From the Collections: Society of Public Librarians Archive
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From the Collections is an ongoing series where we discover people’s favourite items from their most loved collections.
Dr Michelle Johansen is the Interpretation Manager at Bishopsgate Institute and is responsible for leading some of our fascinating courses on London’s history and its people. Having been a part of the team for over a decade, and having utilised our archives for years prior to joining, Michelle has a depth of knowledge that is unrivalled when it comes to our London History collections. Asking her to pick a favourite collection is, in many ways, a cruel task, but it’s one that she has boldly shouldered. She has selected the Society of Public Librarians Archive for discussion. She explains why here.
When did you first encounter this collection?
I first encountered the Society of Public Librarians Archive in the early 2000s when I was a PhD student researching the lives of Victorian public librarians. It’s a compact archive that packs an unexpected punch, and I was able to use its contents to create a fresh interpretation of library history for my doctoral thesis. I’ve continued to develop my research into public librarians ever since, which means the archive has shaped my academic life for two decades now.
Why does the Society of Public Librarians Archive appeal to you?
The archive appeals to me because it provides a unique and valuable “take” on London’s first public libraries, and the men in charge of them (public librarianship was viewed as a masculine profession in the nineteenth century). It reveals professional attitudes that were never platformed in the wider library world. Here at Bishopsgate Institute, we work hard to document, preserve, and share forgotten histories as well as championing history from below. The mainly working-class members of the SPL were marginalised during their own lifetimes and beyond, so their archive nicely fits with our wider collections and remit.
Minute Book (1895-1899)
The SPL archive consists of just one small box, containing four folders of the society’s minutes and ephemeral items such as correspondence and press cuttings. The hand-made character of the society’s first minute book makes me feel really close to the characters whose working lives are documented on the pages inside.
Photograph of Charles Goss (c.1900)
Charles Goss was chief librarian at Bishopsgate Institute from 1897 to 1941. For much of this time he was also the honorary secretary of the SPL, which is why the society’s archive has ended up in our collection. Goss was famous in the library world for his meticulous research into local history, his argumentative character, and his fabulously extravagant moustache.
Inaugural Address (1895)
The Library Bureau was the headquarters of the Library Association (LA), founded in 1877 as the professional grouping for librarians and others involved in literary work, such as journalists, authors, and so on. Municipal librarians were viewed with some disdain by the powerful and elite among the LA, and many public librarians believed their interests were not represented by their official professional organisation.
The SPL was set up in part in protest against the LA, which they accused of self-interest and corruption. Their inaugural address was an articulate and persuasive critique of the shortcomings of the LA.
Imagine having the audacity to launch your new society on the premises of the organisation you sought to reform, or even replace! I admire the bold character of this decision, made by the three working-class founders of the SPL.
Summer Outing to Tunbridge Wells (1922)
What I love most about the SPL was that it quickly became far more than an informal trade union for public librarians. Most of the original members had travelled some distance to take up their posts as managers of London’s first free libraries in the late nineteenth century. They left friends and family behind in Newcastle, Liverpool, Swansea, and so on. Regular social events and annual trips outside the city helped create strong kinship bonds between SPL members and their wives and families.
Summer Outing to Rochester (1924)
The SPL summer outings were a day-long frenzy of sight-seeing. The excursions were meticulously planned in advance, with the group visiting every literary and historic landmark in the region during their trip from cathedrals to castles to museums to coaching inns. Here we see members saving precious time by moving between locations in a hired motor char-a-banc. Absolutely my kind of day out of London.
SPL Rules (c.1897)
This tiny item packs a very big punch. When Charles Goss co-founded the SPL, he was chief librarian of a rate-assisted library in Lewisham in south-east London. Once Goss moved to manage our charitably-funded libraries in 1897, he was no longer eligible for membership of his own society!
At this point Goss might have severed ties with the SPL. Such a move would have aided his own professional progress, distancing him from the supposed ‘taint’ of the free library world in the wider sector. But Goss (the son of a plasterer) chose instead to continue as an active and prominent member of the group until its demise in 1930, thanks to the rule change shown here. I really admire his principled decision, which seemed to reflect his loyalty to his working-class origins as well as a strong attachment to his SPL colleagues and their workplace activism. Aside from Goss and his deputy librarian at Bishopsgate Institute (Hugh Smith, the son of a bootmaker), all SPL members worked in municipal libraries.
Society of Public Librarians Stamp (1895)
The SPL stamp features an arts and crafts inspired tree of knowledge and makes plain the group’s shared passion for books and learning. It was designed by society member George McCall (the son of a skilled labourer) who was the first chief librarian at Limehouse library in London’s East End before finding success as an art librarian in the USA during the interwar years.
Cotgreave Indicator Board (c.1900)
Even though the 1850 Libraries Act allowed local councils to use money from the rates to develop free library provision in their regions, it wasn’t until the late 1880s that London started to respond to the opportunity. Dozens of rate-supported libraries suddenly sprang up across the city. Here were freely open public buildings aimed at a new mass readership for the very first time in a metropolitan setting. Their managers looked to one another for guidance on a range of questions. Does your building blot out the racing news to avoid encouraging gambling? Will your library experiment with Sunday opening?
Public librarians competed to invent increasingly efficient means of running their institutions, including apparatus like the indicator device (an ingenious contraption which purported to show the exact whereabouts of every book at any given moment in each library). There was a wonderfully dynamic atmosphere of optimism behind the Victorian public library counter.
Summer Outing to Saffron Walden (1929)
This is such a poignant image for me. Here, the members of SPL and their friends and family pause for a photograph outside the historic Rose and Crown hotel in Saffron Walden in Essex. It’s clear that here is an aging group, with most of the cohort on the point of retirement from the library profession. Efforts to attract a younger crowd haven’t been successful. The following year, it was agreed to wind up the SPL after more than thirty years of comradeship and mutual support.
