Description: Thomas William Hammond 1854-1935. Born in Philadelphia of Nottingham emigres, and orphaned at the age of four, he came to England with his younger sister Maria and lived for a short while with his grandparents in Mount Street. In 1868 age 14 he enrolled in the Government School of Art. On the 1871 census he is described as a lace curtain designer, and in 1872 he was awarded the 'Queen's Prize for a Design of a Lace Curtain'. Other prizes followed and in 1877 he was again awarded the Queen's Prize, this time for the design for a damask table Cloth. Hammond was an indefatigable worker, and soon began to use his skills as a draftsman to record aspects of the changing town. He began showing his work at local venues in 1882 and in 1890 exhibited for the first time at the Royal academy. His real hobby was black and white sketching in charcoal. He drew about 350 pictures all together mainly scenes of a Nottingham he knew but which has largely passed away today. Extracted from 'The Changing Face of Tom Hammond's Nottingham' by John Beckett which is the introductory essay in 'A City in the Making Drawings of Tom Hammond'. This is a delightful drawing that shows another phase of Mr. Hammond's genius. His treatment of the six great Corinthian columns with the details of their capitals and the delicate workmanship of the entablature over them is a very fine achievement. The Theatre Royal was built in 1865, at a cost of £15,000, on part of the old Sand Field of the town and was opened by a pantomime 'The House that Jack Built'. Previous to 1865 the only theatre in Nottingham was in St. Mary's Gate. This building, which still remains, was erected in 1760 by a man called Whitely, the proprietor of one of the stock companies by which the theatrical business of England was then conducted; it was closed in 1867, but was immediately re-opened as a concert hall. It is interesting to see the old stage door and scenery entrance to this building - they are still to be found in Halifax Place - and to remember that within its walls Handel's 'Judas Maccabaeus', 'Samson' and 'The Messiah' were first introduced to Nottingham. The drawing shows us a flight of pigeons; one of the interesting features of Nottingham is its pigeons, which congregate upon the Castle Rock, round the Theatre Royal and at the top of Victoria Street. They are exceedingly tame, though perhaps not so tame as their brethren who live upon St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Image and descriptive text taken from 'Nottingham Past and Present', published in 1926.