However, as the house was being cleared, Jo Digger realised the importance of these documents and had them placed into suitcases and removed for storage.
[2] The earliest of the archives dates back to the 1880s when a teenage Jacob Epstein wrote to the philanthropist Helen Moore asking if she would fund him so that he may pursue his dream of becoming an artist.
[3] The archives also reflect the turbulent and tragic aspects of his family and affairs; one tragic figure is that of his illegitimate son Theodore Garman who had started to make a name for himself as a prominent artist.
A newspaper clipping in the archive taken from the Daily Mail, dated 23 January 1954, tells of the death of Theodore, who had died from a heart attack during a commotion whilst an ambulance team were trying to escort him to hospital as a result of him having a severe psychiatric episode.
[4] The archives also hold the birth certificate of Epstein's illegitimate son Theodore, with just a pen stroke through the section 'Father'.