OCR Text |
Show library tt 9Mmm ImMi mid ' ' 1 Entrance Hall of British Museum. IT HAS become customary to start the history of the British Museum library with a transaction which took place between the British government and Sir I Inns Sloane in 1753, but, ns n matter of fact, the genesis of this library should be recorded re-corded 20 years earlier. The event chronicled upon this date of October 21!, 17131, Is B fire at Ashbunilinm house which partly destroyed the famous fa-mous Cottonlan library, "1 emphasized empha-sized in the minds of influential patrons pa-trons of learning the absolute necessity neces-sity of properly housing the gnlit collections col-lections which as yet had escaped (ho. same fate, says the Christian Science Monitor. That portion of the Cottonlan collection col-lection which was saved from the flames still exists as tin important and valuable part of the present British museum. Sir Robert Cotton' was a real booklover and a natural collector. When summoned by Queen Elizabeth to Calais as royal commissioner in arranging a treaty between England and Spain, .it was with sincere regret that he accepted the appointment, because be-cause it took him away from his library li-brary and from the research in which he found the greatest delight of life. Later Cotton's political activities aroused the suspicions of Charles I, and, as a result, his beloved library was sealed up and he himself arrested. When later a royal messenger came to him with the message that under certain conditions he might be restored re-stored to court favor, Cotton replied: "You come too late, my heart is broken." The famous library was restored years later to Sir Robert's son and successor, Sir Thomas Cotton, who inherited, in-herited, also, his father's love of books. From Sir Thomas it came down to Sir John Cotton, who presented the collection col-lection to the nation in 1700. The Cotton library, therefore; ihould be considered the nucleus to which the other collections were added. Money Raised by Lottery. This brings us to Sir Hans Sloane, where the chronicle usually begins. Sir Hans was physician, naturalist, and antiquary, and during his lifetime life-time accumulated an extraordinary collection of books, manuscripts, drawings, prints, together with collections col-lections of natural and artificial curiosities. curi-osities. Toward the end of his life he offered them to the British nation, provided the government paid his executors some 20,000, which he esti- library, but originally sucn restrictions were Imposed as to make Its use almost al-most inaccessible. In the first place, It was announced that the library would be open "except Saturday and Sunday of each week, except Christmas Christ-mas day and one week after, except the week after Easter Sunday and the week after Whitsuntide, and except Good Friday, and all days which now or shall hereafter be specially appointed ap-pointed for Thanksgivings or feasts by public authority." If a prospective student were able to master the mathematics of these restrictions, re-strictions, he then presented himself at the porter's lodge, where he was obliged to give his name, condition and address, to be entered in the register. This accomplished, the volume was laid before the librarian to decide whether the person so applying was entitled to admission. If the question were settled in the affirmative, on a second visit the applicant might receive re-ceive his ticket. Having secured the precious card, he would then present himself for admission, " but, as there was a restriction that not more than ten persons should he admitted for each hour the museum was open, it was still problematical vbether he would be successful. If so fortunate as to be a member of one of these groups of ten he was then escorted around the library by a guide, with a limit placed upon the time, and With every element created tc destroy the pleasure of literary communion with the volumes. Later, important additions to tV Cottonian, Harleian, and Sloane collections col-lections include the Royal library of 12,000 volumes, which was eventually turned over to the British museum by George II ; the Thomason collection of "Kings' Pamphlets," the da Costa collection col-lection of Hebrew books and manuscripts; manu-scripts; the Birch collection of biography; biog-raphy; David Garrick's library of English Eng-lish plays; Musgrave's collection of biography and manuscripts; the Cracherode collections of books and prints. Some Great Acquisitions. All these collections were acquired previous to the year 1S07 with no expense ex-pense whatever to the government, hut at this time a grant of approximately 5,000 was made for the purchase of the Lansdowne manuscripts. In 1813 another 8,000 was appropriated for the Hargrave Legal library, and, in 1821, some 13,500 was granted to secure the classical library of Dr. mated to be one-fourth of the intrinsic .value of his collections. The real value was probably somewhat less than his estimate, but the price at which the British nation acquired his treasures was surely less than half their value, which made the contribution contribu-tion of Sir Hans a princely one under any circumstances. To persuade King George II, so indifferent in-different to the importance of letters and so miserly regarding the expenditure expendi-ture of money save for his own pleasures, pleas-ures, that so large a sum should be paid was no easy task, and when the memorial was first presented to him he remarked : "I do not think there are 20.000 in the treasury." Fortunately, however, there was influence enough among those favoring the acquisition of this important collection to push the matter to a conclusion. As a result, re-sult, an act was passed through parliament parlia-ment authorizing the holding of a lottery lot-tery to raise 300,000, out of which 30,000 should be paid to the executors of Sir Hans and the countess of Oxford, Ox-ford, and an additional 30,000 invested invest-ed at interest in the public funds to provide for salaries and other expenses. ex-penses. Beyond this, an adequate sum was to be devoted to a suitable building build-ing for Ibe collections. This act passeS parliament in 1753, and marks the definite foundation of the British i museum. Early Restrictions on Users. The records show that the first building build-ing containing the collections which went to make up the British museum was thrown open to the public on January 15, 1759; but the words "thrown open" require some explanation. explana-tion. Today there Is no library in the world where the visitor or student is able to inspect and make use of Its wonderful contents with greater ease or freedom than the British Museum Charles Burney. Two years later the splendid Royal library acquired by George III became part of the British museum. This, -necessitated larger quarters, and was the beginning of the reconstructed museum. George Ill's library contained" no less than 84,000 volumes. George IV tried to dispose of the collection to tile emperor of Russia to enrich his own private coffers, cof-fers, but this plan was frustrated, and the volumes were saved to the British nation. Francis Egerton was a later benefactor bene-factor of the Museum library, ne bequeathed be-queathed to it the famous Egerton manuscripts, together with 12,000, the interest on which to be devoted to increasing in-creasing the collection and maintaining maintain-ing a custodian. Three years later, in 1S32, the autograph coffeetion of the museum was enriched by the acquisition acquisi-tion of the Arundel manuscripts; and, in 1847, the Rt. Hon. Thomas Gren-ville Gren-ville presented to the museum his magnificent mag-nificent library, which is still preserved as a unit under the donor's name. No library is geographically situated situ-ated more favorably to be available to the world than the British museum. A famous American collector some years ago bequeathed to It an extraordinary collection he himself had made, which it seemed from patriotic motives should have been turned over to some American -institution. After having workeil in the British museum, however, how-ever, anil after seeing the cosmopolitan cosmopoli-tan nature of those who visit and make use of its treasures, one is forced to admit that this collection will accomplish accom-plish its highest good by being where it is rather than consigned to the geographical geo-graphical limitation of any one of the American libraries. In this case the American donor considered his loyalty to letters beyond the demand of any nationality. |