There was a fire in the west wing of the Mackintosh Building at The Glasgow School of Art on the 23rd May 2014, which unfortunately affected The Glasgow School of Art's archives and collections.

Since this date, staff have worked to assess and stabilise affected material. The majority of our paper archives and artworks on paper (including 100 works by Charles Rennie Mackintosh) were unharmed by the fire. A small percentage of the archives suffered water damage but these items were either air dried or frozen and are now stabilised and conserved. Our textile collections suffered water damage, but these textiles were also air dried and stabilised and have now been conserved. Our plaster casts suffered smoke damage and some water damage.

Sadly some items from the School's archives and collections were lost. Almost all of the oil paintings on canvas in the School's collection were stored above the Library and were therefore sadly destroyed. Items from our Mackintosh furniture collection which were in use in the Mackintosh Library or held in the store above this space were either destroyed or very badly damaged by the fire, however, fragments of furniture and fittings were recovered from the Mackintosh Library as a result of forensic archaeology work.

Many of our most important Mackintosh pieces were on display in a Furniture Gallery and in the School’s Mackintosh Room in the east wing of the building and were therefore unaffected by the fire.

We have decided to include descriptions and images of material lost in the fire on our online catalogue. Although the items no longer exist, their descriptions still provide valuable contextual information for researchers, such as titles, dates, custodial histories, related material etc. The images are also a useful resource, providing vital surrogates for users.