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Women’s History Month Book Displays 2025

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March is Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day fell on 8th March, which means that it’s time for another book display update from the Trainees! In this post, you will find information all about the book displays that were put together in the Social Science Library, New College Library, Taylor Institution Library, and the Sainsbury Library at Saïd Business School.

If you would like to find out more information about Women’s History Month or International Women’s Day, why not have a look at the International Women’s Day website. To find other resources on Women’s History, check out the Bodleian’s Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies LibGuide.

Gia Simmons – Social Science Library

Happy Women’s History Month! We do love our book displays here at the SSL and this month is definitely no exception. For this display, I was able to collaborate with a few colleagues to create an extensive two-part book display.

While creating this display, I decided to set myself a challenge. I wanted to include at least one book on the subject of at least one woman from as many of the subjects that are housed in the Social Science Library as possible. This was definitely not an easy feat as we house a wide variety of subjects such as Politics & International Relations, Economics, Anthropology, Geography, International Development, Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, Sociology and more. For the other section of the display, one of my colleagues compiled the books on women’s history more generally.

In deciding to try and create a display with women from each of our subjects, I was able to explore new historical figures that I had not been previously aware of. Some of the subject librarians in the SSL were kind enough to give me some suggestions of women to research and I added many of them to the display. Here is the list of books about these women that were included in this display with the name of the women written in bold:

The theme for International Woman’s Day this year was Accelerate Action. Although I did not follow a specific theme for this display, the inclusion of women from a wide range of disciplines was of paramount importance to me, as each of these women have been a notable force for change in their fields. Some of these women you may have heard of, some you may be unfamiliar with. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend that you look into the impact that they have made on their fields. If you would like more information on the book display, I also wrote a blog post for the Social Science Library Blog.

Jess Pascal – New College Library

For this year’s Women’s History Month display, I first checked out last year’s display so I could avoid repeating too many books and give others a chance in the limelight, though some were just too good to miss! In the same spirit, I drew on as many interesting acquisitions I’ve seen recently as possible – this is an advantage of processing the majority of new books that come into the library. A particularly useful source of new books about women’s history was the Warden’s kind donation of all the books longlisted for the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize for non-fiction books, which is associated with New College. This included several titles on women’s history, including The Waiting Game and Shakespeare’s Sisters. 

Fortunately, there were a lot of books to choose from on women’s history – the hardest part of this display was getting my initial longlist down to just 12 books! In line with the UN’s theme for International Women’s Day this year, ‘For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment’, I aimed to represent a diverse cross-section of women’s history within the scope of the library’s collections. Nevertheless, the display has a bias towards English women, as they are most represented in the library here at New College to align with teaching priorities. 

Books used: 

Ackelsberg, Martha A. Free Women of Spain : Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women. AK Press, 2005. 

Briggs, Robin. The Witches of Lorraine. Oxford University Press, 2007. 

Burke, Jill. How to Be a Renaissance Woman : The Untold History of Beauty and Female Creativity. Profile Books Ltd, 2023. 

Clark, Nicola. The Waiting Game : The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2024. 

Ferry, Georgina. Dorothy Hodgkin : A Life. Granta Books, 1998. 

Gregory, Philippa. Normal Women : 900 Years of Making History. William Collins, 2023. 

Jenkins, Lyndsey. Sisters and Sisterhood : The Kenney Family, Class, and Suffrage, 1890-1965. Oxford University Press, 2021. 

Romney, Rebecca. Jane Austen’s Bookshelf : The Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend. Ithaka, 2025. 

Rupp, Leila J. Worlds of Women : The Making of an International Women’s Movement. Princeton University Press, 1997. 

Saunders, Corinne J., and Diane Watt, editors. Women and Medieval Literary Culture : From the Early Middle Ages to the Fifteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 2023. 

Simone, Nina, and Stephen Cleary. I Put a Spell on You : The Autobiography of Nina Simone. Second Da Capo Press edition., Da Capo Press, 2003. 

Targoff, Ramie. Shakespeare’s Sisters: Four Women Who Wrote the Renaissance. riverrun, 2024. 

Lindsey Evans – Taylor Institution Library

For our Women’s History Month display, I was keen to showcase books and films about women’s achievements across the breadth of cultures represented in the library’s collections. Since the Taylor covers a very wide range of modern European languages – from French to Frisian, Spanish to Yiddish – this gave plenty of scope. Almost a daunting amount of scope, in fact.  

The finished displays (with one item taken away by an interested reader 😊 )

For the broad topic of ‘women’, it would have been impractical to canvas everyone in the team of subject librarians for recommendations. (Also this month we have a dedicated St Patrick’s Day display going up, which has been curated by our Celtic subject librarian, Janet.) And so I began a solo process with SOLO, the catalogue, to narrow things down. 

Initially my thinking went to works by, or about, celebrated female authors and feminist theorists, past and present. (“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman,” wrote Simone de Beauvoir, on whom there are several hundreds of books in the Taylor, for example.) Another consideration in my mind, however, was to highlight the impact of women whose voices might be less well known. In the end, I settled on a range of titles documenting women’s contributions to art, politics or society at different points in history and in various language communities. These women include crofters in the Hebrides, Welsh women shaking up the status quo, powerful noblewomen of 18th-19th century Russia, female creators in 19th century Germany, and sisters (in the literal sense of blood relatives) who were active in Irish public life over the ages. 

With the Taylor being home to a large DVD collection, and even a bookable space for library users to watch them in, it’s also great to be able to publicise films as well as books on a theme. I chose a sample of films by foreign-language female directors to highlight women’s contribution to cinema. I aimed to include some directors who are less familiar to Western audiences, so alongside the French filmmakers Agnès Varda, Céline Sciamma and Claire Denis, we also find the Czech director Věra Chytilová, Ann Hui of Hong Kong and the Saudi Arabian director Haifaa al-Mansour. 

Charlotte Edwards – Sainsbury Library

As the Sainsbury Library is embedded into Saïd Business School , I was able to see the celebrations for International Women’s Day extend through the whole school. We had a women’s day themed social, the catering team put together a great cake display (photographed by my supervisor) and there was a book talk by Iris Bohnet and Siri Chilazi on their new book Make Work Fair: Data-Driven Design for Real Results (which I of course included in our book display in the library!).  

More focussed in the library, I also gave the Sainsbury Library Women in Business Libguide a refresh, including some of the books I found as part of my book display research.  

It was nice to be able to highlight some physical books unique to the Sainsbury Library: 

  • Make Work Fair: Data-Driven Design for Real Results / Iris Bohnet & Siri Chilazi 
    • A book talk was hosted at Saïd Business School on 10th March when Bohnet and Chilazi presented their evidence-based approach to create fairness in the workplace by providing an even playing field. In line with this year’s theme, Accelerating Action, they present ‘Actionable solutions’ to establish this fairness in the workplace.  
  • The Mental Load: A Feminist Comic / Emma 
    • Appearing on our Inclusive Leadership reading list, I discovered this book by a colleague’s recommendation. This comic covers the sometimes-frustrating reality of being a woman in a male dominated workplace in an engaging, easily digestible form. And yes, I ended up reading this in one sitting.  
  • The Lockdown Lowdown: Women and Covid, a gendered pandemic / Sarah Lightman (ed.)  
    • The Lockdown Lowdown: Graphic Narrative for Viral Times are graphic narratives written by a diverse range of artists during the first COVID lockdown in 2020. The series highlights the strange experiences and emotions felt during this time. This special edition of The Lockdown Lowdown demonstrates how women experienced the pandemic differently to men, both negatively and positively. In a textbook-heavy library it is exciting and refreshing to find other narrative forms such as The Lockdown Lowdown and The Mental Load.  
  • Beyond Leaning In / Melanie Ho 
    • This book is based on research about Business but is formatted as a novel. Ho creates a narrative intended to begin a conversation between people from friends and family to co-workers. The variety of characters across different genders and ages aids in giving readers new perspectives on the issue as to why it is so hard to close the gender gap. 
  • Why do so many Incompetent Men become Leaders? (and how to fix it) / Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic 
    • When browsing our shelves in the Annexe, I came across this book and admittedly loved the title. Chamorro-Premuzic explores why competent women and men who don’t fit the stereotypical leader profile (many organizations identify leadership with negative qualities like overconfidence and narcissism) are passed over for leadership roles. And the negative impact of this. Chamorro-Premuzic explains what really makes a leader and how new systems could rectify having the wrong people in charge.  
  • Women’s Economic Empowerment: Insights from Africa and South Asia /  
    Kate Grantham (ed.), Gillian Dowie (ed.) & Arjan de Haan (ed.) 
    • Aimed at students, researchers, practitioners and policymakers, this book presents research coming from the International Development Research Centre’s (IDRC) Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) programme. The research covers topics such as unpaid domestic work and childcare, the influence of social and cultural norms that prevent women participating in better paid economic sectors and more in the Global South.  

When researching for books I tried to keep my focus very Business and Management based, drawing on some books that are on reading lists for Inclusive Leadership. As World Book Day was happening whilst I was compiling my display (for which we had another book display) I also thought to include some more general feminist literature, so some of my book display picks may already be known to you, but hopefully there is something new here as well. 

Other Books Included: 

Celebrating LGBT+ History Month at the Bodleian Libraries

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February is LGBT+ History Month. Across the Bodleian and college libraries, the Graduate Trainees have been hard at work creating displays that showcase a wide array of books which explore and celebrate LGBT+ history.

The Oxford Union Society Library

The Oxford Union Society’s LGBT+ History Month display explores LGBT+ history from across the world.

Homosexuality in ancient Greece is discussed through famous historical figures like Sappho, the romantic poet who is widely believed to have been lesbian (indeed, she lived on the Isle of Lesbos which is where the word “Lesbian” comes from),[1] and Ovid who wrote in his Art of Love that ‘a boy’s love appealed to me less’ – although this was later deliberately mistranslated as ‘a boy’s love appealed to me not at all’.[2] This censorship is not unusual, though amusingly some writers who translated Greek texts would translate the more risqué passages into Latin, thus counterintuitively highlighting the very sections they wanted obscured.[3]

Additionally, ancient Greek literature is used to explore LGBT history: Plato’s Symposium includes a brilliantly varied discussion of the origin of man in which Aristophanes, a comic, suggests that humans used to be two beings fused together, some male and female, others male and male and yet others female and female. These original humans were split in half by the angry gods and that is why we search for our “other half”.[4]

Transsexualism and homosexuality in various parts of Asia are also discussed:

  • In Mesopotamia, the deity of love and war, Ishtar, could be depicted as either male or female depending on what aspect of divinity the artist wished to portray. Ishtar’s male followers were even considered feminine and their sexual identity ‘in some way irregular’.[5]
  • The Hindu deity Lakshminarayan is a combination of two deities: male Vishnu and female Lakshmi. Similarly, the deity Ardhanarishvara represents the goddess Parvati and the god Shiva (who is romantic with Vishnu and even gives birth!).[6]
  • Japanese and Persian cultures are discussed through comparing Japanese samurai, who often had relationships with their pages and juniors and valued male love, with a similar practice in Persian royal courts.[7]

Modern British history, on the other hand, is filled with the poor treatment of LGBT+ people. In the 18th century homosexuality was a capital offence and the word “Molly” was used as a term of abuse towards flamboyant men.[8] In 1895, Oscar Wilde was tried for being gay and imprisoned in Reading gaol,[9] and in 1952 Alan Turing was discovered to be homosexual and charged with ‘gross indecency’ and chemically castrated.[10] Later in the 20th century, homosexuals were interrogated and discharged from the armed forces.[11] In fact, homosexuals were banned from British Armed Forces up until 2000.[12]

LGBT+ history is varied and fascinating. If you’d like to learn more about how it has been celebrated at the Oxford Union, check out the posts about the display for Transgender Awareness Week 2023 on Twitter and Facebook.

[1] R.B. Parkinson. 2013. A little gay history : desire and diversity across the world. 306.766 PAR

[2] Simon LeVay. 2012. Gay, straight, and the reason why : the science of sexual orientation. 155.3 LEV

[3] John Boswell. 1982. Christianity, social tolerance, and homosexuality : gay people in Western Europe from the beginning of the Christian era to the fourteenth century. 306.766 2 BOS

[4] Simon LeVay. 2012.

[5] R.B. Parkinson. 2013.

[6] Ibid

[7] Ibid

[8] Simon LeVay. 2012.

[9] Hugh David. 1997. On queer street : a social history of British homosexuality, 1895-1995. 306.766 DAV.

[10] Andrew Hodges. 1992. Alan Turing : the enigma. 510 HOD.

[11] Edmund Hall. 1995. We can’t even march straight : Homosexuality in the British Armed Forces. 306.766 094 1 HAL.

[12] Ministry of Defence, Cabinet Office, Office for Veterans’ Affairs, The Rt Hon Dr Andrew Murrison MP, The Rt Hon Johnny Mercer MP, The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP, and The Rt Hon Ben Wallace MP. 2023. ‘Government apologises to veterans for egregious historic LGBT policy in the Armed Forces: The PM and Defence Secretary apologise to LGBT personnel and veterans impacted by the historic ban.’ Gov.uk. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-apologises-to-veterans-for-egregious-historic-lgbt-policy-in-the-armed-forces

 Connie Hubbard

 

The Taylor Institution Library

A picture showing the Taylor Institution Library’s LGBT+ History Month display.

The study of LGBT+ history is a rapidly growing field in academia. This is reflected in Oxford University’s Centre for Gender, Identity and Subjectivity, as well as the LGBTQ+ History Faculty Network which runs fortnightly seminars and research sessions (@oulgbtqhistory). As for the Taylorian, we have a growing focus on gender and sexuality, not only on our ‘G.GEN’ marked shelves in the Main Reading Room and Research Collection but interspersed throughout our modern language and film collections.

While the official theme for this year’s LGBT+ History Month is ‘Medicine: Under the Scope’, we at the Taylor Library decided to stick to our subject specialisms of modern language and European history while putting together our display. As a result, we have two separate displays, a DVD display in the Teaching Collection and a display of our most recent acquisitions of LGBT+ history books in the Research Collection, to keep up to date with current scholarship.

The displays aim to present examples of the vast array of items the library has, from the history of coming out in Wales (A Little Gay History of Wales) and lesbian desire in nineteenth century Italy (Eccentricity and sameness: discourses on lesbianism and desire between women in Italy, 1860s-1930s), to histories of queerness in medieval French courts (Courtly and queer: deconstruction, desire, and medieval French literature) and anthologies of transgender historical scholarship. They are centred around uncovering lost historical narratives, whether that be because of scholarly neglect until relatively recently, or explicit attempts to erase the voices of those who did not “fit” within the heteronormative historical narrative. To recognise these voices, the display also contains the works of 19th and 20th century LGBT+ writers and artists. These include the likes of Renée Vivien, a lesbian Parisian poet whose childhood friend-turned-lover, Violet Shillito, is often evoked in her works such as this display’s A Crown of Violets. Another example you will find is that of Mário Cesariny, a surrealist artist and poet who left Portugal for the UK to escape persecution for his homosexuality. The Taylor recently held an exhibition of his work, which you can read about here. 

As for our DVD display, this aims to celebrate the impact and contribution of LGBT+ artists in cinema worldwide. The collection on display consists of films that were produced by LGBT+ directors and are a mix of early and more recent productions. From French historical drama such as Portrait of a Lady on Fire to South Korean thriller The Handmaiden, Swedish bildungsroman Show Me Love to Thai romance Tropical Malady, these award-winning productions all explore and celebrate the multifaceted experiences of those in the LGBT+ community. Overall, the displays reflect the purpose of LGBT+ History Month as a whole, to create safe and inclusive spaces for all readers and staff members at the Taylorian.

Reading List: Histoire de la Sexualité by Michel Foucault; The Transgender Studies Reader, ed. by Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle; Queer Genealogies in Transnational Barcelona, by Natasha Tanna; Derivas Del (Mal)decir, by José Javier Maristany; Queer Square Mile: Queer Short Stories from Wales, ed. by Kirsti Bohata et al.; Un Été Avec Colette, by Antoine Compagnon; Pena Capital by Mário Cesariny; A Crown of Violets, by Renée Vivien (trans. by Samantha Pious); Lesbian Decadence, by Nicole G. Albert; Peripheral Desires: The German Discovery of Sex by Robert Deam Tobin; A Little Gay History of Wales by Daryle Leeworthy; Eccentricity and Sameness, by Charlotte Ross; Public City/Public Sex, by Andrew Israel Ross.

DVD List: Tropical Malady, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul; Show Me Love, by Lukas Moodysson; Happy Together, by Wong Kar-Wai; Tomboy, by Céline Sciamma; A Fantastic Woman, by Sebastián Lelio; Portrait of a Lady on Fire, by Céline Sciamma; The Handmaiden, by Park Chan-Wook.

Clara Oxley

 

English Faculty Library

This year for LGBT+ month, the EFL has decided to do something a little bit different for its Book Display. Under the capable hands of Sophie, our Reader Services Senior Library Assistant, and in collaboration with the LGBTQ+ Campaign, the EFL put out a call to its readers to help co-curate this month’s display. Our readers were asked to submit their favourite queer book with a short blurb on why they chose it. Needless to say, we were blown away by the response!

10 people took the time out of their day to send in a suggestion, and it was wonderful to see how varied the responses were. Here’s a sample of some of the choices and a taste of why they were chosen:

  • Loveless by Alice Oseman, a contemporary coming-out novel with an aro-ace protagonist. In the anonymous nominee’s words, it’s about ‘the multitude of ways that love can be defined’
  • Ready to Catch him Should he Fall by Neil Bartlett which nominee Jasper described as ‘[capturing] the horror and grief of the 80s AIDS crisis’
  • And (of course) classics such as The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, in which nominee Isaac highlighted how ‘with the lens afforded to a modern queer man, the homosexual repression jumps off the page’.

A full reading list can be found below if you’re interested!

It has been fascinating to see how different the responses are, and to see what exactly our readers are reading in their own words – particularly as queer voices have been (and are still being) silenced. In the spirit of allowing people their own voice, I’ve asked Sophie to write a few words of her own about the display:

“The idea for the collaborative display between the English Faculty Library and the SU LGBTQ+ Campaign was first raised by student reps  earlier this academic year, who expressed an interest in the library having a display for Trans Awareness Week back in November (which we did!). The LGBT+ History Month display was a natural follow-up from this, and couldn’t have been made without the help of the SU LGBTQ+ Campaign, who reached out to their connections and collected suggestions from the student body. This has helped us to create a display where Oxford’s LGBTQ+ community can talk about their history, experiences, and literature in their own words.”

This display will be on at the EFL for the entirety of LGBTQ+ History Month until March 4th 2024, so we highly encourage you to see it in person! If you’re unable to make it to the EFL though, a virtual display will be being posted onto the EFL Blog later this month so do keep an eye out.

Reading List: Gender Trouble by Judith Butler; The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde; Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan le Fanu; After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz; Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier; Hauntings and Other Fantastic Tales by Vernon Lee; Loveless by Alice Oseman; Gallathea by John Lyly; Tales of the City by Armistead Mapuin; Ready to Catch him Should he Fall by Neil Bartlett

Leah Brown

New College Library

A picture showing New College Library’s LGBT+ History Month display.New College Library’s book display for LGBT+ History Month draws from our extensive Gender and Sexuality collection, a section of the library dedicated to books which explore and amplify LGBT+ peoples’ lives, voices, identities, and experiences, both historically and in the present day. I also identified some exciting new titles which we acquired for the library.

In honour of this year’s theme, ‘Medicine – #UnderTheScope’, the display includes books which explore LGBT+ people’s experiences of and contributions to healthcare and medicine. David France’s How to Survive a Plague, which was based on the 2012 documentary he directed of the same name, provides a raw and powerful social and scientific history of AIDS. France spotlights the vital work of activists of all genders who were the driving force behind the development of life-saving drugs for the management of HIV. Also on display is The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes by Zoë Playdon. This book chronicles the life of Scottish nobleman Ewan Forbes, a transgender man, and the 1968 court case regarding the inheritance of his baronetcy. Drawing on the fields of medicine, psychology, biology, and law, Playdon provides the first analysis of this little-known event in LGBT+ history, drawing on records that had been suppressed until very recently.

Other books on display in New College Library this year explore a variety of different aspects of LGBT+ history, reflecting something of the range of different experiences, voices, and identities. Dr Kit Heyam’s monograph Before We Were Trans, for example, moves widely through time and space proposing a broader concept of trans history which encompasses everyone ‘doing fascinating, creative, messy things with gender’. Other books on display include a history of the Stonewall uprising in America and the imposition, repeal, and legacy of Section 28 in Britain, alongside explorations of the culture, history, and science of bisexuality and asexuality.

The display has proved really popular, and readers have borrowed several of the books which we have replaced on the display with others from our collection. There are so many amazing new releases in the field of LGBT+ studies, and I am keen to support in the acquisition of more of these books for the library.

Reading List: David France, How to Survive a Plague: The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS (London: Picador, 2017); Zoë Playdon, The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: The Transgender Trial that Threatened to Upend the British Establishment (London: Bloomsbury, 2022); Kit Heyam, Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender (London: Basic Books, 2022); Martin B, Duberman, Stonewall: The Definitive Story of the LGBTQ Rights Uprising that Changed America (New York: Plume, 2019); Paul Baker, Outrageous! The Story of Section 28 and Britain’s Battle for LGBT Education (London: Reaktion Books, 2022); Julia Shaw, Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2023); Angela Chen, Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex (Boston: Beacon Press, 2020).

Jessica Hodgkinson

History Faculty Library

A picture showing the History Faculty Library’s LGBT+ History Month display

At the HFL, a former trainee has put together a display of books covering a wide range of LGBT+ history.

For those keen to delve into this year’s theme of “Under the Scope” and explore how LGBT+ people have experienced and contributed to medicine and healthcare, there are titles such as How to survive a plague: the inside story of how citizens and science tamed AIDS, which tells the story of activists and medics fighting to find a solution to the AIDS crisis.

Looking more broadly at LGBT+ history, there are a number of titles which make a deep dive into British queer history, such as Same-sex sexuality in later medieval English culture, A lesbian history of Britain: love and sex between women since 1500 and Queer voices in post-war Scotland: male homosexuality, religion and society. Or why not venture further from home with Red closet: the hidden history of gay oppression in the USSR or Stonewall: the definitive story of the LGBTQ rights uprising that changed America?

And if you’re not able to come into the Radcliffe Camera in person there is a selection of suggested digital titles, ranging from the broad – such as The Routledge history of queer America – to the highly specific Plane queer: labor, sexuality, and AIDS in the history of male flight attendants.

Reading List:

Tomboys and bachelor girls: a lesbian history of post-war Britain 1945-71

Britannia’s glory: a history of twentieth-century lesbians

Let the record show: a political history of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993

Before AIDS: gay health politics in the 1970s

Before we were trans: a new history of gender

Queer public history: essays on scholarly activism

The shape of sex: nonbinary gender from Genesis to the Renaissance

Same-sex sexuality in later medieval English culture

A little gay history: desire and diversity across the world

Outrageous!: the story of Section 28 and Britain’s battle for LGBT education

Sapphistries: a global history of love between women

Bi: the hidden culture, history and science of bisexuality

Journal of the history of sexuality (Online)

Seeing sodomy in the Middle Ages

GLQ (online)

Xanthe Malcolm

Happy Christmas from the Oxford Library Trainees!

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Well! It’s the last day before Christmas closure at the Bodleian Library, and as I am writing this, I imagine that some of the trainees in other libraries are making their way back to family and friends for Christmas. It’s been magical to see how Oxford libraries transform at Christmas time. There have been carols in the Divinity School sung by Bodleian staff, busts decorated with Santa hats, and Christmas trees springing up all over our different sites.  

Like the trainees last year, this year we decided to explore our libraries in the festive season through the medium of our very own 12 Days of Christmas- or should I say, Libmas! Originally posted over on our X (Twitter) X/Twitter account below is a list of all the presents that our libraries have ‘sent’ to us, and now to you!  (Singing along is optional.) 

On the First Day of Libmas, my library sent to me- 

A bust of Chichele! 

Henry Chichele was the founder of All Souls College and also Archbishop of Canterbury from 1414-43. One of our trainees has the privilege of working in the library there! 

 

On the Second Day of Libmas my library sent to me-  

Two book displays 

Part of the trainee role is getting to be creative with book displays. Pictured below are some Christmas book sculptures from the Social Science Library. How cute! 

 

On the Third day of Libmas my library sent to me-  

Three window frogs! 

According to cataloguer Peter Spokes, much of the painted glass in the Old Bodleian Upper Reading Room is of 17th century Flemish origin! 

Top right frog has definitely had too much Christmas pudding. 

 

On the Fourth day of Libmas my library sent to me- 

Four festive busts! 

Pictured below are busts of Professor Hermann Georg Fiedler, Prince Edward and Voltaire. 

  

 

On the Fifth Day of Libmas my library sent to me- 

Five old things! 

1)A papyrus dating from 3 AD from St John’s College, in which the recipient is asked why they didn’t attend the sender’s son’s birthday party ! 

 

 

 

2) MS 61 – a rather lovely 13th century bestiary made in York! 

3) A copy of the 27 Sermons preached by Hugh Latimer and held at the English Faculty Library! This edition was printed in 1562 by John Day, seven years after Latimer was burnt at the stake for heresy on Broad Street near Balliol college in Oxford. 

4) One of a series of letters written by Jane Austen to her niece Anna in 1814. St John’s College also owns a 1797 letter from Austen’s father, George, to a publishing house, offering them his daughter’s novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’ – they said no! 

5) Last but certainly not least in our list of old things, a book on Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules! Although still used in some select libraries, AACR and AACR2 were a cataloguing standard that have largely been superseded by machine-readable cataloguing, known as MARC 

 

On the Sixth Day of Libmas my library sent to me-  

Six Christmas data charts!  

With roast spuds as the top dish, average Christmas budget, most desired gifts, total UK Xmas spending, average Christmas dinner cost, and toys as largest gift spend! Sprouts beat mince pies…hmm? 

 

On the Seventh Day of Libmas my library sent to me- 

Seven damaged books! 

It’s inevitable that some of the Bodleian’s collections will become a little careworn, however, it’s important that they are able to keep circulating. This is when the lovely Bodleian conservation team step in! 

 

On the Eighth day of Libmas my library sent to me-  

Eight totes for packing!  

Artfully (?) arranged by a trainee into a very vague christmas tree shape, these totes contain books to be refiled in our Collections Storage Facility. 

 

On the Ninth day of Libmas my library sent to me- 9 ladies’ dancing (manuals)  

Exhibited in Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, ‘The Dancing Master’ was a widely popular manual of country dances, first published in 1651. 

The Weston Library is holding a Dancing Master’s Ball in January- join the waiting list here: The Dancing Master’s Ball | Visit the Bodleian Libraries (ox.ac.uk)  

Or learn more about the display: The Dancing Master | Visit the Bodleian Libraries (ox.ac.uk) 

 

On the Tenth day of Libmas my library sent to me-  

10 pre-Raphaelite murals! 

In 1857, 8 artists including Rossetti, Morris and Burne-Jones, painted the #OxfordUnion’s Old Library (then Debate Chamber). Their inexperience meant the art faded and some said it should be covered. 

Read more about the murals and the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in Oxford here: OXFORD AND THE PRE-RAPHAELITES | Ashmolean Museum 

On the Eleventh Day of Libmas my library sent to me- 

Eleven (House of) Lords (Hansard parliamentary sittings reports) a-leaping (on to their trolley)! Did you know the Bodleian Law Library also houses the Official Papers collection? 

On the Twelth day of Libmas my library sent to me- 

Twelve libraries with trainees wish you a very merry Christmas!

Thank you all for reading our blog and engaging with our X posts over Michaelmas term. There is lots more to come in 2024, so watch this space!  

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from us! 

Celebrating Black History Month at the Taylor Institution Library 

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The Research Collection’s Black History Display in the Enquiry Desk room

As Oxford University’s library of modern languages and literature, the Taylor Institution has around 750,000 items in its care. These collections represent and explore a wide range of research interests, from Europe to the Caribbean, Celtic nations to Africa, and beyond. In doing so, the collections also recognise the problematic, colonial role Europe has played in Black history around the world. To celebrate Black History Month 2023 at the Taylor, and to demonstrate the diverse yet complex nature of our subject specialisms, I was given the opportunity to put together two book displays, one in the Teaching Collection and the other in the Research Collection, to celebrate this BHM’s theme: Saluting our Sisters. Here, I want to describe the display to you, as well as explain some of the reasoning behind picking out the books that I did!

The Books

Deciding where to start when choosing books for the display was difficult, to say the least – there were so many books that deserve the spotlight! Eventually, I settled on attempting to provide a taste of the wide range of resources we provide at the Taylor, while sticking to the theme as closely as possible. I also wanted to demonstrate the ever-evolving nature of the scholarship available. As a result, I decided to start with texts on Black feminism to give readers the chance to understand the theoretical background of the other materials on display. For the most part, these texts can be found in the gender studies section of the Main Reading Room and include the likes of Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment (2009) and Jennifer C. Nash’s Black Feminism Reimagined: After Intersectionality (2019). These texts focus on theories of intersectionality and the lived realities of Black women. Collins explores the complexities of Black women’s experiences in dealing with hierarchies of oppression and power. Meanwhile, Nash’s more recent work provides a new perspective by challenging the direction that Black feminist theory is currently headed within the field of women’s studies. By suggesting these two texts, I hoped to provide a basis from which to understand Black feminist theory, as well as an indication of where the field is headed.

The Black History Month Book Display on the First Floor of the Teaching Collections.

Works on the literature of Afro-Caribbean and Lusophone African writers also feature on the displays. In particular, they focus on the works of Black women such as Maryse Condé and Gisèle Pineau, with the likes of Reimagining Resistance in Gisèle Pineau’s Work (2023) and Conversations with Maryse Condé (1996) highlighting their work. Pineau’s novels are especially important in challenging Europe’s “colour-blindness,” and many of her works are available at the Taylor in the original French, such as Un Papillon dans la Cite (1992) and L’exil selon Julia: Récit (2020). Condé, on the other hand, is famous for her transgressions of identity, whether that be racial or gendered. She draws heavily on history to inform her own writing, for example in her work Ségou (1984) and Moi, Tituba, Sorcière (1986). To offer background for these texts, I also included American Creoles: The Francophone Caribbean and the American South (2012), as I thought this shed an up-to-date and exciting light on the historical impact and future potential of Caribbean literature.

Natalya Vince, Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory and Gender in Algeria, 1954-2012

In terms of history, some of the texts also explore the contributions that Black women made in establishing civil rights, as well as national independence from colonial oppression. Two that stood out to me the most included Tiffany N. Florvil’s Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German women and the making of a transnational movement (2020) and Natalya Vince’s Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory and Gender in Algeria, 1954-2012 (2015). Florvil focuses on sexuality and race to demonstrate the impact that Black German women played in forming the cultural, intellectual and social movement of Black German liberation in the 1980s. Meanwhile, Vince bases her research on women’s oral testimonies of the Algerian fight against French colonialism from 1954 to 2012. In doing so, she provides insight into how women perceived their nation post-independence and how this impacted wider national memory. Both are completely different in their methodological undertakings but are equally fascinating areas of twentieth  century history!

Tiffany N. Florvil, Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement

Lastly, as I pulled the displays together, picking books and narrowing down my choices, I found that themes of resistance and identity were very strong in almost all of the texts. To provide background for this, I felt it was also necessary to display Franz Fanon’s seminal work on anti-colonialist theory, The Wretched of the Earth (2004 [1961]), as well as the more recent work on postcolonial writings such as postcolonial writings such as American Creoles. Ultimately, this tied into my aim with the display: to recognise where today’s scholarship in Black history and literature stems from, and where it is going now.

***

Check out our X (Twitter) page to find out what else we Trainees have been doing to celebrate Black History Month! 

 

 

Bibliography:

Collins, Patricia Hill Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, 2nd edition, (London: Routledge, 2009)

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990168122200107026

 https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990214674470107026 (Tenth Anniversary e-book edition)

Connell, Lisa A. (ed.), Reimagining Resistance in Gisèle Pineau’s Work (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2023)

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990234024960107026

Condé, Maryse and Françoise Pfaff (ed.), Conversations with Maryse Condé (London: University of Nebraska Press, 1996)

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990121592680107026

Fanon, Franz, and Richard Philcox (trans.), The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press, 2004 [1961])

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990159505740107026

Florvil, Tiffany Nicole, Mobilising Black Germany: Afro-German women and the making of a transnational movement (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2020)

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990223034800107026

Munro, Martin and Celia Britton, American Creoles: The Francophone Caribbean and the American South (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012)

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990193363250107026

e-Book edition: https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/q6b76e/alma991022071082907026

Nash, Jennifer C., Black Feminism Reimagined: After Intersectionality (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2019)

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990217959030107026

E-Book edition: https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma991002555199707026

Vince, Natalya, Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory and Gender in Algeria, 1954-2012 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015)

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/1mkpd6e/alma990203307750107026

Clara Oxley, Taylor Institution Library

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Hello! My name is Clara, and I am the current trainee at the Taylor Institution Library, or the ‘Taylorian,’ Oxford University’s library of modern languages and literature other than English. As a trainee in Section 3 of the Bodleian, I am also working at the Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library and the Nizami Ganjavi Library, the latter of which specialises in Asian and Middle Eastern studies. Despite this, the Taylor is where my traineeship is mostly based. Here, we have around 750,000 books both on and off site that range from languages such as French, Slavonic and Greek, to subjects such as Gender studies, Celtic studies and linguistics. I do have a little knowledge of French, having studied the language during my first undergraduate year of English Literature and History at the University of Glasgow. However, my background lies mostly in Gender History, which I studied as a Masters at Glasgow University as well. After graduating, I went on to try my hand in the heritage and tourism industry at Stirling Castle before being offered this exciting opportunity to work in librarianship at the Bodleian.

The Taylor’s Main Reading Room

Like every library at Oxford University, the Taylor is unique in its own way; comprised of two buildings, one built in the 1840s and the other during the 1930s, it offers different, yet equally welcoming, environments for staff and readers. The 1930s side of the building mainly houses our Teaching and DVD Collections, the former of which is tailored (no pun intended!) for undergraduate study and reading lists. This is also where the Issue Desk is situated. The older half of the library is where the Enquiry Desk can be found, as well as our Research Collection and the library’s most popular place to study – the Main Reading Room. With chandeliers, a fireplace and a spiral staircase leading to the gallery, I too would find it a great place to read and find inspiration for an essay! The basement is where the Slavonic section is kept, as well as the Celtic studies material and more.

This last month has flown by, but I have learnt so much and met so many lovely (and patient!) colleagues and fellow trainees. So far, my time has comprised of learning how to use Alma, getting to grips with the varying shelving systems of the Taylor, setting up book displays and learning how to help readers effectively – I’m really excited to see what else this year will bring! I am especially looking forward to the trainee trip to the Collections Storage Facility in Swindon, as well as contributing to this blog. For now, the hope is to develop my career in academic librarianship, perhaps as a subject librarian or in special collections, but I will just have to wait and see what this year brings, and what inspires me the most in this role!

Lorena Fierro, Taylor Institution Library

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A photograph of the exterior of the Taylor Institute Library
The Taylor Institution Library

Hi, I’m Lorena, this year’s Taylor Institution Library trainee. The Taylor Institution is part of the Bodleian Libraries, and caters to students and researchers of modern European languages, linguistics, and film studies—plus hosts significant collections on gender, and bibliography, palaeography and book production.

Built in the 1860s and expanded in the 1930s, the Taylor Institution is an attractive neoclassical building in the centre of Oxford. It attracts not only Modern Languages scholars, but also people looking for a well-lit, comfortable place to work. Working at the Taylorian over the past few weeks has been a hugely interesting experience as I have got used to the building, its collections, and its readers.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of working at the Taylorian has been the variety of languages and literatures available within its walls. Our readers and our staff generally have some familiarity with one or more languages in addition to English, and it´s common to hear conversations in Russian, German, French, or Spanish. As a person interested in language and literature, it´s always interesting to see what readers are looking for or requesting.

Also rewarding has been the opportunity to both work on the day-to-day operations of

A photograph of the interior of the Voltaire Room
The Voltaire Room

the library, and get involved in some longer-term projects. Combining working at the desk and assisting readers with project work and more technical tasks makes for varied, entertaining days.

 

I have also had the opportunity to work in the Sackler Library (which focuses on Ancient History, Archaeology, Art, and Architecture), and the Nizami Ganjavi Library (which covers subjects related to Asia and the Middle East). I have also had the chance to visit other libraries—look out for a future post in the coming weeks on the visit some of us made to the St Edmund Hall library!—and collaborate with staff across the Bodleian Libraries.

As a trainee, I have received nothing but encouragement when it comes to getting involved, learning more, and making changes and improvements in the library. The past few weeks have given me the opportunity to see in practice different aspects of work in academic libraries, and have served to show me a range of possible career paths beyond the traineeship. I look forward to seeing what the rest of the year will bring.

Interview with a former trainee (part 4)

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It’s week four of our ‘interview with a former trainee’ series – how time flies! This week we hear from Katie Day (Taylor Institution Library, 2018/19), Natasha Kennedy (English Faculty Library, 2013/14) and Georgina Kiddy (Social Science Library, 2017/18)

 

A view of the front of the grand Taylor Institution Library, with 4 pillars and a large archway.
The Taylor Institution Library, where Katie was a trainee in 2018/19

What did you most enjoy about this experience?

 Katie:

I enjoyed how everyone was so keen for me to get to try everything! My colleagues made sure I could dive in and ask loads of questions. I also loved the Enquiry Desk and encountering such a wide range of questions and research queries!

Natasha:

The hands on experience of working in a library combined with the training. When you think of roles in libraries you initially think of cataloguing or being a subject librarian. The training showed show many more career paths and different areas to specialise in.

Georgina:

Attending the training sessions on Wednesday afternoons at Osney. This was a great chance to learn about the variety of roles at the Bodleian and across academic Libraries, as well as meet my fellow trainees.

 

Were there any specific training sessions that you found particularly interesting/useful?

 Katie:

The trip to the BSF and round other libraries (I especially remember the public library talk!) were great, but the most useful was probably the talk on library school. I knew a bit about the US route, but didn’t know where to start with the UK and that really helped me – particularly the honesty of the current students who came in to discuss it.

Natasha:

I loved the talk by Frankie Wilson, Head of Assessment as it was extremely useful in understanding what I can do to create services that readers need and want. I also found visits to other libraries such as Oxford public library to be very useful in gaining a greater understanding of the roles of Librarians in different types of libraries.

Georgina:

I enjoyed the variety of training, guest speakers and tours of archives and libraries. I think the most interesting were the tours of the Bodleian’s special collections and archives.

 

The English Faculty Library, pictured at an angle to highlight the haphazard building block shape of the building
The English Faculty Library, where Natasha was a trainee in 2013/14

Following on from your traineeship, did you (or are you planning to) go to library school? Did the traineeship influence your thoughts on this?

 Katie:

Yes, I went part-time to UCL right after, and I just finished my MA last year! I’d applied to the traineeship to use it as a ‘taster’ before committing to grad school, and it absolutely confirmed that this was something I wanted to make my career. I picked UCL both for its Cat&Class/Organising Knowledge classes, which I thought were fascinating and not something other schools really offered, but also so that I could continue to live and work part-time in Oxford while attending library school in person. (While, as you can tell from my dates, I was only in-person for half that time, I still loved it!)

Natasha:

I attended Library School straight after the traineeship finished, working full time in the position of Lending Services Supervisor at the Radcliffe Science Library whilst undertaking the course by distance learning. The traineeship confirmed that I wanted to have a career in Librarianship, and that I wanted to gain as much experience as possible whilst doing the Masters.

Georgina:

I went on to do the 3-year MA Libraries and Information Services Management course at Sheffield University, which I have now completed. The traineeship greatly encouraged me to apply and I don’t think I would have committed to the course had I not made it onto the Bodleian traineeship.

 

In hindsight, what was the most useful thing you took away from the traineeship?

 Katie:

An understanding of academic librarianship and what I wanted from my career. Also, my partner (a fellow 2018/19 trainee)!

Natasha:

Making connections with colleagues, and trying out as many different things as possible by saying yes to opportunities. I was the trainee representative on a University wide group, and asked the Chair whether I could stay on after my trainee year had ended as I had spotted a gap in representation that made sense with my new role. I have just finished a stint of chairing that same group. If I hadn’t joined, then had the courage to ask to stay on, I would never have had the experiences or career I have today.

Georgina:

I really appreciated being able to get involved with a trainee project of my own choosing and having the opportunity to present. This was something that I didn’t have a lot of experience of beforehand and so I think this stuck with me as a pivotal moment of the traineeship.

The front of the large building housing the Social Science Library, with a bike and pink tree in the foreground
The Manor Road building, housing the Social Science Library, where Georgina was a trainee in 2017/18

 

What are you doing now?

 Katie:

I’m still at the Taylorian as a Library Assistant, but by time of publication I’ll have started at the EFL as a Senior Library Assistant, with a focus on collections! I’m very excited.

Natasha:

I am the Reader Services Librarian of the Bodleian Library, and Learning Support Librarian for MSc Digital Scholarship

Georgina:

I am the Online Reading List Coordinator at the Bodleian Libraries. In this role I support the University in developing and maintaining the ORLO system to ensure readers have access to live and interactive reading lists and materials for their courses.

 

Is there anything else you would like to mention?

 Katie:

If you’re not sure whether to give this a go, this is your sign! I moved to Oxford from Chicago, and having a whole bunch of trainees in the same boat made it all much less intimidating. Also, thank you to everyone at the Taylorian for a great traineeship + three bonus years!

Georgina:

I really enjoyed our visit to London; it was a lovely addition to the traineeship experience. I went to the London Library and the Natural History Museum Library. I was grateful to Staff Development for organising this.

 

For some bonus content, feel free to check out Katie’s introductory post to the Bodleian Libraries here:

Katie: http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/oxfordtrainees/katie-day-taylor-institution-library/

 

Happy Birthday, Dostoevsky…

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…and a belated welcome to your new home!

Photo of library books related to Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
Above: A selection of Dostoevsky-related works from the Undergraduate Collection

After my recent experience of assisting in the Taylor Institution Library’s (and the wider University’s) celebration of 700 years of Dante Alighieri’s contribution to literature, philosophy and the arts, another birthday of note from among the literary canon is almost upon us: Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, the Russian novelist, essayist and journalist, celebrates his 200th birthday on 11 November 2021.

While Italy continues to hold a very special place in my heart, Russia is never far from my thoughts. Thus, an exciting discovery since returning to Oxford and joining the Taylorian has been finding the Russian and Slavonic Collections of the library reunited with the rest of its holdings. When I was last in the city, many Russian texts relevant to my research could be found housed in the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages buildings on Wellington Square. Their transfer – along with the rest of the library’s Slavonic holdings – back into the main site means that I’m never far away from a chance to reconnect with this fascinating region – and its literary heritage!

In fact, another key project from my opening months in the new role has been the reclassification of the Slavonic Undergraduate Collection – which includes many classic works of fiction in their original language and English translations – from an old, almost-Library-of-Congress-but-not-quite catalogue system into the more standardised version of this shelfmarking standard. It will bring the Undergraduate Collection in line with both new additions to our Slavonic Research Collection (also housed in the basement) and other languages (and subjects) represented across the library.

Photo of Undergraduate Russian and Slavonic Collection Bookshelves and Basement Office
Above: A View of the Undergraduate Russian and Slavonic Collection and Basement Office

In recent weeks, I’ve been working with one of the senior librarians in this process, Jola Hood, who is working like a labour-prize-worthy Stakhanovite to overcome the disruption of the last couple of years and its delay of the work, and ensure the collection is ready for students to access, as the new academic year begins.

Jola is responsible for re-cataloguing each book with a new shelfmark in Aleph (the University’s current computerised catalogue system) according to Library of Congress conventions. The item then comes to me (or one of my colleagues), ready to have this new identification recorded in the book itself, alongside the new collection reference (“Slav UG / LC” – Slavonic Undergraduate Collection / Library of Congress) in pencil, before crossing out any pre-existing shelf marks and barcodes that pre-date the changeover. You can find images showing the separate stages in this process in the gallery below. This crossing-out of the old record, rather than its complete removal or erasure, is actually an important step in preserving the historical record of each book’s life in the library’s collections. Inevitably, books can become lost, misplaced or misidentified over their lifetime, and it’s useful to maintain this physical record of their past journey through the catalogue should some detective work be needed to bring them back to their proper place on the shelves.

The final step is printing a new spine label with the LC shelfmark and adding an identifying red spot to distinguish the Undergraduate Collection from our Research Collection (which have green spots). With so many languages represented in the library, and the further separation of teaching and research collections, these extra steps are essential to the smooth running of the day-to-day re-shelving process.

All this is to say that, aside from the birthday wishes that Dostoevsky is due, a belated ‘welcome to your new home’ on the shelves of the Taylorian is offered from one former-Siberian exile to another:

С Днем Рождения, Достоевский! Добро пожаловать!

(S Dnem Rozhdeniya, Dostoyevskiy! Dobro pozhalovat’!)

 

I’m sure that with many of the usual opportunities for current students and researchers to be properly introduced to the holdings of the library being curtailed by lingering pandemic protocols, I’ll be called on to direct them to our basement shelves over the coming weeks. And having now been involved in the process of making sure the right books find their way to their new home – Dostoevsky’s works included – it already feels like one of the areas of the library where I, too, feel most at home already.

Malcolm L. G. Spencer

Graduate Trainee, Taylor Institution Library

Emerging from Pandemic Purgatory

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Taylor Institution Library, View from St Giles’
Above: Taylor Institution Library, View from St Giles’

Sadly, for many of us, the last eighteen months have seen the cancellation, curtailment and delay of countless celebrations, including birthdays, holidays, anniversaries and achievements. At the very least, we’ve been forced to relocate those festivities online and connect with family and friends via laptops and phone screens in a kind of digital limbo.

Re-emerging into the real world from this pandemic-induced Purgatory, I recently returned to Oxford, a city that I’d previously called home for many years. My arrival overlapped with many of the restrictions of the last year and a half being (cautiously) rolled back. As the new Graduate Trainee at the Taylor Institution Library (known colloquially as the ‘Taylorian’), my first week saw the steady disappearance of one-way systems, sign-in slots and restricted access for readers to many of the library’s more intimate spaces.

Taylor Institution Library, Aerial View
Above: Taylor Institution Library, Aerial View (2008)

Like the Bodleian Libraries more broadly, many institutions and historical personages have also found their usual cycles of anniversaries and commemorations disrupted by lockdown measures and restrictions on large gatherings. Excitingly, the prospect of more freedom for staff and readers at the University of Oxford has coincided with another cause for celebration: the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), the great Italian poet and philosopher. As a result, the Taylor Institution Library, Weston Library and the Ashmolean Museum have prepared three exhibitions of works from among the libraries’ and museum’s many and varied holdings, which provide visions of, and insights into, the author’s most famous work, the Divine Comedy (Divina Commedia). Works from the Taylorian’s collections are included in the Ashmolean and Weston displays. The Taylorian exhibition, ‘Illustrating Dante’s Divine Comedy’, meanwhile, also draws upon the collections of the Sackler Library, Oxford’s principal research location for the study of visual culture. Alongside my regular duties at the library (with which I’m slowly familiarising myself), I’ve been fortunate enough to join Clare Hills-Nova (Librarian in Charge, Sackler Library, and Subject Librarian for Italian Literature and Language at the Taylorian) and Professor Gervase Rosser, curatorial lead on all three Oxford Dante exhibitions, in their preparations for the display of prints, manuscripts and illustrated books spanning the seven hundred years since Dante’s passing.

Taylor Institution Library, University of Oxford
Above: Taylor Institution Library, University of Oxford (Architect C. R. Cockerell, 1841-45)

The photos provided here offer a window on the range of texts and images that were chosen for the Taylorian exhibition and the process that went into preparing them for public display. I came into that process after Clare and Gervase had agreed on the works to be included and their gathering from the Taylorian’s rare books and manuscript holdings and other library locations was complete. The exhibition handlist includes an introduction to the works on display as well as a list of works they considered for inclusion.

Together, Clare and I spent an afternoon preparing the exhibition space – among the already impressive holdings of the library’s Voltaire Room.

Taylor Institution Library, Voltaire Room
Above: Taylor Institution Library, Voltaire Room (ca. 2010)

A provisional placement of the exhibits according to the chronological layout agreed by Clare and Gervase gave us a sense of how the various prints, manuscripts and books would fit within the display cases.

Working with a number of old and rare editions – including some of the oldest books that I’ve had the opportunity to see first-hand during my time in Oxford – required careful handling and the use of foam rests and ‘snakes’ (long, cotton-wrapped metal ‘beads’ designed to hold open books). Clare has a background in conservation, so provided an experienced eye and guiding hand throughout the process.

Open exhibition display case pictured with box of foam rests
Above: Preparing the display cases

After this initial test-run of the display cases, I was tasked with assisting in the preparation of a bibliography to provide visitors to the exhibition with a comprehensive list of texts on display, and those consulted during the curation process. This not only gave me an excellent opportunity to re-familiarise myself with the Bodleian Libraries’ SOLO (‘Search Oxford Libraries Online’) catalogue, but required some further detective work to collect the full details of some of the more obscure texts included in the exhibition.

Although I’m familiar with this kind of work from my time researching and writing Russian history, and searching for texts catalogued in various forms of transliterated Cyrillic, the preparations for this exhibition included consideration of works in Italian, French and German too. Exploiting the automatic citation tool provided on the SOLO also exposed the potential drawback of relying on technology alone. Each of these languages inevitably has its own bibliographic conventions for the formatting of references (authors, titles, publishing info, etc.), not all of which are captured by auto-generation of citations. Obviously, I still have plenty to learn on that front being based in one of Oxford’s key research centres for modern languages and linguistics!

Open display case with selection of illustrated books
Above: Testing the layout of the exhibits within the display case

The whole process also brought home how inconsistent and incomplete some of the catalogue descriptions are within the Bodleian Libraries’ older collections and more unique items. This is quite the mountain to climb for those librarians faced with such a vast (and ever expanding) number of books, journals, periodicals and other ephemera in every language under the sun.

One particular exhibit of note is shown below:

Title page of Italian edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy dedicated to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna of Russia
Above: A copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy dedicated to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna of Russia (daughter of Peter the Great). Published in Venice, Italy in 1757

It was wonderful to find such a striking connection between the history of Imperial Russia and Dante’s life and work!

The second set of photos below provides a view of the final layout for each display case. Supporting information to be included alongside the works was still being prepared at the time of taking, but a sense of the diversity of images and lasting influence of Dante’s work on artists, writers, print-makers and publishers across the world is evident already.

 

Students, faculty and staff from across the University are welcome to visit the Taylorian’s exhibition during library opening hours, from the beginning of Michaelmas term through December 2021. The parallel exhibitions marking Dante’s centenary celebrations are on display for a similar period: Ashmolean Museum (17 September 2021 – 9 January 2022) and Weston Library (8 September 2021 – 14 November 2021), which will give everyone interested in the life, history and influence of Dante the opportunity to explore the wider collections of the University.

Further Oxford Dante events, ranging from concerts to film screenings, to lectures and (of course!) at least one book launch celebrating the 700th anniversary are planned for autumn 2021.

Having now had an insight into the complexities involved in preparing, curating and displaying materials from our impressive Dante collections, the chance to come face-to-face with these exhibits sounds like Paradiso itself!

If you want to know more about Dante-related holdings in Oxford, please check out the Taylorian’s earlier blog posts in this regard (linked below):

Listening to Dante: An Audio-visual Afterlife

The Image of Dante, the Divine Comedy and the Visual Arts, Part I

The Image of Dante, the Divine Comedy and the Visual Arts: Part II

Malcolm L. G. Spencer

Graduate Trainee, Taylor Institution Library

Malcolm, Taylor Institution Library ‘Taylorian’

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I recently returned to Oxford, a city that I’d previously called home for many years. My arrival overlapped with many of the restrictions of the last year and a half being (cautiously) rolled back. I am the new Graduate Trainee at the Taylor Institution Library (known colloquially as the ‘Taylorian’).

 

Taylor Institution Library, View from St Giles’
Taylor Institution Library