“One of the Most Important Private Collections in Britain’ – Thousands of Rare Books Left to Trinity College’s Wren Library”
From Cambridge News:
An ‘extraordinary’ private collection of books has been bequeathed to Trinity College’s Wren Library in Cambridge.
More than 7,500 texts were left to the library by Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe – one of the largest bequests in its history.
The vast collection features rare first editions by the poets Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth and Tennyson.
Other fascinating texts include previously unknown manuscripts of Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington, Florence Nightingale and Charles Dickens.
Read the Complete Article
More Direct From Trinity College:
[Trinity College Librarian] Dr Bell said it had been ‘quite a complicated logistical exercise’ moving 7,500 books from Surrey to Trinity and a ‘huge effort by staff sorting, classifying, cleaning and conserving the books.’
The first few hundred volumes have been added to the Library’s online catalogue and all the books in the Crewe Collection are available for consultation by researchers by appointment. A display of selected treasures from the collection is on view in the Wren Library during public opening hours, and a first selection of books have been added to the Wren Digital Library, where they may be browsed in full online.
Filed under: Digital Collections, Interactive Tools, Libraries, News
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.