Collectors and Collections
11.6 Space Requirements
individually in sales catalogues at the time let alone as whole collections. The acquisition was of unusual importance as the product of a mind steeped in the subject and proved especially interesting since the library had been a sub- scriber to the two microfilm sets English Books printed before 1640 and 1640–1700since their inception. The Ferguson books showed clearly that there is more to a publication than the text since the hard copy provided a wealth of additional scholarly information not conveyed by the film. It also demonstrated again that there are few real duplicates among early printings. Its purchase alerted many booksellers and others wishing to dispose of materials that offers made to the University of Manchester Library, whether by gift or sale , would receive serious consideration. The library eventually had the chance of “first refusal” of much highly desirable material.
Among these was an archive, which the Professor of Modern History described as “historical gold”. I was invited by Field-Marshal Sir Claude Auckinleck to visit his home in Beccles to inspect his personal papers covering the period 1938–47. He was concerned that they should go to a “non-Establishment” insti- tution with a good reputation in the teaching of history. They covered crucial periods of World War II, including the campaigns in Norway, Iraq, the Middle East Burma and India, and comprised many official reports, messages and cor- respondence with leading contemporary statesmen and soldiers. They were of particular interest for the insights they gave into the North African campaign, into partition in the Indian subcontinent and the role of the Indian Army. As a result of this donation six generals serving with Auchinleck also offered their papers, among them those of Major-General Dorman Smith, a colourful figure in the military, whose papers were especially relevant to the first battle of Alamein. The donations were important in a University where Spenser Wilkinson, later Chichele Professor of Military History in Oxford, had founded and presided over the Manchester Tactical Society in the nineteenth century and complemented significant holdings both in the library and the still inde- pendent John Rylands. The donation also brought Auchinleck to Manchester where at a conference organized by the University and Western Command, though in his mid-eighties, he made an outstanding contribution to the debate on the necessity of war for maintaining the peace. These military papers were quickly exploited by the History Department and underlined how valuable a part collection building could play in supporting and promoting subjects taught and researched in the university.
accepting the huge archive of The Manchester Guardian and Evening News I was faced with a dilemma. The library already had an acute accommodation problem, which I had regularly brought to the attention of the university, so that any suggestion of securing such a huge amount of archival material flew in the face of reason. It occupied some 7,000 sq ft, probably more than some university facul- ties. Nevertheless, it was undeniably a tremendously important archive, immensely rich in research potential, which, if it had to leave the newspaper, should certainly be retained in Manchester. It included books, rare periodicals, newspaper files, archive material of all kinds, and correspondence by such as C. P.
Scott, A. P. Wadsworth, W. P. Crozier and leading statesmen or figures of national importance. The association of the university with the Manchester Guardian dated back to its foundation: both found their origins in Nonconformity.
There was a degree of urgency in that the archive was housed in a disused mill in the Salford area, which was scheduled for demolition, and there was no possibil- ity of accommodating even a fraction of the archive in theGuardian’snew quar- ters in Deansgate. Having first convinced the Library Committee of the desirability of securing such a valuable collection, I approached the Vice Chan- cellor, Bursar and Director of Building Services, all essentially local men, who needed no persuading as to the importance and special relevance of the collec- tion. Indeed, the Vice Chancellor himself suggested as a temporary measure the use of “redundant” university buildings intended ultimately for redevelopment.
The fact that theGuardiandirectors wished to donate the collection rather than deposit it was crucial in the discussions. In the event, among the many proper- ties acquired by the university in the process of rapid expansion in the area was a primary school a short distance from the library. It was easily adapted for shelving and offered an excellent solution with an office for library staff and potential users. When I last visited the university, the archive was still in the same accommodation, which had been adopted over a quarter of a century as part of the university library.
The merger of the John Rylands and University Libraries was formally com- pleted in July 1972 and was of such importance as to be recognized by the change of name to the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. The John Rylands owed much to the acumen of Mrs Rylands in building its collections.
She recruited E. G. Duff, the dedicated bibliophile and collector, to catalogue her new library, and appointed Henry Guppy as co-librarian with Duff for the first year, then as sole librarian until his retirement. Her purchase of the Spenser, Crawford and other collections, each the product of inspired, richly funded col- lecting, has often been described. These discrete collections illustrate over and again the theme of this essay. The transfer to the Rylands Building of all the library’s special collections followed: aimed not only to take advantage of the greater security but also of the scholarly environment integral to Basil Champneys’10original design. Its style and quality complemented its contents and reflected their special character by segregating them from the day to day
10 Basil Champneys, architect, 1842–1935, well known for his buildings in Oxford and Cambridge.
working materials of a university library. Only theGuardianArchive, in its own building on the campus, was to remain until extensions to the Rylands Building could be secured.
Before the building of the library extensions began in 1976, four “redundant”, buildings were used as stores by the library so that the space offered in the Rylands Building was particularly timely. The Unitarian College transferred all its valuable historical holdings to the library – books, letters, diaries and papers concerning the history of the Unitarian Church, and its famous collection on the History of Dissent. From the Hartley Victoria Methodist College in Man- chester came the Hobill Collection of Methodism, formed originally by G. A. K.
Hobill and strong in Wesleyana, Primitive Methodism and the Methodist New Connexion. This acquisition and the existing strengths of the library in the sub- ject played a crucial part in the later decision of the Methodist Conference to transfer the entire Methodist Archives and Research Centre, books, manu- scripts and artefacts, from its home in City Road, London, to the library. It con- tained an extensive collection of correspondence, diaries, account books and papers of the early Methodists and notably of the Wesley family. On the printed side it included eighteenth and nineteenth century material, much of it very rare, a unique repository in this country for Methodist scholarship, comprising well over 100,000 items. The pre-1800 publications from the Northern Congre- gational College followed: it included eleven incunables, much dissenting mate- rial from such as Richard Baxter and John Owen, its archives and the Thomas Raffles Collection. These with the many other collections relating to Dissent which were acquired, such as those of the Northern Baptist College, identified the library as a centre for its literature and historical materials, peculiarly appropriate to a University which counted so many Dissenters among its found- ing fathers. When such fine collections come together in one place, to a large extent complementing each other, their scholarly research potential is multiplied out of all proportion to the individual component parts.
This must be asine qua nonin collection building exercises, a basic element in a library’s acquisition policy. The acquisition of the Tabley House library and muniments hardly conformed to this principle. It was purchased from the uni- versity when disinvestment in South Africa, a studentcause célèbreat the time, led the university to reinvest at home and the Tabley House Estate in Cheshire was one of the assets acquired. To defray part of the cost and pay for restoration of the roof, the university decided to sell the library, which, thanks to its acces- sions budget, the university library could well afford to buy. Although it con- tained many books from the early sixteenth to the eighteenth century there were few truly outstanding items among the c.5,000 it comprised, but about 450, including an indifferent copy of the First Folio and a set of theNaturalist’s Mis- cellany, were deemed of sufficient importance to move immediately to the Rylands Building. The collection itself, however, taken as an entity, was of pecu- liar interest as the untouched personal library of the Leicester-Warrens and Barons de Tabley. It was in no sense a grand collection but it mirrored the read- ing habits of one minor aristocratic family over three centuries. Binding had been generally carried out locally and with a few exceptions the only prove- nance in the collection was that of the house and the immediate surrounding
area. Unlike many of the libraries in country houses, it had a “lived in” look, it was more than furniture lining the walls.