ABSTRACT
The longest ruling and most acquisitive Fitzwilliam Director to date, Sydney Cockerell made a lasting impact on art institutions in the UK, the United States and Australia. Confined to bed, the octogenarian Cockerell re-read and annotated the extensive series of diaries that he had kept throughout his life. A disciple and friend of John Ruskin and William Morris, associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement, Cockerell was a major figure in London's artistic and literary circles during the decades on either side of 1900. Cockerell had an impressive portfolio of skills, including the running of a book dealer's shop and a typographic design business, and the roles of advisor and executor of formidable collectors in the early twentieth century. Cockerell's novel approach to display and lighting transformed the Fitzwilliam into a model for art institutions from Birmingham and London to West Carolina and Melbourne.
