After the death of Madame Yevonde in December 1975, her work continued to feature in the occasional exhibition such as 'Modern British Photography', organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1981. Although David Mellor's critique in the catalogue for this exhibition attempted to redefine Madame Yevonde's place in British photography, it was only after the foundation of the Yevonde Portrait Archive by Lawrence Hole in 1988 that any concerted effort was made to re-establish her reputation as one of the world's foremost pioneering photographers. Having brought some semblance of order into the mountain of negatives and other material left by Madame Yevonde, the Yevonde Portrait Archive embarked on a strategy designed to bring the artist's work back into public awareness as quickly and effectively as possible. In June 1988, the Yevonde Portrait Archive approached the Royal Photographic Society - of which body Madame Yevonde had been a member since 1921, and a Fellow since 1940 - and suggested that they should join forces to produce a major exhibition covering all aspects of her work, and drawing on all the material available in the archives As there were over 3,000 sets of original VIVEX colour separation plates and several thousand b/w images in the archives, the vast majority of which had probably never been seen, this was an exciting prospect and the Royal Photographic Society was not slow to respond, later inviting the National Portrait Gallery in London to join in the project.