The Wonders of the ADS logo EXHIBITION ABOUT FEEDBACK
NEXT

Painting Megalithic Monuments

Collection: HMJ Underhill Archive

Among the many special drawings preserved by the ADS, are these hand-painted glass slides of some of the most important megalithic monuments of Great Britain.
1 / 3
2 / 3
3 / 3

The stone circle in the painting is Stonehenge. The glass slide was painted at midday on 27th March 1895. The image shows the stone circle from North-East. © University of Oxford.
This slide was created on 5th December 1895 by Underhill in order to use in his lectures. © University of Oxford.
This image shows five of the seven mills on Le Mont Des Alouettes in La Vendee, France. These mills were chosen by HJM Underhill because of their role during the Civil War in La Vendee. The original glass slide was probably created in 1907. © University of Oxford.

The Underhill Archive contains about 78 different glass paintings made by HMJ Underhill of the most important megalithic monuments in Great Britain and can be dated back to the end of the 19th Century and beginning of the 20th Century. The collection held by the ADS contains the digitised images of these special glass lantern slides. Underhil created these slides for use in his lectures. The paintings are of great interest thanks to their minute details, but also have a great cultural importance for Great Britain.

This collection contains the digitised lantern slides which have been organised into discrete thematic albums of Stone Circles, Roman, Windmills and Photos along side descriptive information for each slide.

These megalithic sites are possibly more popular today than at the turn of the 20th Century. So having these images available freely online is a wonderful resource for people wanting to illustrate their work as well as people who want to compare the differences in the sites between now and a hundred years ago. Another interesting exercise is to try and work out how true to life the painting might have been - did Underhill improve the moments at all? Jo Gilham, ADS Applications Developer.