Neil Parkinson – The Colour Librarian

Neil Parkinson, The History of Colour: A Universe of Chromatic Phenomena (Frances Lincoln, 2023)

Neil Parkinson is perhaps the only known ‘colour librarian’ in the UK. As head of special collections at the Royal College of Art (RCA), his responsibilities include the internationally renowned Colour Reference Library, one of the largest collections of material on colour in the world. The Library embodies seven centuries of colour theory, and includes many rare and beautiful books, alongside colour-related archives and manuscripts. The materials in the Colour Reference Library are as diverse as the subject itself: classic works of theory by Newton, Goethe and Chevreul sit alongside psychological tests, optical illusions and occult texts.

Neil will talk about the challenges of interpreting and organising such a vast and eccentric collection and will discuss some of the different ways its many users, from archaeologists to set designers, approach the subject of colour. He will also outline some of his favourite books on colour, and the many exquisite ways in which the spectrum has been visualised and organised on the printed page.

Neil Parkinson holds an MA in English literature and an MSc in information management and has led development of the RCA's special collections since 2006. He has written and presented widely on the subject of colour, with tangential topics including the colour palette of comic books and the prevalence of yellow in 1960s design. In 2023 he published The History of Colour: A Universe of Chromatic Phenomena (Frances Lincoln), a journey through many of the key texts held in the Colour Reference Library.

Mary Sargent Florence’s “Color Square’ from her 1940 book Colour Coordination, courtesy of the Colour Reference Library, Royal College of Art

Registration

Registration is essential by midnight AEDT onFebruary 9 and is now open for CSA members and will open for nonmembers on January 27. Limit: 100 registrants. Successful registrants will be notified by reply email and will be sent the Zoom link and instructions shortly before the event.