In normal times, Special Collections and Archives hold three exhibitions per year, in display cases situated in the Grove Wing of the Sydney Jones Library. As part of our efforts to adapt to the current situation, we have now moved our exhibition programme online.
The latest instalment in this online programme is “Books as tools – the early printed books of Thomas Glazebrook Rylands”. On his death in 1900, the Warrington wire manufacturer and polymath, Thomas Glazebrook Rylands, left an important donation of 2700 books to the University, including over 150 books printed before 1536. Rylands was reputed to have referred to his books as his ‘tools’. The exhibition uses this statement as its starting point - examining the ways in which Rylands used his books, and looking at what those books can tell us of the man and his impressive reading habits; with a particular focus on his interest in early Geography and Astronomy. Along the way, we see evidence of the ways in which other readers have used these books as tools too – from medieval additions of astronomical diagrams and tables, to Thomas’s son, William Henry Rylands’, notes on typography and printing.
The research and re-cataloguing work which underpins this exhibition is part of a broader programme of activity in Special Collections & Archives, in which staff are working on analysing and, in some cases, reinterpreting, the provenance of the University’s heritage collections.
Take a look at all of our online exhibitions and for news about upcoming exhibitions, and other Special Collections and Archives events and resources, follow us on Twitter. To get in touch with the SC&A team, please email scastaff@liverpool.ac.uk.
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