Anthony Baines

Since 2018, Alice has been employed as a Research Fellow at the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments to work with the Anthony Baines Archive and the instruments Baines brought to the museum.

Anthony Baines, the first Lecturer/Curator at the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments, was one of the most prominent organologists of the twentieth century, making a significant and enduring contribution to the study of musical instruments. On his death in 1997, Baines not only bequeathed many of the historical instruments that he had collected throughout his lifetime to the Bate Collection, but also his archive detailing his research into the history and development of musical instruments.

Generously supported by the Patricia Baines Trust, this project is now in phase 2, moving focus from the document archive to the musical instruments themselves. During the first phase of the project the entire archive was catalogued, and scans were made of approximately 80% of the documents (this work will be completed when we can safely access the building once again). In August 2019 the Bate hosted a conference on Collectors and Collections of Musical Instruments, at which Alice spoke about Anthony Baines.

A catalogue of the Anthony Baines Archive is now available to order here.