James McBey Archive Edit

James McBey (1883-1959) was a self-taught printmaker, draughtsman and painter of international repute, whose life revolved around art and adventure. Born in Foveran in Aberdeenshire, he worked as a clerk for the North of Scotland Bank. In his spare time, he taught himself etching from a book borrowed from Aberdeen Public Library, producing his first printed works using his grandparents’ mangle.

Marguerite McBey nee Loeb (1905-1999) met James McBey in America, where she was a practicing photographer and bookbinder. They married in 1931 and lived in America and Morocco. Marguerite amassed a substantial archive of books, letters and diaries charting her life with her husband. After his death in 1959 she donated this archive, along with numerous examples of his work, to Aberdeen Art Gallery, making the city’s McBey collection the best in the world.

This open dataset includes all the items in the Aberdeen Art Gallery McBey collection. We are releasing it as open data to increase public awareness of, and access to, this collection. We are keen to hear of any novel uses this data is used for.

To discover the full extent of the collection and see images search “James McBey” on the Art Gallery Catalogue (please note, all images are © Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Collections). For further information or discussion, please email curators@aberdeencity.gov.uk.

Resources

• James McBey Archive - Spreadsheet.xlsx MS EXCEL (Details)
• James McBey Archive - Text File.csv CSV (Details)
• Images of the James McBey Collection HTML (Details)

Additional Info