Fragmentary manuscripts

19 July 2019

Fragmentary manuscripts

We are very lucky here at Gladstone’s Library to have access to around 130,000 printed items in total, including around 6,500 books printed before 1800 and some as early as the 15th Century. The majority of these older books come from a very small proportion of our collections: either our pre-18th Century collection, the Bishop Moorman Franciscan collection, or the Glynne-Gladstone collection. Many of these older books are kept in our Closed Access rooms in order to keep them in the best condition possible – but as a result, regular visitors to the library might not be aware of what treasures lie behind closed doors!

…
New for 1819! Books published 200 years ago…

15 May 2019

New for 1819! Books published 200 years ago…

At Gladstone’s Library we rotate our History Room display every month to focus on a different aspect of our collection. This month we’ve dug out some of our best examples of works published in 1819, exactly 200 years ago, to give you a taste of what people were reading during the Georgian Regency period of British history. 

…
Rare Books and Religious Texts: a reading list

1 May 2019

Rare Books and Religious Texts: a reading list

Our Assistant Librarian Gary Butler gave a talk Monday night all about rare books and religious texts. In this post, he shares a reading list of books for anyone who wants to explore the themes in his talk further.

…
Gladstone and the Romantics: our new April display

5 April 2019

Gladstone and the Romantics: our new April display

Today when we consider the word ‘romantic’ we think of love and sentimentality, but the term ‘Romanticism’ had a much broader meaning, historically. Romanticism was a period which spanned the late 18th and early 19th centuries, emerging as a response to the disillusionment with the Enlightenment values of reason and order in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789. It covered a range of developments in art, literature, music and philosophy and William Gladstone himself would have been witness to its peak during his lifetime.

…
What libraries mean by Oliver Emanuel

25 March 2019

What libraries mean by Oliver Emanuel

The first time I lied about my age was not to buy alcohol, to jump on a ride at Chessington World of Adventure, or to join the army. 

It was to get a library card. 

…
Sophie Mackintosh on finding a routine

6 March 2019

Sophie Mackintosh on finding a routine

One of the most beneficial parts about coming to Gladstone’s is the opportunity to be far away from your usual daily routine. It’s amazing how much energy and brain-space is freed up when you take away so many parts of every day life – cooking, cleaning, commuting, and even having a television.

…
Sophie Mackintosh on making time to read

25 February 2019

Sophie Mackintosh on making time to read

Having never been a Writer in Residence before, I was extremely excited about the idea of getting an enormous amount of work done before having to head back to inconvenient ‘real life’. Write one book? The library is open from 9am to 10pm every day, after all – the problem will be writing too many books, if anything!

…
Tales of the supernatural: the library’s hidden creature features!

4 February 2019

Tales of the supernatural: the library’s hidden creature features!

At Gladstone’s Library we rotate our History Room display every month to focus on an aspect of Gladstone the man, or our extensive library catalogue. This February I decided to give some of our lesser-known collections a little TLC by presenting a display on ‘Tales of the Supernatural: The Library’s Hidden Creature Features!’ Additionally, to give you all some extra background on this exciting topic, I’m writing this blog for our website.

…
Collection Spotlight: Beginning with A…

22 January 2019

Collection Spotlight: Beginning with A…

In this regular series, library staff ‘spotlight’ a single item, or a set of items, from the thousands of print and archive items held in the collections here at Gladstone’s Library. Read on and discover more about the items on our shelves…

…
NOT researching in Gladstone’s Library...

26 November 2018

NOT researching in Gladstone’s Library...

You know that moment, when you really should be hard at work. When you really should be reading your way through a particularly dense chapter that is connected to the subject of your next book, with loads of footnotes and references which you have to laboriously work your way through, holding down the page number, consulting the back of the (heavy) book, with the name of the author, the publisher, the date of publication, and let’s face it, all the boring information you need. And your neck begins to ache, and you think you really must stretch your legs, at least stand up and take a turn along the shelves where the grass suddenly seems greener, and the books seem far more glamorous and fascinating. And so you do…

…