Rory McEwen – a new Society Letterhead

On 3 June 1972 Rory McEwen wrote to the Secretary deploring the fact that although he was a Patron of the Society he felt that he had contributed very little to its support. That someone so active with his music as well as his art should feel the need to write such a letter illustrates that not only was he a great botanical artist he was also a great human being.

HVCRHSOn 22 June 1972 the Secretary, Hubert Calvert (HVC), began preparation of his response. Two days, and three drafts later on 24 June 1972 a two page letter, shown here in a readable form, was sent. The picture which was sent to Rory is shown on the right as it had been published by the Royal Horticultural Society. In 2016 the Yearbook was still being produced

On 25 July 1972 Rory replied.

McEwen_blockOn 6 August 1972 HVC acknowledged receipt of a letter containing the drawing of the letterhead. This letter has not been located in the archives and it is assumed that the drawing was not returned from the block maker.

So the Society gained a new letterhead and although it is no longer used as such, we still have the block. It is appropriate that it should be used as the featured image on all the McEwen correspondence posts on this site.

In these days (2016) of emails, digital cameras and word processing the records above illustrate the significant ‘progress’ that has been made in the past 44 years