Original Drawings for Highways and Byways (Northumbria)

This collection of 176 drawings consists of mostly unpublished drawings. Hugh Thomson was one of the most successful and influential illustrators of his time. A native of Coleraine, he trained in Belfast, at one of the most important commercial art firms. After moving to London in the early 1880s he produced illustrations for a number of publishers, but mainly Macmillan, for whom he illustrated their ‘Highways & Byways’ series of guide books. The Art Fund helped Coleraine purchase two other collections of Thomson's work in 2005 and 2007 and the museum has become a major repository for anyone studying Thomson’s career and late nineteenth century book illustration in Britain.