The Taylor Library hosts London Rare Book School

Over the Easter holidays the Taylor Library hosted another London Rare Book School in collaboration with the Institute of English Studies at the University of London.

Fourteen attendees from institutions including the Bodleian Library, Exeter College Oxford, University of Durham, The Courtauld Institute, The London Library, Bath Archives, and Gladstone's Library stayed on site for 4 days learning about the importance of historic book bindings from 1450-1850 . The school’s historic Taylor Library is a remarkable and rare survival of a historic school library containing over 8000 volumes, with a wide range of binding examples from all periods, many in fine and unspoilt condition; it was much used by the binding historian Basil Oldham as the base for his work.

The course tutor was David Pearson, whose English Bookbinding Styles 1450-1800 and other publications on binding and book ownership are well-known as standard reference works. The course has been successfully taught at the Rare Book Schools in London, Virginia and Sydney and Shrewsbury School is delighted that course participants have had the opportunity to discover the riches of our own collection."

The Taylor Library team were pleased to welcome back OS and previous archive volunteer Mia Wyatt to help out during the four days of the course.  Mia is currently studying at Warwick University and looking forward to a career in the heritage and museums sector. "I had an amazing time and learnt so much," she said.

Archivist and Head of Special Collections Naomi Nicholas