guild Court proceedings: 1862–1975. The Mackintosh period is covered in 15 volumes, from volume 10 (8 March 1883–17 March 1887) to volume 25 (12 June 1913–29 April 1915). Handwritten, giving situation (i.e. location of proposed work), valuation, name and petition, date granted, 'street allowed' (this apparently refers to temporary street closure during construction) and notes (including cubic measurement and architect's name).
D-OPW 25 Dean of Guild Court Reports on Buildings: These volumes are extremely clearly written and contain a very useful record of on-site inspections carried out during construction. For the purpose of these inspections the city was divided into districts ('Central', 'North', etc.; a map in the Calendar shows the district boundaries). There is a separate sequence of volumes for each district. There may be gaps in some of the sequences. The inspector usually recorded when the work was finished, which can probably be regarded as a completion date, followed by a final signing-off date which was often several months later.
Planning records beyond Glasgow: Dean of Guild records for other burghs were consulted (Barrhead, Brechin, Govan, Helensburgh, Hillhead, Kirkintilloch, Partick and Perth), as well as equivalent records for counties. County records proved more difficult to locate.

Published

A fuller list of publications consulted is included in the Bibliography section of the database. The relevant volumes in the Buildings of Scotland series and the Newsletters and Journals of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society were of particular importance.

Periodicals

The following periodicals were searched for references to Mackintosh in relation to the individual projects:

Academy Architecture
Architectural Review
British Architect searchable via the British Periodicals database: www.bp.chadwyck.co.uk/journals . This is particularly useful for the Mackintosh period. Published in Manchester, it does not have the metropolitan bias of the London-based journals. JHKM were subscribers, and the journal occasionally published drawings and correspondence from Mackintosh.
Builder, the most comprehensive periodical for the period. Searchable via its annual or six-monthly classified index.

A selection of German language periodicals was searched including:

Consulted online:

Dekorative Kunst (Die Kunst)
Moderne Bauformen (both available at www.designinform.co.uk/research2.htm)
Der Architekt
Die allgemeine Bauzeitung
Neue Freie Presse
Neues Wiener Tagblatt
Wiener Abendpost
Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung
Wiener Rundschau (all available at www.anno.onb.ac.at/)
Lexicon of Viennese Architects, 1880–1945 (available at www.architektenlexikon.at/)

Searched online:

Berliner Architektenwelt (available online via the website of the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek, Berlin ->Buecher und Medien / Books & Media->Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek (EZB) / Electronic Journals Library->A–Z list)
Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration
Innendekoration
Kunst für Alle
Kunstgewerbeblatt
Kunst und Handwerk
Kunst und Künstler
Ver Sacrum (all available at www.artjournals.uni-hd.de [permalink])

Not yet available online; consulted in Vienna:

Das Interieur
Innenkunst
Kunst und Kunsthandwerk

Archives, libraries and public collections:

Angus Council Archive
Archiv der Secession, Vienna
Argyll & Bute Council Archives
Ayr Carnegie Library
Ayrshire Archives
A. K. Bell Library, Perth
Bedford Lemere Collection, English Heritage, Swindon
Biblioteche Civiche Torinesi
Biggar Museums Trust
Brechin Cathedral Archive
Brechin Library
British Architectural Library
British Museum
Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau GmbH
East Dunbartonshire Council Archives and Libraries
East Renfrewshire Council Public Records and Archive
East Sussex Record Office
English Heritage
Fairfield Heritage Centre
Fergusson Gallery, Perth
Getty, Los Angeles, Nikolaus Pevsner Archive
Glasgow Art Club Archive
Glasgow Caledonian University Archive
Glasgow City Archives
Glasgow Institute of Architects Archive
The Glasgow School of Art (Library; Archives and Collections Centre)
Hauptstaatsarchiv, Dresden
Herald and Times newspaper picture desk
Inverclyde Council
Lanark Library
McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock
The Metropolitan Museum, New York
Mitchell Library, Glasgow (Glasgow Room)
Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Archives of Scotland
National Library of Ireland
National Records of Scotland
National Trust for Scotland
Northamptonshire Records Office
Oxford University Archive, Bodleian Library
Paisley Library and Museum
Perth & Kinross Council Archive
Renfrewshire Council Libraries
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
Royal Institute of British Architects (Archive; Drawings Collection)
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, Heidelberg (University Library)
Sächsicher Hauptstaatsarchiv, Dresden
Stadtarchiv, Dresden
Stewartry Museum, Kirkcudbright
Stirling Council Archive
Strathclyde University Archives
Universität für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna (Department of Design History and Theory, and University Archives)
University of Aberdeen
University of Glasgow (Archives Services; Library: Maps Department; Special Collections)
University of St Andrews
University of Sydney, Archives and Records Management Services
University of Toronto, Archives and Records Management Services, Thomas Howarth Fonds
University of West of Scotland, Special Collections and Archives
Watt Library, Greenock
Werkbund Archiv, Museum der Dinge, Berlin
West Sussex Record Office

Websites and databases:

Ancestry.co.uk: www.ancestry.co.uk This subscription site was an efficient way to access census records and records of births, marriages and deaths and was of great value for biographical research into clients and contractors.
Bing Maps and Google Street View: Bing maps was extremely useful for zoomable aerial views, and for establishing if buildings still existed before arranging site visits. Coverage of Glasgow is much more detailed than that of rural areas.
Canmore (RCAHMS): canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/
Dictionary of Scottish Architects: www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/
Google: General internet searches using Google have proved useful, particularly for biographical research into clients and contractors.
Historic Digimap: available via Glasgow University Library website
Historic Scotland: (for listing descriptions) www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/index/heritage/historicandlistedbuildings.htm
Scotlands People: www.scotlandspeople.org.uk
Scotsman newspaper archive: via Proquest on Glasgow University Library website
Scottish Environmental Protection Agency: National Grid Reference tool: map.sepa.org.uk/ngrtool/
Scottish Post Office Directories: www.nls.uk/family-history/directories/post-office and www.digital.nls.uk/directories/
19th-Century British Library Newspapers: find.galegroup.com/bncn/ This is an extremely valuable source, particularly for accounts of new buildings published in the Glasgow Herald, which often give the names of contractors and other useful information. (The searchable website covers the years 1800–1900. For the years from 1906, there is an annual printed index available in the Mitchell Library. The years 1901–5 are covered by a much less detailed manuscript index, available on microfilm in the Mitchell Library.)

Appendix 1: Guidelines for inputting text

Modern Humanities Research Association Style Guide was used as a reference point.
23 May 2010

Appendix 2: Guidelines for cataloguing architectural drawings

Locate the drawings form on the network drive and select 'Forms' in l.h. box.

To go to your project, search either by number or by name. Click on the number or name in the entry that first comes up, click on binoculars in the tool bar, and then in the pop-up Find box enter either the number or name you are looking for, select 'Any part of field' in Match box, and click Find next.

Note: you can carry values forward from a field in the previous entry by putting the cursor in the empty box and pressing Ctrl and 2.

Appendix 3: Guidelines for inputting job-book data into XML template

Appendix 4: Biography pro-forma developed by David Stark

Contractor Name:

Sources Consulted

Comments/ Actions Required

Images

Glasgow Post Office Directories

Additional Company Information

Additional Personal Information

Appendix 5: Guidelines for image management

Images intended for use on the MARC website are deposited in the relevant folder and labelled with the filenames appropriate to the material ('a' archival material, 'c' current photographs, 'd' drawings, 'g' glossary, 'ph' historical photographs, 'por' portraits). Images for research purposes only are deposited in the relevant project folder.