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!

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Gladstone’s Library as a flexible space

28 June 2019

Gladstone’s Library as a flexible space

We can be quite traditional here at Gladstone’s Library: the Reading Rooms are silent study areas; we don’t allow food near the books; and ‘No, we won’t let you take that rare and precious Gladstone Foundation Collection book home with you tonight, Sir – we are not a lending library!’ In other ways though, we like to think of ourselves as quite innovative.

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300 years of Welsh history: 1719, 1819 & 1919

19 June 2019

300 years of Welsh history: 1719, 1819 & 1919

Wales is a small country with a big presence. Integral to the history of the British Isles and attracting tourists from all around the world, it should be hard to overlook the history of Cymru, however it is often wholly conflated with that of neighbouring England to its disservice. Gladstone’s Library is an international institution, but we are very proud of our Welsh location that was decided by our founder, the former Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, who was English but spent around 50 years with the Hawarden Estate as his family home.

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A day in the life of a Graduate Work Experience student

6 June 2019

A day in the life of a Graduate Work Experience student

While it’s totally cliché to say this, no two days are the same when it comes to being a Graduate Work Experience student (GWE) at Gladstone’s Library. However, the motions we go through are pretty similar, and always full of valuable experience!

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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. 

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The British Crime Writing Archive

3 May 2019

The British Crime Writing Archive

Gladstone’s Library has, for three years, been home to the British Crime Writing Archive, made up of materials from the Crime Writers’ Association and The Detection Club. Martin Edwards, the Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and the President of The Detection Club has worked closely with the Gladstone’s Library team to make the collections publically viewable here at the library.

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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.

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On Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

23 April 2019

On Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

On Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day our thoughts and prayers are with the Armenian people, both the diaspora and those living in Armenia today.

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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.

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From the Archives...The Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie

1 April 2019

From the Archives...The Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie

Many of our patrons will know that in January 2018, the Library embarked on a three-year project externally funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York under the title of Digital Gladstone. The project aims to fully digitise and catalogue 15,000 nineteenth-century manuscript letters and 5,390 annotated printed books.

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