The archive of the Animation Research Centre, housed at the University for the Creative Arts Farnham, contains more than a million objects tracing the development of British animation from the 1940s to the present day.
Along with awards, correspondence, DVDs and magazines, students and researchers can consult huge holdings of artwork, cels, drawings and digital images that reveal the progress from material-based animation processes to today’s computer-generated modes of production.
The images shown here all come from the Bob Godfrey Studio Collection, the largest in the archive, and cover the career of the maverick British Oscar winner, who died in February.
Known for works ranging from the daringly frank Henry 9 to 5 and Kama Sutra Rides Again to children’s television series such as Henry’s Cat, Roobarb and Roobarb and Custard Too, Godfrey was an internationally acclaimed animator who in 1973 founded the renowned animation programme at what is now UCA Farnham. The university owns 419 boxes of his artwork and artefacts, which it is now proceeding to digitise.
Send suggestions for this series on the treasures, oddities and curiosities owned by universities across the world to matthew.reisz@tsleducation.com