Panel 16: “Building Continues” (1934-1939) Education, Democracy and Totalitarianism

Acknowledgements

The exhibition was developed with the generous help of John McCrory, Janet Wolff, as well as Ingrid Holden and Libby Edwards from the Friends of Wythenshawe Hall. We also extend our gratitude to Margaret Simon (granddaughter of Ernest and Shena Simon) for her help and her permission to reproduce photographs of her family. The support of Sarah Hobbs, Larysa Bolton and the Archives+ team at Manchester Central Library in facilitating access to Ernest and Shena Simon’s papers on multiple visits over many months was indispensable for research and for the collection of original material displayed in the exhibition. Other vital historic material was helpfully and speedily provided by Josh Tidy and Sophie Baxter-Jones at the Garden City Collection (Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation), as well as by Phil Madeley at the Legal Records Centre, Manchester City Council. The enthusiastic support of Elena Kretinina, Daksha Nayee, Nikcola Rigby and Jane Ayrton at Wythenshawe Forum library was essential to delivery. Excellent design for all exhibition material was provided by David Webb. We would also like to acknowledge the support of the following people for their help in promoting the exhibition: Emily Jones, Andrew Simpson, Andrew Frazer, Bernard Flynn, Cheshire Military Museum, Carole Bond from Wythenshawe Forum and Your Local Voice, Damon Wilkinson from the Manchester Evening News, Misha Farlowe from the People’s History Museum, Kerry McCall from The Manchester Historian, Karen Shannon and Ted Harris from Manchester Histories, Eddy Rhead and Simon Hadfield at the Modernist Society, Grant Collier, Heritage Officer at the University of Manchester, Sue Good and Diana Leitch from Didsbury Civic Society. Financial support from the Social Responsibility Catalyst Fund of the University of Manchester’s School of Environment, Education and Development, and the Manchester Geographical Society was vital for the production of materials for the exhibition.

Curator’s bios

John Ayshford has a master’s degree in History from the University of Manchester. As well as being fascinated by the lives of the Simons, John is primarily interested in the history of political thought. He hopes to continue his studies at the University of Manchester in the near future. Contact: johnayshford@hotmail.co.uk Dr Martin Dodge is Senior Lecturer in the Geography Department at the University of Manchester. Much of his current research focuses on the historical geography of Manchester. He co-wrote the book Manchester: Mapping the City (Birlinn, 2018) and he has co-curated several high-profile public exhibitions about the city, including Infra_ MANC (2012), Making Post-war Manchester (2016) and Celebrating Burnage Garden Village (2019). Contact: m.dodge@manchester.ac.uk

This exhibition catalogue booklet is released under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. 25 July 2022.