Beatrix Potter

Day 28:

On our last official class day, we headed to one of the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum's storage facilities to see their special collection about Beatrix Potter.  Blythe House houses the extensive children's book collection (over 100,000 items).  The building wasn't originally built to be a library storage area, instead it was built in the 1900s as the headquarters of the post office.  It served this purpose until the 1970s when the British Museum, the V&A, and the Science Museum acquired it and began to share it as a storage facility.

Although it is mostly used for storage, they do have a reading room available for accessing archival material.  The public also has access to the online catalog which allows them to search the collections.  The museum has an online object database.  One challenge for the archivists is to determine the best way to catalog the items and link the object database to the archival catalog to best serve the public's needs.

The representatives of Blythe House showed us examples from the 19th century before we got to see the Beatrix Potter collection.  We saw a loan record book from the V&A from the 1860s.  The book included an entry from Queen Victoria about lending stained glass windows to the museum.  Additionally, we saw posters from advertising agencies showing the graphic design concepts from 1988.  The marketing ideas were a bit racy, and some people found them controversial.

Ad Posters from 1988

We also got to hear from an archivist who focuses her work on art and design.  They collect archives from British or Britain-based artists and designers, and the majority of their collection is from the 20th and 21st century.  However, they do have some archives and items from earlier, such as the archives from Garrard & Co. (the company who designed the crown jewels) which dates from the 1730s.  They concentrate on design and decorative arts, and their collections include anything related to art, design, interior design, stained glass, fashion, etc.  They focus on big-name designers and on everyday ephemera related to art and design.  They do not include archives about fine art (that would be the Tate Museum) or architecture.

She showed us examples of some of their collection including archives from Lucile Dove Gordon (a fashion designer in the 1890s-1930s).  Gordon had fashion houses in London, Paris, New York City, and Chicago.  She was an early developer of the catwalk show.  Also, she was known for naming her dresses instead of just numbering them.

Lucile Dove Gordon's exhibition pamphlets

Pictures from a runway show

Some of Lucile Dove Gordon's Designs

Student Designs Based on Lucile Dove Gordon

We also got to hear about the children's literature collection, including the 80,000 books that were donated by the Rainiers and were collected between the 1950s and the 1970s.  One of the gems of the collection is the Beatrix Potter archives, which is the largest archive of Beatrix Potter in the world.  The majority of the archival items were donated by Leslie Linder and includes watercolors, sketches, manuscripts, photographs, etc.  

Beatrix Potter's sketch of her pet rabbit

Beatrix Potter's Hedgehog Sketches

Beatrix Potter's Sketches

Beatrix Potter and her husband actively distributed her work to different institutions across the United Kingdom so that it was spread out and more people could access it.  One of the items we got to see was a original, privately printed version of the Tale of Peter Rabbit from 1901.  It is in Beatrix Potter's handwriting and includes black and white line sketches as illustrations.

1901 Version of Peter Rabbit that was privately printed

Following the presentations by the V&A archivists, Leslie Linder's neighbor Andrew Wiltshire spoke to us about his relationship with the Linders and their importance to the resurgence in the popularity of Beatrix Potter.  Linder was the one who decoded Potter's diary, which led to more information about her life and work. Linder also is the one who donated much of the archive to the V&A.  

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Following our time at Blythe House, we headed home for lunch and fortuitously ended up in Trafalgar Square because our bus ended its service.  We visited the lions and touched them to be sure that we would return to London one day (according to tradition or superstition).  Then we saw that the National Gallery had changed the sculpture to the big, blue chicken.  Finally, we decided to take advantage of being near St. Martin's in the Field and eat lunch at their restaurant in the crypt.  The meal was delicious!

Proof that I will return to London!

Big, blue chicken statue

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Tonight all of the British Studies Program students, faculty, and staff gathered at the Research Symposium and learned about what all of the classes have been studying throughout the month.  It was really interesting to hear about the research that the other students were working on and what their classes have been doing while we have been in London and our other LondonAway cities. 

After the Research Symposium, we went to Nando's for dinner and ate in a nest (which is appropriate for a chicken restaurant).  Once we were finished with dinner, we decided to go down to the Thames to hang out by the river and enjoy one of our last nights together in London. 

London Eye all lit up for Prince George's birth

"Let There Be Light"

Day 19:

Inscription above the entrance to the Central Library

Our class began our library visits in Edinburgh today at the Central Library.  We had a presentation from the library workers who each told us about their departments, how the library system was set up, and what the Edinburgh Libraries had to offer its patrons.  The system is extremely impressive!  The system is divided into neighborhoods, which is similar to how many large systems in the United States divides into branches.  However, one major difference is that in Edinburgh the library often shares its space with the neighborhood offices, so community members can go to the library to take care of neighborhood issues.  This brings more traffic into the library, which is always a good thing!

The Central Library (as part of the Edinburgh Libraries) won the Bookseller Best Library Service Award in 2012 and was a finalist for the same award again in 2013.  They have hosted the EDGE conference for the past 4 years with great success.  The Edinburgh Libraries strive for a Gold Standard of customer service, and in search of the best possible customer experience they have enlisted the assistance of retail service and hospitality professionals to help them improve their customer relations.

The library system has developed programs such as Edinburgh Reads, which attracts up to 140 people on a regular basis by hosting authors, politicians, etc. as speakers.  Under this overall program (Edinburgh Reads), the libraries offer specific programming for all ages and circumstances:

Get Up and Go--for the over 50 crowd


Bookbug--a program including storytimes for birth to 3 year olds that is run by the Scotland Book Trust

Chatterbooks--a reading group for 8-11 year olds

Summer Reading Challenge--a challenge to read a certain number of books over the summer for school age kids

Reading Champion Project--a program geared towards kids in residential care (approximately 100 kids in 16 homes, aged 12-15) to have encouragement and a positive experience at the library

Glitz Lit--a program aimed toward girls that pairs books and beauty


In addition to all of the age-specific programming, the library system has a team of six people who work on their digital offerings.  They have a multiple websites that allow patrons 24/7 access to some of the library's services, eresources, events, social media, etc.  In fact, one of the team member's sole job is to be in charge of updating and maintaining the library's social media.  They are active on Facebook, You Tube, Flickr, Twitter (with 7,000 followers), RSS feeds, blogs, etc.  They are looking toward branching out onto Pinterest, Google +, and others.  They were the first library service in the UK to have a mobile app version of their Your Library website.

The library system offers ebooks, emagazines (through Zinio, which was the most popular eresource last year), Capital Collections (a heritage collection online that includes exhibitions and an image database), audiobooks, Library2Go, overdrive, etc.  The neighborhood libraries offer device classes for patrons if they need help with their Kindles or Nooks or other devices.

The coolest resource, in my opinion, is their newest resource, Our Town Stories.  This resource offers an online look at stories that are important to Edinburgh's local history and legend.  With these stories, the librarians gather information and images, which they then put into an online exhibition.  They offer "now and then" looks at streets and areas of the city.  Many of these stories are also featured in physical exhibits in the neighborhood libraries. 

All of this makes sense when you realize that Edinburgh has been recognized as a United Nations City of Literature, and in fact it was the first city recognized as such.  Just for trivia's sake, Melbourne, Australia, and Reykjavik, Iceland, are two other UN Cities of Literature.

Following the introduction to the library’s services, we had a tour (in which we got to go up on the gallery in the research room!!!) and saw the library’s treasures.  

Secret door to reach the gallery stairs

The gallery directly across from where I'm standing

During the treasures portion of our visit, we got to see 500 years’ worth of publishing history.  We saw a copy of a 1495 book by Aristotle that has a tooled leather cover (that was added later). It is written in Greek and includes very wide margins, which is a sign of very high quality since paper was at such a premium. 

We also saw a copy of a Bassandyne Bible, which is the first full Bible printed in Scotland.  It was printed in 1579, and every parish had to own a copy.  

Then we saw the McDonald family photograph album.  The family had traveled to India and hired photographer Samuel Bourne to take pictures for their album.  The book includes pictures of India and family photographs in the back. 

McDonald Family

Page from the McDonald Album

The next treasure we saw was the first portable atlas of Scotland from 1776.  It is long and narrow, so you would see what you needed to see in the first pane, then move on to the next pane. 

*   *   *

We took a quick break to have lunch and then headed to New College Library for our afternoon appointment.  The New College Library is an academic library that focuses primarily on the Divinity School.  It holds over 250,000 books in 5 floors.  They use two different classification systems:  Library of Congress for the more modern acquisitions and Union Theological Seminary Scheme Classification for the older items.  

View from just outside the New College Library

We took a tour of the stacks, including two that are open to the public and one that is usually only available to staff members.  The library has an Archive Room which holds archival items related to the maintenance of the library and a Bible Room which is full of Bibles.  There are 631 Bibles in one special collection of Bibles, but that is just a fraction of the total number of Bibles in the total collection at New College Library. 

In our trip through the stacks, we saw items such as a Torah, a Bible written in Sanskrit, the history of British America, a book by John Calvin, and more!

 

 

After our tour, the librarian told us about the history of the library.  The building used to be a church, and it still maintains much of the church’s decor.  The stained glass windows were completed in 1934, just as the congregation was moving out.  The church pews have been turned into library desks and shelves.  


We had the privilege of seeing some of their treasures, as well.  

Book of Common Prayer from 1636

Galileo's Dialogus de Systemate Mundi from 1663

The Holy Bible from 1611

Mummies, Music, and Ministry

Day 15:

We started today at the British Museum Central Archives.  Our guide is the only archivist on staff at the museum, and she is in charge of taking care of the records.  They maintain trustee records, financial records, staff records, Reading Room records, and building records.  The majority of the records are trustee records, which are very detailed minutes that describe the inner workings of the museum.  The trustee records date back to the beginning of the museum in 1753.

The British Museum is divided into eight different collections departments, and those departments maintain the collections of artifacts and objects, while the archives maintain the collections of letters, journals, etc.  The trustee books include letters, Christmas cards, financial reports, minutes, and other information about the museum.  Also, they have letter books which have transcriptions of out-going correspondence so that researchers can read the entire conversation.

Trustee Book

Letter Book

The museum archives only has staff records up to the 1920s, and anything more recent is kept by the Human Resources department instead.  These are particularly useful for family history inquiries.

In addition to paper records, the archives also maintains 15,000 photographs, which are hard to catalog when there is very little annotation about location and subject.  Some of the photographs are from 1854 and Roger Fenton, who was the first official museum photographer.  He took stereoscopic view pictures, so you have to have the stereoscopic viewer glasses to see them in 3D.  I got to look through the viewer and look at a picture of an Irish deer.

Me using the stereoscopic viewer

Stereoscopic picture without the glasses

Building records are also maintained by the archives. Architectural drawings of Robert Smirke's designs for the museum are kept in shallow drawers.  Property records for the museum building and surrounding properties are also maintained by the archives.  The famed Round Reading Room (which is currently closed and used as an exhibit space and should be open sometime next year) records are part of the archives collections, too.  Over 200 boxes contain signature cards and signature books for users from 1790-1973.  Many famous names have come through the British Museum in those centuries, including Karl Marx (there are 10 instances of him signing in to the Reading Room), Beatrix Potter, E.M. Forster, T. S. Eliot, Bram Stoker, Rudyard Kipling, etc.

Rudyard Kipling's Reference Letter

Rudyard Kipling's Reading Room Request Letter

In 1941, the museum was hit by a shell during the Blitz in World War II.  The shell exploded when it hit the Coins and Metals display area.  I got to hold the exploded shell, which is heavier than I expected.

Exploded WWII Shell

Picture of the damage to the Coins and Metals Department from the shell

*   *   *

Before our tour began and after our tour was over, we got to explore the museum, itself.  Here are some pictures of some of the exhibits I saw while I was there.

Pharoah Amenhotep III

Rosetta Stone

Lely's Venus (Aphrodite)

Nereid Monument

Parthenon Sculpture

Illustration of how the Parthenon used to be painted

Sarcophogus

Stone Guardian from China (17th c)

Easter Island Statue

Hunting Tools

More Hunting Tools

Mummies!

Mummies!

Cleopatra (perhaps not Queen Cleopatra, though)

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After the museum, we went to London Hard Rock Cafe' for lunch.  We were lucky enough to get into their vault while we waited for a table.  Then, once we were seated, we ate lunch beside a Queen gold record and beneath a guitar belonging to the Eagles guitarist, Joe Walsh.  Here are some pictures:

B.B. King's guitar

Bo Diddley's guitar

Jimi Hendrix's guitar

John Lennon's jacket

Temptations picture and lyrics

Bob Dylan's guitar and Les Paul's guitar

Elton John's outfit

Joe Walsh (Eagles) guitar

Sting's guitar

Queen gold record

Queen guitar

*   *   *

Finally, we headed to Westminster Abbey to see the church and all of the memorials to people buried there from Winston Churchill to Queen Elizabeth I to Charles Darwin.  They even have memorials to important Brits who aren't buried there such as William Shakespeare.  The church itself is so beautiful, and there is so much to see that it's hard to decide where to look!  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but here are some pictures of the outside: