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May Showers
May arrives and with it not only a way that YOU can help the ATBL grow, by taking our Strategic Development survey (more on this below), but also the debut of a brand-new virtual series, exclusive to current ATBL Supporters: Tea with the British Library. Over the course of 30 minutes on Zoom, British Library curators will go in depth about a collection item or project supported by ATBL grants and attendees will have the opportunity to ask the curators questions about the items or their work. The first Tea with the British Library of the 2022 season will be on May 17, 2022, at 9 AM EDT, and will feature British Library Curator Julian Harrison presenting on Geoffrey Chaucer. Click here to register. (And, if you haven't yet joined us as an ATBL Supporter, click here to register and participate in this virtual opportunity!)
This month brings some additional events of interest—including a private, curator-led tour of the Morgan Library & Museum's Hans Holbein exhibition on May 9, 2022, and a virtual event with the University of Maryland Special Collections on William Morris on May 11, 2022. Register below!
We also are excited to hear the British Library's Eccles Centre for American Studies' annual Bryant Lecture on May 12, 2022, 1 PM EDT. Entitled "Falsehood, Fakery and the Threat to Free Speech," the 2022 Bryant Lecture features former BBC North America journalist Jon Sopel. You can register here, and find more detailed information below.
In some in-house ATBL News: our President of the Board of Trustees, Barbara A. Shailor, has just been elected to the Fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries—we send our sincere congratulations on this well-deserved accomplishment!
And last but certainly not least: keep an eye on your mailboxes for the ATBL's annual print newsletter! With ATBL grant updates; special feature interviews with British Library conservators and with longtime ATBL supporters; the launch of an exciting, new British Library fundraising campaign; and more; the 2022 newsletter gives you an insight into the Library, the ATBL, and expresses our sincere gratitude to those who have supported us over the past year.
Sincerely,
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Elizabeth Berkowitz, MA, PhD
Executive Director
The American Trust for the British Library
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Calum Cockburn, Digitization Officer in the British Library's department of Medieval Manuscripts, reads the opening lines of the epic poem Beowulf in Old English. | |
The Digitization of Thomas Rymer's Foedera
We are thrilled to announce the recent grant to the British Library by longtime ATBL contributors Elizabeth A.R. Brown and Ralph S. Brown, Jr. Ralph is a former attorney and Elizabeth was previously a professor of French and Medieval history, who taught within the City University of New York system. Over the years, the Browns have generously supported the high-quality digitization of many medieval manuscripts at the British Library, ensuring that these invaluable items are freely available in full to readers all across the globe.
The Browns' recent, substantial support of Rymer's Foedera is a particularly significant digitization endeavor. In a description provided by Professor of Medieval History, University of East Anglia, Fellow of the British Academy Nicholas Vincent, Thomas Rymer (1642-1713) collected a compendium of primary source documents—the Foedera—that recorded in Latin, French, and English the inner workings of British and European politics from the twelfth century and into Rymer's own era.
The British Library's copy to be digitized contains materials added in later versions, but is considered to be the "Record Commission" edition of the Foedera. Thanks to the Brown's digitization grant, in Vincent's words: "Where previously, readers have had been obliged to search across several websites, and a variety of confusingly numbered editions, the classic text [will] now [be] here neatly disposed."
Click here or click the image to read Nicholas Vincent's full description of the Foedera and learn about its significance to an understanding of European and British medieval history. If you have a specific grant at the British Library you would like to discuss supporting, please reach out to info@atbl.us.
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Thomas Rymer after Unknown artist
line engraving, published 1819
NPG D5867
© National Portrait Gallery, London
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'Your country needs you' advertisement in London Opinion, Vol. XLII No.546, 5 September 1914. Newspaper Library 1903-1954 LON LD92A NPL. | |
We Need Your Help!
The ATBL is excited to announce that we are moving forward with a website redesign, scheduled to take place this summer. In order to best support this direction for the organization, we want to hear from YOU! Whether you are a current ATBL Supporter, former ATBL Supporter, ATBL-adjacent individual, or person who found themselves on this newsletter list and aren't sure why you are here (but like it all the same!), we want YOUR feedback!
Click on the photo or the hyperlink here to take a short, 10-minute survey that will help us plan the ATBL's next steps!
With our sincere thanks to ATBL Advisory Council member Christian Dupont for his partnership on this survey, to our generous initial reviewers, and to the ATBL Advisory Council for their work and feedback on this project.
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British Library Events of Interest | |
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In-Person and Virtual:
2022 Douglas W. Bryant Lecture
"Falsehood, Fakery, and the Threat
to Free Speech"
Thursday, May 12, 2022
19:00–20:30 UK time
(1 PM ET)
Journalist Jon Sopel reflects on the era of Trump and Putin. In this lecture, Jon Sopel, former North America Editor at the BBC, argues that Donald Trump’s baseless allegations of a "stolen election" took US democracy to the brink. As Putin exercises the power of disinformation and propaganda to shape the domestic Russian narrative about the invasion of Ukraine, Jon reflects that the values that we cherish in a liberal democracy—free speech, the peaceful transfer of power, due process, free and fair elections, an independent judiciary—are at stake.
FREE Event
This event is organized by the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library. The Eccles Centre exists to support and promote creative research and lifelong learning about the Americas, through the world-class collections of the British Library.
The Eccles Centre has hosted an annual lecture since 1993. In 1995, this lecture was named in honor of Douglas W. Bryant who served as Trustee and Executive Director of the American Trust for the British Library between 1979 and 1990 and as its President between 1990 and 1994.
Click on the lecture title or image above to register.
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Virtual:
Crowdsourcing our Cultural History:
From the Archives into our Lives
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
16:00 UK time
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Join a live, online crowdsourcing project to recover stories of the enslaved in the 18th- and 19th-centuries!
The British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme has led a crowdsourcing project to recover the stories of enslaved people from the pages of 18th- and 19th-century Caribbean newspapers. In a live online session, novelist Victoria Princewill will be joined by distinguished researchers in this field to explore how to put old newspapers to work. Princewill will be joined by Professor Nicole N. Aljoe, an associate professor of English and African American Studies at Northeastern University, and Dr. Mia Ridge, the British Library's Digital Curator for Western Heritage Collections.
Audience members will need to download the free Clubhouse App and join via a link shared shortly before the event. The experience is like joining a live radio show and is led by Victoria, an experienced Clubhouser, who will show us how it’s done.
FREE Event
To register and for more information, click the image above.
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Stories from the Collections | |
Whose glove is this, you ask? Click the image to find out! | |
Beyond the Magna Carta: the Top Ten Most Unusual Collection Items at the British Library | |
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In this blog post, British Library curators and librarians highlight some of the more...unusual collection items they've come across!
Click the image to learn more.
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The Prayer Book of a Queen: What Queen Isabella of Castile's Breviary Tells Us About Life during the Inquisition
Click the image to learn more.
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Breviary, Use of the Dominicans ('The Breviary of Queen Isabella of Castile'), c 1497. Add MS 18851 | |
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The British Library's St Pancras Site to Expand
A joint planning application for the extension of the British Library's St Pancras site has been submitted and is available to view and comment on via the Camden Council website. The extension will ensure greater accessibility to the Library and its holdings through additional spaces for learning and events, new entrances, increased services, and more places where community can come together, among many other benefits.
You can view the plans for the extension on-site at the British Library, or by clicking the image on the right.
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British Library Acquires the Archive of Writer, Teacher, and Ethno-Psychotherapist Beryl Gilroy
Beryl Agatha Gilroy (1924-2001), a pioneering writer, teacher and ethno-psychotherapist, was born in Guyana (then British Guiana) and immigrated to Britain in 1952. Gilroy’s work explores the lives of families, particularly of women and children, the impact of 20th century migration and societal change that came as a result.
Comprising working drafts of fiction and non-fiction, letters from publishers and literary agents, a selection of books and ‘born-digital’ drafts, selections from Beryl Gilroy's archive are now on view in the British Library's Treasures Gallery and Liverpool born Nigerian-German artist and filmmaker Amber Akaunu has created a zine, The Blueprint, and short film in response to the archive.
Click the image to learn more.
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In-Person: Private tour of
Holbein: Capturing Character
Monday, May 9, 2022
10:00 AM EDT
The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
This event is exclusive to current
ATBL Supporters.
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Hans Holbein the Younger, Simon George of Cornwall, ca. 1535–40 CE. Mixed technique on panel, diam: 31 cm (12 3/16 in.) Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum, 1065. | | |
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Virtual: Pocket Cathedrals: William Morris and the Influence of the Kelmscott Press
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
12:00 PM EDT
via Zoom
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The Nursery Alice, containing twenty colored enlargements from John Tenniel’s illustrations to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, with text adapted to nursery readers by Lewis Carroll, 1890. Cup. 410.g.74. | |
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Virtual: Morning Tea with the British Library
British Library Curator
Julian Harrison
presents on Geoffrey Chaucer
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
9:00 AM EDT
via Zoom
This event is exclusive to current ATBL Supporters.
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All images copyright of the British Library unless otherwise noted. | | | | |
