In this blog post, the second of a new series, Stuart Eagles looks into what the Sheffield communists believed in. He scrutinises unfamiliar sources to find out more about what happened when Ruskin & the Communists met in Walkley on 27 April 1876 … RUSKIN &...

It is 150 years since an extraordinary and consequential meeting took place between John Ruskin and a group of politically radical workers in Sheffield. It resulted in the most quixotic of Ruskin’s experiments, and led to one of the most awkward collaborations he ever...

“Is this a holiday?” Flavius asks sarcastically in the opening lines of Julius Caesar. Thanks to Ruskin, the boys at Manchester Grammar School were unexpectedly granted half a day’s holiday in December 1864, a fact apparently long since forgotten. By careful...

Celebrating Paul Dawson The strength of any Friends organisation relies heavily on the hard work and dedication of its volunteer committee. The modern-day Friends of Ruskin’s Brantwood was founded 35 years ago. It produced its first newsletter within about six months...

In this third and final blog about Ruskin curator, William White, we consider his troubled relationship with Sheffield—its people, places, and most of all, the city council. Never content with the practical reality of living at Meersbrook Hall, he found himself at...

Last time, we looked at William White’s family background and early career. Now our focus turns on his period as curator of the Ruskin Museum. It’s time to re-examine White’s achievements and limitations and to reassess his contribution both to Ruskin’s legacy and...

Last year, the Ruskin Research Blog published Ruskin’s Faithful Stewards, Stuart Eagles’s prize-winning biography of Henry and Emily Swan, the curators of Ruskin’s museum in Walkley, Sheffield. In the next few blog entries, our attention turns to the Swans’ successor,...

Remembering Clive Wilmer Clive Wilmer (10 February 1945—13 March 2025) Poet, Cambridge academic, critic, Master of Ruskin’s Guild of St George (2009—2019), and my friend I was both shocked and saddened to learn on Friday morning that my friend, Clive Wilmer, had died...

In the course of the summer, the Ruskin Research Blog, now four years old and boasting 40 entries, published Ruskin’s Faithful Stewards. It is the first book-length biography of Henry Swan (1825-1889) and his wife Emily, née Connell (1835-1909). Here are 27 reasons...

IaIn his latest Ruskin Research Blog, Stuart Eagles reveals the story of the keen Ruskin collector, progressive and philanthropist, Thomas Thornton, whose family woollen business helped spark a revolution that changed the world … RUSKIN & REVOLUTION: THE CASE OF...