The British Library London archives: Treasures and Manuscripts collection revealed

What’s home to more than 60 million patents, 14 million books, 8 million stamps, 6 million sound recordings, 4,447,505 maps and 351,116 manuscripts? Well, The British Library of course.

If you didn’t already know, The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is home to the second largest collection of books, periodicals, journals and sound recordings in the world (it's beaten by The Library of Congress in the USA). To put things into perspective, if you attempted to look at five items in the library every day it would take you precisely 80,000 years to see its entire treasury of books. Pretty impressive, huh?

Before it moved to its current location on Euston Road, the bibliocopia was housed inside the rotunda of the British Museum (the giant white monolith you see on every tourist’s Instagram) but things got a little cramped come 1973 so the library’s trustee’s decided it was time to build something capable of withholding its 170 million-strong collection.

Speaking of the collection, the coolest stuff is kept in special containers and rooms out back, in the King's Library (the George III collection) and six floors beneath the library itself in what we dubbed the 'scary literary dungeons'. The most precious items are housed here and are sealed shut in special chambers filled with nitrogen, carbon dioxide and argon – it’s a lovely little mix that protects all the scripts from pesky fires and sprinkler systems, which as you can probably imagine, medieval manuscripts aren’t at all partial to.

King's Library/© British Library
© British Library

Luckily, you can see some of the library's most revered pieces of literature, art, religious texts and letters in the Treasures Library, the holy grail for book and history buffs in the capital and indeed, the country.

The space itself is no secret at all. Inside, the free-to-all exhibition houses some of the most priceless artefacts from the world of words. If you've never been you can see all sorts of fascinating manuscripts from the likes of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, as well as letters signed by Elizabeth I, original handwritten Beatles lyrics and of course the star of the show, the Magna Carta.

Everything on show here is at the mercy of the conservationists and curators who work behind the scenes at the library. Because of this, the displays constantly change. One minute you could be looking at a letter composed by T.S. Eliot and then next a copy of Shakespeare's first folio. The beauty of this is that the treasures are always on rotation. The benefit? You can visit numerous times a year and see something different every time.

As part of our Behind the Scenes series, we asked two of the library’s experts to take us around and explain all the ins and outs of library curation and how they select treasures in the video above.

In it, you'll see Alexandra Ault, lead curator of Modern Archives and Manuscripts 1601-1850 show us the original manuscripts of Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby, Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, Samuel Coleridge's Kubla Khan and Jane Austen's personal writing desk, and Laura Walker, Lead curator of Modern Archives and Manuscripts 1850-1950 divulge on all the fascinating secrets and facts you'll discover in the Treasure's library.

Kubla Khan - Samuel Taylor Coleridge © British Library Board
Kubla Khan - Samuel Taylor Coleridge (C) British Library Board

To explain the ins and outs of curation and selection, we sat down with them and talked about everything from diversifying the collection to why they let us touch Mrs Dalloway without wearing gloves (something we still can't get over). Check out what they had to say below.

Laura, what's your favourite book/artefact in the collection?

It changes from day-to-day but at the moment it's a painting by the Polynesian High Priest and Navigator, Tupaia of a scene in Tahiti. It’s a really exciting collaboration of a Polynesian artist working in a European style with possible input from Sydney Parkinson, who was one of the artists onboard James Cook’s first voyage. You can see it on display James Cook: The Voyages, something I worked on very closely.

And how do you feel when you first unpack an item from the collection you’ve never seen before for the first time?

I always, always feel a sense of nervous anticipation. It’s amazing to be able to look at the original collection items, to discover more about them and to almost touch the past. You're literally touching, and in some cases experiencing a sense of history.

Laura, explain the process you go through when you come up with ideas for new exhibitions?

Most of our recent exhibitions have been based on significant anniversaries or events, for example Harry Potter: A History of Magic. They can also be based on new acquisitions or significant subjects or themes within our collections, but it depends on what or where the item is and where it's come from. It's also a mixture of curator brainstorming and keeping an eye on the news and social topics, what's on trend and what has been received well by the press and critics. Either way, we always want to cater to what people want to see, whilst also giving them the opportunity of discovering things they've never come across before.

Alex! You let us touch Virginia Woolf and Charles Dickens without gloves! Tell us why?

Wearing cotton gloves when handling books, manuscripts or fragile paper items actually reduces manual dexterity and the sense of touch. When we're snapping on a pair of gloves, it automatically makes us think 'oh, we've got to be super careful now' so it actually increases the risk of us being heavy handed with things. Contrary to popular belief, it's actually safer to turn pages with clean, dry hands.

Mrs Dalloway/The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of Virginia Woolf
The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of Virginia Woolf

This question is for you both. What’s your favourite work by a woman in the collection and why?

Laura - It would have to be a handwritten draft of George Eliot’s Middlemarch. The volume, along with nine other works, was given to the library by Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) herself. Interestingly, the manuscripts used to belong to her partner George Henry Lewes but were returned to her on his death. I also think there's a lot of parallels to the treatment and marginalisation of women in today's society. I suggest you read it and draw the comparisons yourself.

Alex - I'm in love with Christina Rossetti's volume of manuscript poems ‘Sing Song’ with illustrations by Arthur Hughes. It's a really special volume and one which I turn to time and time again.

Laura, what are you doing, if anything, to diversify the works in the collection?

The library holds over 170 million items. Admittedly most of what's on display pre-1950 is from British white male authors, but we're constantly trying to diversify the manuscripts in our collections by acquiring manuscripts from underrepresented groups including the archives or works of women, from members of the LGBTQ community and ethnic minorities. We often go out looking at all sorts of collections at auctions, meet up with dealers and receive countless donations throughout the year. Displaying them can be a task, but we try our best to keep up with what's new, trendy and important socially before things go on display.

Alex, what’s the most revealing manuscript you have ever come across?

All manuscripts reveal something. Letters are particularly good examples. They can really illuminate important author's working practices as well as personal lives. I especially like the series of letters we have by TS Eliot to his friends, the Tandy family. Not only do they contain drafts for his poems for ‘Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats’ but they also reveal so much about his daily life. We've also got letters form Charles Dickens to his wife, Catherine, showing the early stages of their marriage before their relationship deteriorated. These beautiful letters also give fascinating insights into how Dickens worked, too.

Laura, how do you decide what is worthy of being in the Treasures Collection?

We look at who the author or the creator of the material was/is, the content of the item and if it has a wider cultural or spiritual significance. Treasures can be anything from famous literary works by authors such as Shakespeare and Jane Austen, to records of exploration such as the diaries of Captain Scott. They can also be part of a historical movement, such as the letter by Suffragette Annie Kenney or part of a scientific process - Ada Lovelace for example. But because what's on show is so broad and culturally savvy, it's always quite difficult to define what makes a treasure a treasure.

Jane Austen Writing Desk © British Library Board
Jane Austen Writing Desk (C) British Library Board

Alex, do you feel a major responsibility when you are choosing works to be put into an exhibit?

Of course. We want to choose objects which best tell a story and which inspire people; which visitors want to see; which might not have been seen before or very recently; which can be safely displayed; and which perhaps provide new information or give a new angle to a well-known story. It's always a balance and one which we think incredibly carefully about.

And what has affected you the most personally in the collection and why?

Some of our seventeenth century letters from Kings James I, Charles I and II, and Oliver Cromwell are always so incredible to handle and research. It's amazing to think that they survived after such a turbulent period in our history, too. Often their content is so incredibly human which is such a contrast to how we think about them as figures from history books.

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