The Universities of Aberdeen, St Andrews and the University of Wales Lampeter all hold rich collections of important and hitherto little known 17th-19th century pamphlets, forming a rich resource for research. Until now, these collections have been under used because of the difficulty of accessing them; they include rare and probably unique items. The purpose of the project is to make these collections better known to the wider research community.
The University of Aberdeen has targeted the Brown-Lindsay pamphlets volumes which form part of the library of the United Presbyterian College, Edinburgh. When it was dispersed, following union in 1900, the library, including some 2,200 pamphlets, came to the Free Church College in Aberdeen (now Christ’s College). This collection consists mainly of theological material, doctrinal, pastoral and ecclesiastical, but it also contains important works on slavery, and social, economic, political, educational, health, and scientific issues. Cataloguing is now complete.
The collections of the University of St Andrews are more disparate in nature, having been acquired throughout the period, by purchase, donation and under the copyright deposit act (as a copyright library between 1710 and 1837). The subjects covered by these miscellaneous pamphlets are very diverse - the soporific effects of lettuce, methods of maximising timber production, the design of a new kind of plough, rules of the Friendly Society of Sittingbourne - and there are over 2,000 political and economic tracts, dealing, among other things, with trade, furniture design and prices, manufacturing, the Poor Laws, and agriculture. Other major subject areas are political (c. 2,000 pamphlets), and theological (c. 1,000). St. Andrews is on target to finish cataloguing the 10,700 pamphlets in the collection by the end of July 2002.
The Tract Collection of the University of Wales Lampeter has been targeted as an extension to the original project, which involved Aberdeen and St Andrews only. The Founders’ Library holds in its tract collection some 11,450 separate items bound in 830 volumes. The nucleus of this collection comprises about 9,000 pieces assembled by the Bowdler family over the period 1638 to 1787. Thomas Bowdler II resigned his post in the Admiralty in 1689 rather than take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary; as a result the collection is a particularly important resource for the study of the nonjurors. However, the subject matter is wider than simply nonjuror material, significant though that is. Other issues of Church and State are well represented, from the Popish Plot and the Exclusion crisis through the reign of James II and the revolution to the Convocation Controversy and the impeachment of Sacheverell. As well as the printed items, the collection contains some manuscript tracts, which are not known at all to researchers. The collection consists of c. 11,400 printed and 54 manuscript pamphlets and good progress is being made with the cataloguing.
All partners have sought to download records from the CURL database, thus taking full advantage of the CURL 19th century pamphlet project managed by Birmingham. Where records have not been found on CURL, other databases have been used, either to view or to download, notably RLIN, OCLC and ESTC.
Project Manager
Mrs C.M. GascoigneTel: 01334-462325
Fax: 01334-462282
E-mail: cmg@st-and.ac.uk
http://specialcollections.st-and.ac.uk/projpamph.htm
Content: Gill Davenport
Last updated 3 July 2002