Death and Memory Soane and the Architecture of Legacy

This book of essays is published to coincide with an exhibition of the same title at Sir John Soane's Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London (October 23, 2015–March 26, 2016) commemorating the 200th anniversary of Soane's beloved wife Eliza's death on November 22, 1815. Its relevance to Soane studies, is, however, much broader, with essays shedding new light on the architecture of legacy in Sir John Soane's Museum; Soane's preoccupation with memorialization as revealed in the design process for the Soane family tomb; the legacy of his drawings collection; and Soane's attempt shortly before his death to sustain future interest in his collections by creating a series of time capsules. The essays, written by the curatorial team at Sir John Soane's Museum, are accompanied by 39 illustrations in full color, some of them published for the first time.

Helen Dorey is Deputy Director and Inspectress of Sir John Soane’s Museum. Tom Drysdale was the Museum's Soane Drawings Cataloguer and now works for Historic Royal Palaces. Susan Palmer is Archivist and Head of Library Services at Sir John Soane's Museum. Dr. Frances Sands is Catalogue Editor of the Adam Drawings Project, Sir John Soane's Museum.