A number of the works held are by artists connected to Scarborough School of Art[4] – in particular, its head, Albert Strange and his students Richard Edward Clarke and William Littlewood.

Pieces by John Armstrong are also part of the Laughton gift,[7] some of which were purchased by Tom and some by his brother Charles for their hotels, The Royal and The Pavilion.

The idea that the Scarborough Art Gallery should become a repository for the Printmakers Council archive was first proposed in the early 1990s and the first deposition arrived in 1992.

The range of modern prints includes works by John Piper, Elizabeth Blackadder, Ossip Zadkine and Kenneth Rowntree.

[8] In 1830, the York architect Richard Hey Sharp (who also designed Scarborough's Rotunda Museum) and his brother Samuel were commissioned to draw up plans for the site.