Mary Forbes Evans (née Lander, 5 May 1936 – 29 June 2010) was a British writer, collector and the co-founder, with her husband Hilary Evans, of the Mary Evans Picture Library.

Early life

Caroline Mary Forbes Lander was born on 5 May 1936 at 8 Cotswold Gardens,

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...

, London, the youngest of four daughters of Digby Forbes Lander (1891–1969), an aircraft works accounts clerk, and his wife, Norah Doris Caroline Lander, née Williams (1898–1970). She lived in

Berkhamsted Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the River Bulbourne, Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a Civil parishes in England, civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which ...

, Hertfordshire, before moving to

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British Crown colony in Southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as South ...

at the age of seven. The family returned to England in 1950. Lander met her future husband Hilary Agard Evans (1929–2011), an advertising copywriter, and the son of Eric Agard Evans, a schoolmaster, when she was a teenager at a party. They married in 1956.

Career

Mary Evans had been a collector since childhood, especially of illustrated children's books. She shared a passion for collecting pictures and images with her husband Hilary Evans, and they explored book fairs, bookshops, used book stalls and markets, purchasing books, prints, photographs, engravings, cartoons, illustrations and assorted ephemera - "anything with an image". Their "magnificent obsession" soon filled their small flat in

Kensington Church Street Kensington Church Street is a shopping street in Kensington, London, England, designated the A4204, and traditionally known for its art and antiques shops. Buildings at the southern end date back to the early 1700s. It is named after Kensington ...

, so they moved to a small house in Blackheath, in south-east London. In 1964, the couple founded the Mary Evans Picture Library, and in 1965, Hilary Evans left his job in advertising to work full-time with his wife on the library. Eventually the collection of tens of thousands of volumes, with hundreds of thousands of images, grew too large for their house, and the company moved to a small office near Blackheath station; after a few years there, still growing, it moved again to larger premises, the former parish hall of

All Saints' Blackheath All Saints' Blackheath is an Anglican parish church in Blackheath, London. Today a Grade II listed building, it was opened in November 1858 by the Bishop of London and was designed by Benjamin Ferrey. History Until the early 19th century, the ...

. Mary Evans embraced technological change and continued to innovate, and by the time of her death the company employed 14 people, had a website containing nearly one million images, and an annual turnover of over £1 million. Together with Hilary, Mary Evans wrote several books featuring images from the library, including ''The Party that Lasted 100 Days: the Late Victorian Season'' (1976) and ''The Man who Drew the Drunkard's Daughter: the Life and Art of

George Cruikshank George Cruikshank or Cruickshank ( ; 27 September 1792 – 1 February 1878) was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern William Hogarth, Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dicken ...

'' (1978). They co-edited ''The Picture Researchers' Handbook'', up until its eighth edition.

Later life

Mary Evans died on 29 June 2010, at Riverlee Nursing Home, Greenwich. Hilary Evans died on 27 July 2011. They were survived by their daughter, Valentine Evans.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Mary Forbes 1936 births 2010 deaths People from Blackheath, London British women company founders People from Hendon British women writers British collectors British non-fiction writers Writers from the London Borough of Barnet Writers from the Royal Borough of Greenwich Writers from the London Borough of Lewisham