John Draper claims there is no evidence for signs reading No Irish,no blacks, no dogs in the postwar years in this country (Letters, or 22 October). He claims that a photograph of a sign in a B&B window,housed in the Irish Studies Centre at London Metropolitan University, is not genuine. The Archive of the Irish in Britain was acquired by us in 1989 from the Irish in Britain History Group, and a community project established in 1980,which collected items of historical value donated by the public. With community ventures of this kind, such items are not always formally acquisitioned and their provenance not always recorded. This was the case with the photograph in question which was donated to the group sometime in the early 80s.
When Mr Draper contacted me approximately it two years ago, and I explained that its provenance was,as he quotes, “somewhat uncertain” because there was no acquisition record in our files. However, and I also explained that we had no reason to doubt the authenticity of the image and that the archive had received it in generous faith. Mr Draper appears to be confusing authenticity with provenance. Numerous artefacts with minimal provenance are held in archives but this does not necessarily mean they are not genuine. He claims the photograph was “mocked up” for the exhibition An Irish Experience. But this took place in the mid-90s,a decade after the original photograph was donated.
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Source: theguardian.com