Introduction: The Collection and I
At some point between the invention of writing and the modern day, the Law Library received a donation. This donation consisted of close to a thousand books from the Henry Dunant Institute, a research institute for the Red Cross based in Geneva. As many good donations do, the collection sat on our shelves for years waiting for somebody to find the time to go through it and see what was there.
Between December and April of this year, I set out for my trainee project to clear out the Red Cross collection. The donation sprawled across four shelving-units on the ground floor, consuming valuable shelving space. In December, the Law Library’s incredible foreign-languages cataloguer, Tanya (whom we love) gave me lessons on creating minimum level records (MLRs) on the library catalogue. With that knowledge, I began clearing the collection.
Over the next few months, I checked the books against our library management system ALMA and discarded anything we already had. After that, everything else in the donation was free to be added to the Bodleian Library collections. Aside from a handful of books which came to the Law Library, the vast majority of those books went to The Stacks (henceforth known as CSF), our giant book warehouse in Swindon. By the time the collection had been finished, I had created 624 records for books in 13 different languages published in over 50 different countries across the world.
When I started the project, I didn’t appreciate how interesting it would be. Aside from the opportunity to learn about cataloguing, the collection turned out to be an incredible set of documents detailing some really interesting parts of 19th and 20th century history.
So, in the interests of making this collection a wee bit more accessible and discoverable, I want to briefly talk about a few of the stand-outs from the collection. This is by no means an exhaustive list; there are many very interesting books here but I want to highlight a few parts of the collection which I really enjoyed.
Drawing the Great War (1914 and 1916)
Histoire illustrée de la guerre du droit




The oldest book in the collection came from as far back as 1855 but, to me, some of the most interesting parts of the donation were the WW1-era books. Amongst these, I really want to single out the gorgeous Histoire illustrée de la guerre du droit. I will say, it was a bold choice to write an illustrated history of the First World War in 1916 but that didn’t stop Émile Hinzelin from turning out this beautiful three-volume set.
The books cover the build-up to, and history of, the war from the mid-19th century to 1916 and are lavishly illustrated with a range of photographs, illustrations and what appear to be coloured photographs as well. Being written when they were, it should come as no surprise that these books are full of wartime propaganda and represent a particularly nationalist perspective on the war. According to Hinzelin, for example, the French republic has only ever desired peace but is now being forced to fight to help save the entire world from German aggression and imperialism.
They are truly incredible books and I would absolutely encourage people to take a look at them, even if just for the many (and beautiful) pictures. I have to say that, after the Bodleian Trainees received training on using a printing press recently, I feel like I appreciate better just how much work must have gone into printing these books and the many images contained within.
The Sino-Japanese War (1938)
La Presse Chinois et le Conflit Sino-Japonais 1937 Japanese Aggression and Chinese Opinion

Another book which really stuck with me when I was doing the Red Cross collection was this one. Written in early 1938 (possibly February, judging from a date at the end of the book), this book was published by the Bureau du Kuomintang en Europe as part of a broad attempt by the Kuomintang (the governing party of Republican China) to build support in Europe to protect against the rapid advance of Japanese soldiers through China.
The book consists of a series of articles written by Chinese press agencies throughout 1937 during the build-up to war, its declaration on July 7th and the first few months of active combat, culminating in the fall of Nanjing in December of that year. The stated aim of the book is to demonstrate the broad support throughout China for continued resistance against the Japanese army in an attempt to galvanise foreign support.
The book is a fascinating historical document, providing transcriptions of original news and magazine articles published throughout 1937. It also gives some insight into how the Kuomintang were attempting to present themselves and to generate support abroad during these first few months of the war.
North Korean Propaganda (1970s-1980s)
Significacion historico-mundial de la idea zuche
Kim il-Sung: a l’occasion du 30e anniversaire de la fondation du parti du travail de coree

Something which surprised me in the collection was the number of books published in North Korea. Many of these we already had and, for the last while, the library has been home to a small shelf of books which I call the ‘North Korea Shelf’. Most of the books are biographies of Kim il-Sung, the first leader of North Korea and founder of the ruling Kim Dynasty. Published by the ‘Foreign Languages Publishing House’ in Pyongyang, the books were part of a change in North Korean literature in the 1960s through 1980s.
Earlier North Korean literature had consisted of traditional Korean stories, translated into other languages in the USSR and distributed from there. However, the 1960s saw the Foreign Languages Publishing House starting its own publications. With the development of Kim il-Sung’s own brand of Marxism-Leninism in the mid-1960s (known as Juche), North Korean literature shifted towards celebrating Kim il-Sung and his ideology.
The goal of these was to promote Juche outside of North Korea, especially throughout East and South-East Asia, West Africa and the Americas. As such, these books were published in a range of languages including English, French, Spanish, and Indonesian and distributed through the USSR, a practice which ended when the Soviet Union fell in the 1990s.
These books are a fascinating artefact of the time and an incredible insight into how North Korea chose to self-represent during the 1970s and 1980s. Personally, I found it quite interesting to see a book published in North Korea, having never actually come across one before and I’m excited to see what research people can do with these additions to the Bodleian going forward!
Conclusion
There isn’t space in a single post to highlight all the books we received from the Red Cross. Even if I just picked the ones which I found most interesting, I think we would be here for tens of thousands of words. Instead, what I’ve tried to do here is just to pick out a few examples from across just the 20th century collections. My hope is to make some of the books just a wee bit more accessible and well-known so that they don’t simply disappear into CSF never to be seen again.
I loved cataloguing the Red Cross collection this year. The vast majority of the books weren’t quite as cool as these ones but it’s still an incredible collection of books and I can’t wait to see what research they might support in the future. For anyone out there (including, again, any future trainees) interested in cataloguing, I would say that it’s absolutely worth getting into, doing this project was one of my favourite parts of the year and I’m really glad that the traineeship gave me the opportunity to do some.
To finish off, I just wanted to add a small map of all the different countries represented in the collection. I was struck by how wide-ranging and different the books we received were and kept a small list of different countries (because, you know, I’m a librarian and I enjoy data).

Recent Comments