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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Spring has sprung at Gladstone’s Library and Easter is not far behind it!

29 March 2019

Spring has sprung at Gladstone’s Library and Easter is not far behind it!

While researching for this blog, I found myself on all manner of websites, from the Telegraph to Clarion Review, and the websites of both Cadbury and Godiva. 

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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. 

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Play time by Oliver Emanuel

18 March 2019

Play time by Oliver Emanuel

My two year old daughter has been with me at Gladstone’s for the past few days. Like any parent of a toddler will tell you, her desire for play is tireless. Tell me a story. Let’s go outside. Shall we dance? I’m a monster. Rrrr. There is seemingly no end to her enthusiasm and joy for making things up and mucking around.

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Susanna Forrest on walking

12 March 2019

Susanna Forrest on walking

After a certain age your body lets you know that sitting for hours at a desk requires a degree of physical fitness. Via carpal tunnel, twanging hamstrings or a classic ‘bad back’, you discover that you are not, in fact, capable of eight hours on what the Germans call your ‘sitzfleisch’ or ‘seat meat’. 

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