Mary Evans Picture Library: Q&A With Luci Gosling, Head Of Sales And Research

Posted On: 15th April 2024

Post Written By: Charlie, Content Coordinator

We're sitting down with Luci Gosling, Head of Sales and Research at Mary Evans Picture Library, to talk about her life, the Library and their collections, and more!

Hi Luci! We’re so excited to have you on the blog. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at Mary Evans Picture Library?

I’m Head of Sales and Research at Mary Evans Picture Library and have worked here for seventeen years now! Day to day, I answer a lot of the enquiries we receive, spend time researching pictures for clients, work on our marketing, including our weekly newsletter and approach companies with ideas for using our images.

Outside of work, but often inspired by our archive, I’m a writer, curator and speaker and have written books and magazine articles on a rather diverse mix of historical subjects, including Great War knitting, suffrage art, wartime cartoons, the photographer Madame Yevonde, the London Hippodrome and John Hassall, the man behind the famous ‘Skegness is SO Bracing’ poster (which I think Joanie did a T-shirt version of a few seasons ago). It certainly keeps me out of trouble, and the best thing is, Mary Evans can usually help with pictures for whatever project I’m working on.

For anybody who doesn’t know, what is the Mary Evans Picture Library?

We are an archive specialising in visual history and we supply images to a range of clients for all kinds of uses, from book covers or museum displays to TV documentaries and greeting cards – and now of course, T-shirts! The collection was founded sixty years ago by Mary and her husband Hilary, who had a shared love of old books and prints, and our library, a converted parish hall located in Blackheath village in South East London, is home to the collection they amassed over the decades.

There are children’s books, illustrated periodicals, women’s magazines, old postcards, engravings, cigarette cards, vintage photographs, and all kinds of ephemera. It really is a treasure trove. These days, as well as our own archive, we represent hundreds of heritage institutions, museums, photographers as well as private and specialist collections; these include the National Archives, Historic Royal Palaces, the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Medici Society and StudioCanal films plus smaller niche collections which might concentrate on anything from cabaret costumes and the Jazz Age, seaside postcards, 1950s scarf designs or street photography.

If you had to describe your style in three words, what would they be?

Timeless with (a) twist.

If you could travel back to any place or moment in time, where and when would it be?

As a regular armchair time traveller, this is a tough question as it depends on the day - BUT I think it would be hard to beat the Venice Lido in the late 1920s, swanning around in beach pyjamas, topping up my tan, gorging on peaches from the beach sellers and going for a leisurely lunch of spaghetti at the Excelsior Hotel. Evenings would be spent enjoying the very best cabaret acts, and dancing among the illuminated fountains at the hotel’s Chez Vous nightclub. Sounds pretty special, doesn’t it?!

If you could steal the wardrobe of one person, past or present, who would it be?

Daisy Fellowes: wealthy socialite, fashion icon, and Paris Editor of American Harper’s Bazaar. She was Elsa Schiaparelli’s most important customer, and since I LOVE Schiaparelli designs - especially those in the later 1930s - it would have to be Daisy’s wardrobe I’d steal.