John Hungerford Pollen (1820–1902) was an English architect and writer on crafts and furniture.
Life
Pollen was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1845, with a parish in Leeds from 1847, writing of his experiences.[1][2] Pollen converted to Roman Catholicism in 1852.[3] He worked on numerous decorative projects in the 1850s, starting with the hall ceiling at Merton College, Oxford, where he was a Fellow from 1842; his conversion entailed his giving up that fellowship.[1]
Later he worked for the South Kensington Museum, where he was appointed assistant keeper in 1863, and was made editor to its science and art department, producing catalogues.[1] He compiled, with Henry Cole, a Universal Catalogue of Books on Art. This was a multi-volume project, beginning publication in 1870, its aim being to furnish a complete bibliographical record of art books in libraries of the West.[9][10]
He resigned his position at the South Kensington Museum to become private secretary to George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, whom he then accompanied on a visit to India.[11]
They had ten children.[15] His second child was John Hungerford Pollen, Jesuit and writer;[16] his third child, Walter, died of fever in India;[17] his eighth child was inventor Arthur Pollen.[18] His daughter Anna wrote a biography of her father.[11]