Royal Academy of Arts as somewhat anachronistic. But efforts are made to award each prize to a student producing work that bears a relation to the intentions of the original benefactor. The Royal Academy has an important collection of books, archives and works of art accessible for research and display. A large part of these collections have been digitised and can be investigated through the Collection website. The first president of the Royal Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds, gave his noted self-portrait, beginning the Royal Academy collection. This was followed by gifts from other founding members, such as Gainsborough and Benjamin West. Subsequently each elected
Charles Barber (artist) evolve into the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and Birmingham School of Art. By 1818 Barber had moved to Liverpool where he established himself as a drawing master. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Birmingham Society of Artists and the Liverpool Academy of Arts, of which he served as President from 1847 to 1853. Charles Barber (artist) Charles Vincent Barber (ca. 1784 – 1854) was an English landscape painter and art teacher. Barber was born in Birmingham and baptised on 28 January 1784, the first son of Joseph Barber, the town's first drawing master. He studied at his father's