The museum began in 1816, in one sense, as it was that year that Viscount Fitzwilliam died and left his collections and funds to build the museum. It also sort of began in 1848, since that was when the museum buildings were first built. But 2016 was a good year for a bicentenary, since the next one isn't coming along for another 30 years.
To celebrate, a book was written by my then line manager, and of which there are probably around 100 copies in the museum at any one time, since most of us received a copy for free:
It's also available in the Reference Library, so feel free to come in and have a look at it once the museum's open again. However, if you're interested in finding out more about the library, you'll be sorely disappointed; it's mentioned once in the entire book, and that's in a rather desultory way, something like: "[the department] benefited from the split from the reference library". Charming!
Which is a shame, because I'm sure there's lots of interesting history there. So today I'm considering the hidden history to be the history of the reference library itself, which was almost completely ignored. For one thing, I think something has to be said about Miss Giles, who was librarian for some time in the fifties and sixties (I think - again my lack of annual reports lets me down!). She was the author of some of the exhibition catalogues and handlists produced by the museum during that time (notably ones on heraldry that I can recall), but really I know her more from the notes I find here and there in the museum. As far as I can tell, she seemed to have been quietly competent - I'm always grateful for the previous library staff for their "just in case" collection development policy, since we have excellent holdings for most areas, and I aspire to do just as well now.
Just a final share, as it rather tickled me. This is what passed for the library manual before I started compiling everything I know into a currently-17-page document:
I have no idea how old it is, but it's full of choice nuggets of information, for example where the division is between objects for Applied Arts and those for Antiquities (it's various dates depending on which areas you're talking about). My favourite card of all has to be this one though:
Closed? Open? In case you're curious, they're currently closed. And I've got a couple of ideas whose signature that might be (looks like a JD to me, which would be one of two people), although I'm pretty sure that date can't possibly be 1954 - maybe 1994?
To celebrate, a book was written by my then line manager, and of which there are probably around 100 copies in the museum at any one time, since most of us received a copy for free:
It's also available in the Reference Library, so feel free to come in and have a look at it once the museum's open again. However, if you're interested in finding out more about the library, you'll be sorely disappointed; it's mentioned once in the entire book, and that's in a rather desultory way, something like: "[the department] benefited from the split from the reference library". Charming!
Which is a shame, because I'm sure there's lots of interesting history there. So today I'm considering the hidden history to be the history of the reference library itself, which was almost completely ignored. For one thing, I think something has to be said about Miss Giles, who was librarian for some time in the fifties and sixties (I think - again my lack of annual reports lets me down!). She was the author of some of the exhibition catalogues and handlists produced by the museum during that time (notably ones on heraldry that I can recall), but really I know her more from the notes I find here and there in the museum. As far as I can tell, she seemed to have been quietly competent - I'm always grateful for the previous library staff for their "just in case" collection development policy, since we have excellent holdings for most areas, and I aspire to do just as well now.
Just a final share, as it rather tickled me. This is what passed for the library manual before I started compiling everything I know into a currently-17-page document:
I have no idea how old it is, but it's full of choice nuggets of information, for example where the division is between objects for Applied Arts and those for Antiquities (it's various dates depending on which areas you're talking about). My favourite card of all has to be this one though:
Closed? Open? In case you're curious, they're currently closed. And I've got a couple of ideas whose signature that might be (looks like a JD to me, which would be one of two people), although I'm pretty sure that date can't possibly be 1954 - maybe 1994?
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