The British Museum - 7/21/09

On Tuesday July 21st, we went to the British Museum (http://www.britishmuseum.org/). The British Museum is a human history and culture museum. Its collections include more than seven million objects and come from all the continents. It was established in 1753 and first opened to the public in 1759. The museum welcomes over Six million people every year. The museum is funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and charges no admission fee. The day we went was so crowded that I didn't get to really explore like I would have liked to.

Some of the museum's many treasures that I found interesting were a Granite head of Amenhotep III from 1350 BC, a bust of Ramesses II from 1250 BC, The Rosetta Stone from 196 BC, several Mummy's including that of Cleopatra from Thebes from 100AD and The Parthenon Gallery which houses some of the Parthenon Marbles.

The British Museum is a notable target for controversy, especially surrounding rare artifacts that are being claimed by their originating countries. Some of the most famous items that are disputed are:

* The Parthenon Marbles - claimed by Greece
* Benin Bronzes - claimed by Nigeria
* Ethiopian Tabots - claimed by Ethiopia
* Achaemenid empire gold and silver artifacts from the Oxus Treasure - claimed by Tajikistan
* Mold's Golden Cape - claimed by Wales
* Rosetta Stone - claimed by Egypt
* Aboriginal human remains - returned to Tasmania by the British museum.

The British Museum has refused to return these items declaring that the "restitutionist premise, that whatever was made in a country must return to an original geographical site, would empty both the British Museum and the other great museums of the world". They have also argued that the British Museum Act of 1963 legally prevents any object from leaving its collection once it has entered it. Nevertheless, it has returned items such as the Tasmanian Ashes after a 20 year long battle with Australia.

The British Museum does have a Library and Archives department, that unfortunately we were unable to visit. The library and archives department covers all levels of education, including casual visitors and schools. The Museum's many library holdings include approximately 350,000 books, journals and pamphlets covering all areas of the museum's collection. Also the general Museum archives are overseen by this department. The individual departments have their own separate archives. In 1997, the current British Library building opened to the public and split from the British Museum losing their beautiful Reading Room!

The British Museum
*Photo Courtesy of www.cda-network.ning.com



The former British Library Reading Room at the British Museum
*Photo Courtesy of www.londonist.com

National Maritime Museum in Greenwich - 7/20/09

On Monday July 20th, we went to the National Maritime Museum (NMM) in Greenwich, England. The museum offers joint library and archival services, modern and rare books, journals, periodicals, maps, charts dating back to the 14th century. The library was founded in 1937 and claims to be the largest Maritime Library in the world. Collection users include academic scholars, legal historians, and people interested in family history. Their collection ranges from various topics including emigration, astronomy, piracy, navigation, voyages & explorations, navel architecture, and merchant & royal navy resources.

Their holdings include 100,000 modern books, 8,000 rare books, and 20,000 pamphlets & periodicals, of which 200 are current. the NMM also holds over 66,000 manuscript records as well as a manuscript database. They welcome between 3,000-4,000 visitors a year and answer approximately 15,000-18,000 questions through their e-library. On average they pull about 5,000 archival items a year as well. A topic of great interest to me is their material relating to pirates. The museum features material covering the many pirates who were active in the 'Golden Age' of piracy from 1650–1720.

The National Maritime Museum's collection webpage is http://www.nmm.ac.uk/explore/collections/

The National Maritime Museum
*Photo Courtesy of www.athenryac.com



Edward Treach. AKA Blackbeard
*Photo Courtesy of www.perlgurl.org

The Shakespeare Centre Library & Archive - 7/17/09

One of my favorite day trips so far has been the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archives in Stratford-Upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. We arrived on Friday, July 17th in the quaint little town packed with lively tourists who come from all over the world to see the hometown of the famous 16th century playwright, William Shakespeare.

We had the unique opportunity of having a guided tour of the Library and Archives. The Library and Records Office holds The Shakespeare Collections which is comprised of combined materials from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The collection is divided into two categories; The Shakespeare Collections and The Local Collections. The Shakespeare Collections consist of printed book materials and the archive of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre 1879–1960 and of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) from 1961 onwards. It also includes translations of Shakespeare in over 70 languages, and many unique documents relating to Shakespeare and his family. The Local Collections includes many archival records, books, photographs and maps relating to Stratford-upon-Avon and the surrounding area. Some of these date back to the 12th century.

Their collections are currently organized using a unique in-house system slightly resembling the Dewey Decimal system. They currently own approximately 50,000 books and pamphlets and about 250,000-300,000 photographs and digital images. About 1,000 of their books were printed before 1700! Included in their collection is a First folio of Shakespeare's works! Besides their regular employees, they benefit from the help of anywhere between 15-20 volunteers. In addition to their printed material they offer various unique databases, which are available for researchers use. They have a Cemetery Burials Register from 1881-1964 which contains 11,134 entries and can be searched by name, date and age. The Police Charge Books database from 1863-1880 holds recorded details of those arrested in the town, what crimes and misdemeanors they were charged with, and how the cases were dealt with. These details can be searched by person, crime, age, gender and date. Others include The Stratford Borough Workhouse database from 1819-1834, the Stratford Union Workhouse from 1884-1895 and 1903-1906 and the Smallpox Census from 1765.

We were given a tour of the four stacks in the basement area of the building. Stack 1 held a collection that really caught my attention. Is was titled "The Bram Stoker Collection". Apparently, unbeknownst to me up until this time, Bram Stoker was a business manager in the Lyceum Theatre for Sir Henry Irving, and was his friend and secretary for nearly 30 years. The collection housed in Stack 1 consisted of anything relating to Bram Stoker and Henry Irving during that time at the Lyceum theatre. It included menus, play reviews, and prompt books among other things.

You can find out more about this collection at The Shakespeare Centre Library & Archive
http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/content/view/20/20/




Shakespeare's Birthplace
*Photo courtesy of www.freefoto.com




The Shakespeare Centre Library & Archive
*Photo courtesy of www.thewaymarking.com




Stratford-Upon-Avon
*Photo courtesy of www.visiting-stratford.co.uk

The British Library - 7/16/09

On Thursday, July 16^th we went to The British Library. This beautiful building is the equivalent to the United States’ Library of Congress. It is a fully functional copyright library that grows 12.5 kilometers every year! Their collection consists of 14 million books, 920,000 journal and newspaper titles, 58 million patents, and 3 million sound recordings. They receive a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland! The British Library serves business and industry, researchers, academics and students, in the UK and world-wide. Each year nearly six million searches are generated by the British Library online catalogue, and roughly 400,000 visit one of the libraries Reading Rooms. They issue about 300 new library cards everyday!

Some interesting collections that the library houses is their philatelic collection which includes 8 million stamps and other philatelic items A very noticeable collection is contained in a tall glass tower in the center of the foyer area. It is called the King's Library Tower and consists of books collected by King George III who reigned from 1760 to 1820. Other great treasures in the British Library include Shakespeare in Quarto, William Caxton's two editions of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Gutenberg Bible, The Magna Carta, some Renaissance Festival Books including 253 books about festivals and ceremonies in Europe from 1475 to 1700, and a Sample of Malory's Arthurian manuscript. Some of my favorites included some Beatles manuscripts, a very old copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy, and some original Lewis Carroll Alice and Wonderland things. They also offer these computer type machines that use Turning the Pages™' software to leaf through some of the greatest books including A selection of Leonardo da Vinci sketches, Images from Alice's Adventures Under Ground Written and illustrated by Lewis Carroll, Mozart's musical diary, Codex Sinaiticus, an early work form Jane Austen, and many more. The British Library also house the largest book in the work. It is the Klencke Atlas from 1660.

I found the book retrieval process fascinating! The reader picks which books he/she wants to look at from the online catalog. The information is then sent to the basement and is then put on a little train system to travel up to over a mile long journey to the patron who awaits in it one of the reading rooms.

We also had a tour of the preservation and conservation studio. This too was phenomenal. I don't think that people realize what steps are taken to conserving and preserving old books and manuscripts. The tour seemed rushed and short, but I was glad to at least have a small glimpse of what they do.

In all this was a fascinating experience. I have never been to visit the Library of Congress in the United States, but it will now be a major priority for me!! To see the workings of a national library was amazing and I'm grateful for the opportunity.

Link to The British Library
http://www.bl.uk/

Exterior view of the British Library
*Photo courtesy of to55er.wordpress.com

Interior view of the British Library (King George III collection)
*Photo courtesy of www.librarystudentjournal.org

Museum of London - 7/15/09

On Wednesday, the 15^th of July, we visited The Museum of London. We sat down for a presentation with Mr. Joe Cotton before being able to walk the museum. Mr. Cotton is a Senior Curator (Prehistory) in the Early London History and Collections department of the Museum of London and he gave us some insight as to what the museum is all about and what it took to create the exhibits.

The Museum of London is an urban history museum that opened in 1976. It encompasses the archeology of the early history of greater London. Located near the Barbican Library which we visited the day before, it is easily accessible from two underground (tube) stations. They have three sites and employ 150 archaeologists. Annually they welcome 4,000,000 visitors, half of them being Londoners, and the other half consisting of students and tourists.

The exhibits are in chronological order and start from prehistoric London leading up to Medieval London in the 1550’s. They are currently constructing an exhibit which will encompass that time period through to the present. They also have a wonderful exhibit that teaches Museum patrons about The Great Fire of London in 1666.

The Great Fire of London began on September 2, 1666 during the night. A small fire broke out in a bakeshop on Pudding Lane. At this period in time, most London houses were dangerously flammable as they were constructed of wood and pitch. There happened to be a strong wind that night sending sparks to neighbouring buildings. The citizen fire fighting brigades attempted without success to contain the fire with their buckets of water from the river. By 8:00 am the next morning the fire had spread halfway across London Bridge. Only sixteen people were said to be lost in the four day blaze, but the property loss was great. Some 430 acres, as much as 80% of the city proper was destroyed, including 13,000 houses, 89 churches, and 52 Guild Halls. Thousands of citizens found themselves homeless and financially ruined. The Great Fire changed the face of London forever.

Joe Cotton was in charge of the prehistoric London exhibit which was fascinating. According to a general public survey of about 2000 patrons conducted by the museum, Londoners had no knowledge of Pre-Roman London. It just wasn’t in their curriculum. His job was to make the general public aware of the prehistoric existence in London. He did this by using four ideas that surmise prehistoric life. First is the Climate. The museum examined what climate change had to do with the backdrop of a pre-roman world. Next we look at the river Thames., They have some spectacular finds on display that were pulled out of the river from flint arrowheads to weapons and pots. Patrons are then meant to look at the people who existed in London before the Roman empire. By examining the evidence on display, patrons will be able to see them as really existing and how they lived. Lastly, we can examine the legacy that these people left behind by seeing the history beneath London, the archaeological finds that proved prehistoric existence in this area.

Link to the Museum of London
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/



The London Museum
*photo courtesy of www.e-architect.co.uk


Painting depicting the Great Fire of London in 1666
*Photo courtesy of www.1st-art-gallery.com

The Barbican Center - 7/14/09

On Tuesday, July 14th, we visited the Barbican Library. The Barbican is a fully functional lending library with books, audio books, videos, DVDs, CD-ROMs, music CDs and scores available.

The library is part of what is called the Barbican Centre and is located in the north of the City of London, England. The Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses three restaurants, and a conservatory. The London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra are based in the Barbican Centre's concert hall as well. The site for this beautiful demonstration of Urban planning is situated in an area which was badly bombed during World War II.

It was a very comfortable, friendly public library just like one would find in the United States. The books were classified by category using what appeared to be a variation of the Dewey Decimal system. They had several graphic novels and comic books along the walls as to stick out and perhaps catch a passing young adults eye. I also noticed a small desk that was manned with a person to help city residents with their tax/tarrif forms and other various government forms and information. Above it was a sign that read "City Residents Information Desk".

The Barbican has several specialized libraries within it walls which I found very interesting. They have a children's library, which has various materials and programs for children of different age groups. The art library houses different forms or art based materials including films, plays, and TV shows. My favorite and probably the most fascinating library (seeing as I spent quite a long time wandering about) was the music library. This held biographies of all different types and genres of musicians from Madonna, Bob Dylan and Elvis to Mozart and Chopin. It also held audio and video of what seemed like anything and everything related to music. It housed shelves upon shelves of sheet music categorized by instrument, genre of music, and then several categorized by artist. Some of my favorites that I noticed included Radiohead, Richard Ashcroft, Hank Williams, Prince, and the Rolling Stones. There were also listening booths which held CD and cassette players for users to listen to certain things onsite. Another interesting thing was a silent piano. It allowed patrons access to a piano with headphone plugged in so that only the user could hear what was being played.

It was nice to see a working British public library, and if I resided in the area, I'm sure much of my time would be spent there!

Link to the The Barbican Center http://www.barbican.org.uk/visitor-information/barbican-library



The Barbican Center
*Photo courtesy of panoramicearth.com



The Barbican Public Library
*Photo Courtacy of fivelondonlibraries.net

St. Paul's Cathedral Library - 7/13/09

On Monday, July 13^th, we were given the rare privilege of touring the library at St. Paul’s Cathedral. We bypassed a throng of people waiting in line with purchased tickets in hand to glimpse the inside of this exceptional London landmark. The Librarian, Joe Wisdom, led us through a large set of doors and into a stairwell with an ornate set of spiral stairs leading to the upper level of the massive cathedral. (These are the same spiral staircase that can be seen in the various Harry Potter films!)

194 dizzying steps later we arrived at the top floor of the cathedral. I have to say, that climbing this magnificent staircase was a bit unnerving, due to the fact that there were no visible means of support. They were just sticking out of the wall! This upper level reminded me of a backstage area of a great theater, with unused treasures strewn about. One interesting thing that I noticed were the set of keys being carried around by Mr. Wisdom. It was an ancient looking key ring with several oddly and uniquely shaped keys. They reminded my of something that a sheriff would have carried around in the wild wild west. I couldn’t help but wonder what other doors and hidey holes they would open.

When Mr. Wisdom opened the door to the St. Paul’s Library, I felt like I had stumbled several hundred years back in time. We were shown into a small, quaint, but quite crowded one room library. This room appeared to be a fantasy, right out of the movies. The antique books were shelved against the walls, and there was a comfortable looking fireplace tucked away to one side. There were several busts and paintings of men whom I’m sure held some significance to the cathedral at one time or another. Tucked away in the corner of the room, hiding behind several old beautifully bound books was an old, outdated computer that appeared to be very out of place among this great collection. The masonry around the upper walls was intricate and full of various library symbolism including depictions of grapes, skulls, wheat, and books.

The collection is theologically based and consists of 20,000 bibliographic items and 13,500 physical volumes. These consist of prayer books, biographies, philosophical works and religious studies. I did catch a glimpse among all these old and ancient books of the bright red cover of a “Who’s Who 2006”, which along with the old computer, rather stood out like a sore thumb. One item of special interest that Mr. Wisdom pointed out was a late 12^th/early 13^th century book of Psalms.

As fascinating as this collection is, it is not the original, as that was lost in the Great Fire of London in 1666. I was a bit disappointed that we were unable to wander around more. We were confined to this little roped in area at the entrance way. I do understand though because of the delicacy of this rare collection, and I was thankful that were able to see it at all.

Link to St. Paul's Cathedral
http://www.stpauls.co.uk/

Link to St. Paul's Cathedral Library
http://www.stpauls.co.uk/Cathedral-History/The-Library

St. Paul's Cathedral
*Photo courtesy www.londonpass.com

St. Paul's Cathedral Library
*Photo courtesy www.somersethouseprints.com