[re-blogged from the VHL blog.]

On 16th-17th April, the Rothermere American Institute will host a conference on Gold Rush Imperialism: Gold Mining and Global History in the Age of Imperialism, c.1848-1914. To accompany the conference, the Vere Harmsworth Library is putting on an exhibition of items from the collections of the Bodleian Libraries relating to gold rushes throughout the world.

The exhibition includes books from the Vere Harmsworth Library, Rhodes House Library, Bodleian Library and the Radcliffe Science Library, covering gold rushes and gold mining in California, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Alaska and Canada from the latter part of the 19th and early 20th century. The items have been chosen to illustrate the effect of the discovery of gold in terms of migration, labour, economic and technological development.

The exhibition will be available to view on Thursday 16th and Friday 17th April, just inside the library entrance.

An online version of the exhibition will be made available on our website soon afterwards.